Metro-North Railroad Service Restored After Mass Outage

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — The Metro-North Railroad restored service east of the Hudson River after a thunderstorm halted trains during the Tuesday evening rush hour. The rough weather felled several trees in New York City's northern suburbs, leading the MTA to temporarily suspend trains on the Hudson, Harlem and New Haven lines just before 5:30 p.m.

All three lines were back up and running by 7:41 p.m., but service remained suspended north of Mount Kisco on the Harlem line and between Croton-Harmon and Poughkeepsie on the Hudson line as of about 8 p.m., according to MTA alerts.

Commuters still faced delays of more than an hour after the partial restoration, according to the railroad.

The cancelations wreaked havoc on Grand Central Terminal during the Tuesday evening rush hour. A photo posted to Twitter showed a massive crowd of commuters huddled in the Midtown train station's famous main concourse.

Officials temporarily closed Grand Central and told straphangers not to enter until train service is restored. The 42nd Street entrances were later reopened, according to an MTA alert.

The three lines that were suspended account for the vast majority of the Metro-North ridership and carried nearly 85 million riders combined in 2016. The railroad's Pascack Valley line was also running with delays Tuesday evening.

One train heading from White Plains to the city on the Harlem line hit a tree that fell on the tracks near Fleetwood.

"Chopped that sucker in half. Now it’s wedged under the train," commuter Ash Marshall wrote on Twitter around 5:30 p.m.

(Lead image: Photo by Barb Leung/Used with permission)