(The following story by Alfonso A. Castillo appeared on the Newsday website on November 26.)
NEW YORK — People heading to holiday celebrations with families or friends today – traditionally one of the year’s busiest travel days – could have their trips complicated by still-lingering service disruptions on the Long Island Rail Road following the train derailment at Jamaica, LIRR officials said.
Cancellations of some morning rush-hour trains are expected, but LIRR officials said they intend to go ahead with plans for nine extra eastbound trains this afternoon to accommodate riders going home early for the holiday.
Testing of a 600-foot stretch of track damaged in Sunday’s derailment could cause some “adjustments” to today’s uniquely urgent evening commute, LIRR spokesman Joe Calderone said.
“We’re doing our best to make sure we can provide the most amount of service we can while keeping in mind that safety is our first priority,” Calderone said.
Whereas the average eastbound LIRR ridership on Wednesdays between noon and 4 p.m. is 15,000, that figure doubles to 30,000 on Thanksgiving eve, LIRR officials said.
Fifteen extra trains also are planned for tomorrow to carry people coming to Manhattan for the 82nd annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
New York City Transit will continue to honor LIRR passengers’ passes for rides on subway lines such as the E, F, J and Z that make connections in Jamaica, but there are no plans to add additional trains because of the LIRR service interruptions, said James Anyansi, a NYC Transit spokesman.
Service disruptions caused by the derailment have subsided since Sunday. Six evening rush-hour trains were canceled yesterday, compared with 19 on Monday, and most service had returned to normal, officials said.
It’s been 15 years since an accident has had as significant an impact on the system, LIRR officials have said. The biggest complication – a jackknifed train car blocking three tracks at Jamaica – finally was cleared by a crane during the pre-dawn hours yesterday.
LIRR officials say a wealth of damage was left behind, including to signal systems, wiring and hundreds of feet of track – some of which required exhaustive “inch-by-inch precision” repairs.
Investigators for the LIRR and the Federal Railroad Administration continue to look for answers to the derailment’s cause.
Federal railroad officials said they performed a track inspection at Jamaica station on Sept. 24 and an operating practices inspection on Oct. 15. No exceptions to federal standards were found in either inspection.
LIRR president Helena Williams has said the derailment did not appear to be caused by human error, unlike a collision of two LIRR trains in Jamaica a week ago. In that accident an engineer was removed from service without pay, pending an investigation, for apparently passing a stop signal.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton weighed in on the accidents, calling them “a stark reminder of the problems facing our railroads.
“While thankfully there were no major injuries, these incidents should serve as a wake-up call that more must be done to monitor and manage these critical rail safety issues,” Clinton said.
Staff writers Keith Herbert and Jennifer Maloney contributed to this story.