(The following article by Joie Tyrrell was posted on the Newsday website on March 9.)
NEW YORK — The problem that disabled a Long Island Rail Road train and left 800 commuters stranded for nearly four hours Friday remains under investigation, and railroad officials say they are puzzled at why the newly acquired equipment broke down.
The train, which left Penn Station at 6:01 p.m. Friday headed for Hicksville, stalled after losing power on the tracks west of Woodside. Passengers were not evacuated from the train until after 9 p.m. and arrived at Hicksville at 10:43 p.m.
The railroad is looking into the mechanical problems of the M-7 model train, which had to be towed to a maintenance facility. The railroad started rolling the M-7 trains into service in 2002 and has more than 376 in its fleet. So far, they have performed well, railroad officials have said.
“It is a problem we never encountered before,” said LIRR spokesman Brian Dolan. “It was a failure we had never seen. It wasn’t in the troubleshooting manuals and was never experienced in testing.”
The train became disabled at 6:23 p.m. Responding to reports of sparks under the train, LIRR inspectors looked under the cars to see if anything had been caught and dragged but found nothing.
Efforts to get a locomotive to push the disabled train to Jamaica failed because the locomotive didn’t have the right kind of equipment.
Reports that a commuter had jumped from the disabled train onto the tracks led to electric power being turned off, causing systemwide delays that derailed plans for a rescue train. After a search of the tracks turned up no one, LIRR crews evacuated the stalled train after 9:15 p.m.
Trapped commuter Sharon Feig of Plainview said she wants her money back. The railroad said no refunds will be issued.
“They said they were sorry for the inconvenience and that was the end of it. … It really was insane,” she said.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman Tom Kelly said that executive director Katie Lapp has asked for a report.
A delay of this type “is a rarity,” Kelly said. However, “It is one obviously that is of concern.”