(The Associated Press circulated the following article on August 15.)
FREEPORT, N.Y. — Hundreds of commuters were stranded on their trains for hours Monday when a loose tarp blown from a nearby water tower knocked power lines onto the tracks.
Seven Long Island Rail Road trains were stalled. Two, carrying about 600 passengers, were pulled by rescue engines to the nearest station because power was shut off in the affected area as a safety precaution. One train had 450 passengers, the other 150.
The five trains farthest from the downed lines moved under their own power to nearby stations so passengers could disembark. The LIRR arranged for buses for those passengers.
The incident happened around 6:30 p.m. between Freeport and Baldwin on the Long Island Rail Road’s Babylon branch, LIRR spokeswoman Susan McGowan said. The branch, one of 11 in the LIRR system, was shut down in both directions between Babylon and New York.
The two towed trains were taken to Baldwin around 10:30 p.m. There were congestion delays of up to an hour on other branches.
The tarpaulin fell from a Freeport town water tower where construction work was being done, the Long Island Power authority said. No injuries were reported.
LIPA was preparing Monday night to use a crane to hoist the tarp and lines off the tracks.
At New York’s Pennsylvania Station, one of the nation’s busiest transit hubs, hundreds of riders complained about the delays and a lack of information about when they’d be able to get home.
The Long Island Rail Road, a division of the state Metropolitan Transportation Authority, carries an average of 282,400 customers each weekday on 728 trains, according to the MTA’s Web site, which calls it North America’s busiest commuter railroad.