(The following article by Samuel Brushey was posted on the Newsday website on July 7.)
NEW YORK — The passengerless Long Island Rail Road train that derailed yesterday in Manhattan blocked off a vital storage yard, delaying a hundred trains or more and snarling the rush hour commutes.
“It could not have happened at a worse time or place,” said railroad spokesman Brian Dolan.
This morning’s commute is expected to return to normal, he said.
The train, which was carrying electronic equipment, stalled about 2:10 a.m. at the entrance to the West Side storage yard.
Its last car fanned across four sets of tracks, sealing off the railroad’s largest yard, one that is critical to bringing 90 rush-hour trains into Penn Station on seven tracks in four hours.
On a typical morning, on-time arrival is possible largely because of the 30-track yard where empty trains are moved after they leave Penn Station. There, the trains are cleaned, repaired and sent back out for use.
Yesterday, with no access to the yard, dozens of trains were sent to smaller yards in Brooklyn and Queens, contributing to the delay of more than 50 trains for an average of 20 minutes.
More problematic was that trains stored in the yard for the evening rush were, in effect, stuck, Dolan said.
Despite the difficulties, Dolan said the incident had not prompted officials to reconsider the viability of having just four tracks into and out of the Manhattan storage yard.
“That’s more than adequate for the facility,” Dolan said, adding that the incident was the first of its kind blocking the yard.
By 1:30 p.m., the LIRR used a crane to remove the derailed train. But one of the four tracks had sustained damage and remained inoperable. The railroad canceled several trains scheduled to leave Penn Station and experienced scattered 10- to 15-minute delays.
“It was unusually crowded,” Michael Locicero, 40, said of his morning commute from Massapequa Park to Penn Station, which was delayed 30 minutes.
But Locicero said he wasn’t angry. “It is what it is,” he said.