By Ben Fractenberg and Jordan Heller
DNAinfo Staff
PENN STATION — Commuters heading into Manhattan are in for more delays on the Long Island Railroad Tuesday morning because of damage at a major switching tower.
The morning rush hour trains were running at "75 percent of normal capacity," according to the MTA website. Several trains were cancelled and others made additional stops, causing longer than normal commuting times.
The LIRR said that 33 westbound trains were canceled Tuesday morning, the New York Post reported.
The MTA had additional workers at Jamaica station to help assist customers. Passengers at Penn Station were hopeful train service wouldn't be as problematic as it was on Monday.
"So far so good," said East Harlem resident Yamira Peralta at Penn Station Tuesday norming.
Peralta, 31, works on Long Island for the Visiting Nurses. She was hopeful her 9:05 a.m. train to Babylon was going to leave Penn Station on time, a day after she got caught in the LIRR mess.
"I did get caught in it yesterday afternoon coming back (to Manhattan)," Peralta said. "I guess the worst of it was yesterday."
Peralta's optimism may be off the mark. The LIRR expects delays in the evening commute to be similar to Monday's, according to their website.
The problem began when a cable fire knocked out a switch east of Jamaica Station around 11 a.m. Monday, affecting all lines except for the Port Washington line. The lines serve between 230,000 and 240,000 people daily, according to the LIRR. The problem is expected to take several days to fix, the LIRR said.
Monday Commuters faced a rough trip home from Penn Station.
Roughly 100,000 people were headed going to Penn Station for their evening commute home, according to LIRR President Helena Williams, who spoke at a press conference addressing the issue Monday afternoon.
Richard Grene, 63, who was waiting to hop a train to Merrick Monday afternoon, worried that rush hour would be "a madhouse wall-to-wall."
In an effort to control the crowds, the MTA planned to staff Penn Station with extra police and to use a crowd control method called "metering," wherein the number of people allowed in are matched with the number of people departing the station.
But midway through rush hour, the plan was deemed unnecessary. While commuters were frustrated and inconvenienced by the limited service, the halls of Penn Station never became too overcrowded, and order was maintained in the station.
Customers travelling to Far Rockaway and Hempstead were told to go to the Atlantic Avenue Station in Brooklyn to catch their trains, while customers for all other branches were directed to depart from Penn Station.
Montauk customers were directed to take a Babylon-bound train and change at Babylon Station. Oyster Bay Branch customers were told to change at Mineola. Those travelling to Port Jefferson were informed to change at Hicksville or Huntington while West Hempstead Branch customers were directed to change at Valley Stream for bus service.
"This is horrible, really horrible," said Edna Norat, 51, who was trying to get home to Central Islip. "I hear it's all local. It's crawling."
Elisa Chrysanthis, who refused to give her age but admitted that she'd been making the commute between Manhattan and her home in Long Beach for 20 years, took a more Zen approach.
"It is what it is," she said. "No one is yelling and screaming, so I'm fine."
LIRR President Williams hoped others would follow Chrysanthis's lead.
"Be patient at Penn and enjoy a nice evening in the city," she said.
As for Tuesday morning's commute, the LIRR president said "it'll take us a couple of hours to fully assess the service we can offer in the a.m."
