Penn Station commuters faced another transit nightmare Monday.
New Jersey transit service in and out of Manhattan’s main hub was temporarily suspended during rush hour Monday evening — the fourth time in less than a week that commuters have been burdened by delays and cancellations.
NJ Transit blamed the latest problem on “Amtrak overhead wire issues in one of the Hudson River tunnels.”
Service was halted around 7 p.m., but resumed 30 minutes later — albeit with delays of up to an hour, NJ Transit announced in a series of tweets.
Train disruptions caused dissatisfaction among passengers.
One commuter returning home in Linden called last week a “fucking nightmare” and said he was “really upset” by the ongoing disruptions on NJ Transit.
“It was really terrible,” said Jordan Garcia, a makeup artist who dealt with the ongoing service issue.
“I’ve told my friend now, ‘I don’t even know if I’m going to work tomorrow because you don’t know if you’re going to work or not,'” the 29-year-old said.
Another angry traveler just wanted to get back to Florham Park.
“I’ve been angry all day… not because of the crossing, but I’ve been angry all day and I want to go home,” 45-year-old Karl said, relieving his anger.
“And then I got here and it was late, and I’m even angrier now.”
Hannah Ahn, a human resources technologist, was coming to New York from Princeton when she was told her train would be stopped. She and other riders remained on the tracks for more than an hour.
“You are raising our prices, and you are not doing anything to improve them,” the 25-year-old said.
Amtrak service has also been affected by wiring problems, with all trains traveling between New York and Philadelphia experiencing delays.
Train service in Pennsylvania was slowed last Tuesday due to a train disruption, while equipment problems left passengers stranded on Thursday and again Friday as temperatures rose.
The agency blamed faulty electrical wiring for the snags late in the week.
The service problems are reminiscent of the so-called “Summer of Hell” in 2017, when passengers faced travel nightmare after nightmare in Pennsylvania — with Amtrak’s power supply failing.
Passengers have dealt in the past with a grounded NJ Transit train in 2017, an Amtrak derailment the following year, and server/signal issues last New Year’s Eve.
Problems from Pennsylvania could swamp passengers on Hoboken’s PATH train and buses.
Amtrak and NJ Transit have long pointed fingers at each other — officials blaming delays and suspended service on both agencies’ crumbling equipment and outdated wiring.
Fed up, Carl, a Florham Park resident, said his message to the two agencies is, “Fix this, fix it.”
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