(The Associated Press circulated the following story on October 29.)
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — The derailment of a passenger car on an Amtrak train Thursday night disrupted rail service through New Haven for several hours and temporarily halted Friday morning service for some Metro-North commuters.
The train, traveling from Boston to Washington, D.C., got stuck on the tracks in New Haven when the rear passenger car derailed slightly, an Amtrak spokeswoman said. Two passengers suffered minor injuries.
The number 2191 train, an Acela Express, was backing up at a slow rate of speed after having just left Union Station when the rear coach derailed shortly after 9 p.m., said Vernae Graham, a spokeswoman for the rail service.
Buses were brought in for the morning commute to transport Metro-North riders from New Haven, Milford and Stratford to Bridgeport to get trains to points south, including New York, according to Metro-North spokeswoman Margie Anders.
But Metro-North resumed service on the New Haven Line on one track at 6:25 a.m. Friday according to Anders. Four earlier trains had left from Bridgeport to points south.
Some of the trains heading into New Haven from points south would experience delays, according to Anders, because service was limited to one track.
At Union Station Friday morning, some Amtrak passengers were waiting to continue trips that began at points south.
Rachel Buske of Washington, D.C. was hunkered down at the station wearing a Boston Red Sox cap and sweat shirt and very long face.
“I was trying to get to Boston. I was trying to get to the World Series parade,” she said.
Buske boarded the Amtrak train at 10 p.m. Thursday night, but found her trip abruptly stopped in New York. She was bused to New Haven Friday morning.
Susan Birnbaum of Philadelphia boarded the same Amtrak train in Trenton, N.J.. She was heading to Cambridge. Mass., to visit her son, a freshman at Harvard.
“It’s my first time traveling on a train and I think it’s my last. I’m disgusted,” Birnbaum said.
The rear car did not come completely off the tracks, but an overhead wire was torn down, officials said. Utility officials turned off power to the tracks.
The train was carrying 60 passengers and 12 employees when the problem happened between Plymouth and Lamberton streets, about 1 mile south of Union Station. Graham said five people were in the rear coach when it derailed.
After the derailment, one passenger was taken to Yale New Haven Hospital with minor injuries, and another was treated and released, Anders said.
Graham said the problems also affected Amtrak trains between Boston and New York. At least five trains, including two Acela runs, were canceled and one train had been stuck at New Haven.