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LIRR Delays Could Continue for Days, MTA Says

By DNAinfo Staff on August 24, 2010 6:24pm  | Updated on August 25, 2010 6:43am

By Ben Fractenberg and Mariel S. Clark

DNAinfo Staff

PENN STATION — Commuters should plan for continued chaos on the Long Island Rail Road as repairs to a broken switching tower could take days to fix, according to the MTA.

After two days of severe delays and schedule changes, the MTA was still running trains on a modified schedule Tuesday evening after a cable fire knocked out a switching tower east of Jamaica Station — where nearly all of the railroad's tracks converge — on Monday.

"Over two hundred wires need to be checked for possible damage from the fire," the authority said in a press release.

The LIRR's 127 evening rush hour trains were running at only 66 percent capacity, according to the MTA.

"It sucks. It's really inconvenient," said Greg Cerrato, 25, whose 45 minute commute to Garden City was doubled by the delays. "Maybe I'll pack a bag tomorrow and stay with a friend in the city."

At Penn Station, commuters stood in front of the departure screens and waited for announcements Tuesday evening. Canceled trains were met with groans, track announcements were met with a flurry of activity as people darted off in the direction of the departing trains.

On Monday and Tuesday morning, frustrated commuters faced delays and extra long trip times as trains made additional stops or were cancelled outright.

By Tuesday evening, many commuters seemed to have mentally prepared for the delays.

"[The information] is posted, which is good," said George Mulholland, 48. "Not like yesterday."

Mulholland's trip home Monday evening took him nearly two and a half hours after he rode to the Babylon station to find that there were no connections and no information available. He had to call a friend to pick him up from the station.

"There were no announcements at Babylon. They just dropped people off there," he said.

In addition to the LIRR delays, Amtrak and NJ Transit also experienced delays on Tuesday morning due to a low voltage issue but were back up to speed by midday Tuesday.