A massive fire in the tunnels at Manhattan’s Penn Station caused extensive suspensions and delays on Amtrak, NJ Transit, and the Long Island Railroad Friday — and “significant damage” to the tracks under the Hudson River — creating a nightmare for travelers and commuters heading into the weekend.
The fire — which took place in the station near the opening of the North River Tunnel connecting Penn to New Jersey led to the suspension of NJ Transit trains running to Newark and Amtrak trains running south of New York. It also caused a spate of cancellations for LIRR service, with limited service returning around 7 a.m.
Both NJ Transit and Amtrak trains resumed limited service shortly before 1 p.m. Friday, using one tube of the twin-tube tunnel as repair work continued. It was the first time Amtrak and NJ Trains crossed the Hudson River in more than 12 hours.
The early morning shutdown left thousands with nowhere to go on Friday.
Anne Fitzgibbon, 54, showed up at Penn Station ready to board an 11 a.m. Amtrak train to Wilmington, Del. to visit her mother, only to be told her trip was cancelled.
Instead of traveling to her mom’s home, she spent her Friday in line at the Amtrak Customer Service desk in Moynihan train hall, waiting to news if she will be traveling anytime soon.
“We have a little four-day trip planned, so I have to get down there today because I booked everything in advance,” Fitzgibbon told the Daily News. “She’s counting on me, and I’ve got to get there.”
“They’re telling me nothing,” Fitzgibbon said about Amtrak customer service. “And I didn’t even get a notice this morning, I just saw it on the news.”
Manhattanite Lisa Brassell, 45, was stranded for hours as she waited to learn the fate of her trip to Pennsylvania.
“I never take the train,” she said. “This is like a special, like, thing, so I don’t know any procedures for what’s supposed to even supposed to happen on normal days.”
While Amtrak workers said her train was canceled, it still showed up as running on the station’s digital boards, she said.
“I’m so confused,” she said.
The fire started on-board a work train operated by an Amtrak contractor, the railroad’s chief operating officer, Gery Williams, told reporters Friday.
The work train, which had been cleaning and replacing the stone ballast under the tracks on the New Jersey side of the North River Tunnel, caught fire around 1:25 a.m. shortly after exiting the tunnel on the Penn Station side, Williams said.
The crew evacuated the train, which continued to burn as it rolled into other maintenance equipment within the station, Williams said.
“What caused the fire is still under investigation,” he told reporters. “Unfortunately, the fire led to significant damage to overhead catenary, signals, track, and the disabled maintenance equipment.”
A spokesman for the FDNY said firefighters responded to a call that a work train was on fire on track 11 at the station shortly after 1:30 a.m.
By 2:43 a.m., the fire was declared a two-alarm blaze.
The department dispatched a total of 141 firefighters and EMS personnel to the scene, bringing the fire under control by 4 a.m.
Five people were injured in the fire, according to the FDNY. Three refused medical treatment at the scene, but two were transported to Bellevue Hospital with serious injuries.
In a social media post, Mayor Mamdani expressed gratitude for the first responders Friday.
“I’m grateful to the brave firefighters and EMS members who responded quickly to extinguish this train fire and protect New Yorkers in a moment of danger,” the Mayor wrote. “Let’s keep those who were injured in our thoughts and wish them a swift, full recovery.”
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Williams, the Amtrak exec, offered his apologies Friday to those affected by the fire.
“While I am not at liberty to share details on injuries at this time, our hearts go out to the crews and their families,” he said.
“We very much understand that, for a railroad that prides itself [on] — and focuses on — reliability, customer service, and being a good partner, today was unacceptable,” he added.
Friday afternoon — as lines of weary travelers stretched from Amtrak’s customer service desk — dozens of Amtrak workers, clad in hard-hats and high-viz vests, could be seen from the western end of Platform 6.
They gathered around the bright lights of a maintenance train on Track 11, near the mouth of the North River Tunnel, as the smell of smoke hung in the air even eight hours after the fire had been extinguished.
Nearby, a second work train loaded with spools of large-gauge copper wire prepared to move into position, as a worker confirmed to a reporter that crews were replacing the overhead catenary wires that power the trains.
The crews continued their work even as trains began moving past them and into the northern tube of the North River Tunnel around 12:45 p.m. Friday.
The tracks outside the southern tube south tube of the tunnel had suffered “significant damage,” Williams told reporters.
“We’ve got several systems damaged,” he said. “And then, of course, we have the equipment itself that’s on the track that has to be moved.”
“We’re working on it,” Williams said. “We will be working on it around the clock until it is repaired.”
Amtrak crews had been planning to conduct routine maintenance on the southern tube this weekend, officials said — time that will now be used to repair the damage from Friday’s fire.
The fire is the second to strangle service at the nation’s busiest rail hub in as many weeks. As first reported by the Daily News, a dangling panel from an Amtrak Acela train sparked an electrical fire earlier this month that knocked out service to the station for two days.