Sadness and Prayers: A Commuter's Train Ride When Tragedy Struck

Nicholas Cardoso is a Patch reporter and editor.

It was a typical February evening in New York City, with hundreds of thousands of people heading home from a long day’s work.

I was one of them. I ended up on a train Tuesday behind the 5:44 p.m. Harlem Line Metro-North train, the one that crashed and burned when it struck an SUV that had settled in its path.

Less than an hour after boarding my 6:29 p.m. train, I would be lost in a crowd of thousands, none of us knowing quite then how close we had come to being on a train that would burst into flames.

Six dead, 15 injured, the train and SUV both charred shells of steel. Had I got to the station 45 minutes earlier, I know, I would have been aboard that train.

My evening commute had started as it usually does: With me walking on 42nd Street and through Grand Central Terminal to catch the 6:29 p.m. train to Southeast. As usual, my first thought had been to get a good seat on this crowded train.

After walking along my train, I spotted a seat, sat down and prepared to sleep on my 90-minute train ride home. The next 30 minutes were as normal as any other day.

Just after 7 p.m., though, the train conductor announced “an issue” ahead of our train; all service north of the North White Plains Metro-North Station was suspended and all passengers would have to exit at either White Plains or North White Plains, the two closest stops, neither of them scheduled.

The groans from passengers could be heard from one end of the train to the other. Some scoffed, thinking, “typical Metro-North,” while others wondered why we were being made to exit the train well before the first scheduled stop, in Chappaqua. Immediately, dozens of people were making calls to loved ones or car services to get rides home.

HARLEM LINE TRAGEDY:

• Federal Investigators Start Probe of Deadly Train Crash
• Metro-North Harlem Line Tragedy: Timeline; Feds Collecting Evidence
• What You Need to Know if You Take Metro-North
• On Twitter: News and Reaction to the Harlem Line Tragedy
• Tough Weather Conditions for Train Accident Investigation

I did the same, calling my mother and telling her about the announcement. Then I scoured the Internet looking for why service was suspended and I was in for a shock.

Headlines: “BREAKING: Metro-North train hits car on tracks in Valhalla” and “‘Mass casualty’ incident after car, train collide in Valhalla.”

What was going on? Mass casualty? You only hear that phrase in war coverage, I thought.

The train reached White Plains around 7:30 p.m. to evacuate my train, hundreds of people inside the cars met hundreds of people waiting on the station platform. I made my way through the mass of people and wondered how they were all getting home. I heard strangers introducing themselves and asking for rides home. Some said they recognized each other from their daily commute, others called car services and offered to split fares; a handful of people even used what must be one of the world’s last payphones to get in touch with loved ones.

What stopped the trains? How am I getting home? And, again, mass casualties?

As I waited I combed through social media sites for more information. It was confirmed a train struck a car, but that was the extent of the information at the time. After 45 minutes of waiting and wondering, my ride arrived and about an hour later I was home. I immediately turned on the local TV news and saw the nightmare that suspended train service.

Hours tumbled by and the sad news knifed its way in: the crash, the explosion it caused, the burned SUV, the burned-out rail cars, the lost and damaged lives.

Throughout the night I got messages and phone calls from friends and family checking on my safety and sending well-wishes. Friends posted similar messages on social media sites thanking others for their thoughts. Prayers were being said for those who were lost.

Most never have any thoughts of such a tragedy cross their mind while commuting home. I’m both thankful to have gotten home safely and humbled by the experience. In a moment’s notice, an ordinary trip home became the extraordinary.

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