(The following story by Erin Duffy appeared on the Times of Trenton website on August 12, 2010.)
TRENTON, N.J. — Passengers along the Northeast Corridor rail line faced long delays for the second time in recent weeks yesterday after a downed tree knocked out power and rail signals just in time for the morning commute.
Thousands of riders boarding at the Trenton, Hamilton and Princeton Junction train stations found their trains delayed or canceled after a tree fell on overhead wires near Hamilton around 5:30 a.m., causing “signal outages in and around the affected areas,” according to Amtrak.
Approximately 18,000 commuters utilize the Northeast Corridor line at the three stations each morning.
“Pretty much all of them were affected in one way or another either by delays in the morning or delays throughout the day,” said NJ Transit spokesman Dan Stessel. “The three busiest stations in the outer zone — Princeton Junction, Hamilton, and Trenton — were effectively shut down for most of the morning because of this signal failure.”
Count Mary Teodoro as one affected passenger.
The Mantua resident spent over an hour driving to Trenton yesterday morning to take a train into the city to catch a Broadway show with her 12-year-old granddaughter.
But while pulling into the parking garage across from the station shortly before 10 a.m., she noticed a sign stating all NJ Transit trains were down.
“I’m really disappointed,” she said. “We’ve been planning this for awhile. This poor kid, I woke her up early this morning.”
Inside the station, passengers stared up at train schedules before whipping out phones in an attempt to redo their travel plans.
Twenty-five-year-old Monique (who didn’t want to give her last name) left early yesterday morning from Brooklyn with her 3-year-old daughter.