The Hudson, Harlem and New Haven rail lines on Metro-North were socked by a power failure to signals last night, causing a complete shutdown of trains outbound from Grand Central Terminal (GCT) on Thursday evening. Several thousand passengers were stranded at GCT as well as at stations all along the line, including at Wilton, starting at about 7:45 p.m..
Train service eventually resumed on the Danbury line by 11 p.m., but not before passengers stranded at the Wilton station–reportedly as late as 10:30 p.m.–gave up and went home. There were even reports of commuters being advised by conductors to get off trains in Stamford and make other travel arrangements to get home.
Wilton resident Victor Melendez was one such passenger, who found himself at Grand Central in New York City without transportation home. The Naked Greens owner sent GMW.com the pictures that accompany this article, reported that he finally got on a train at 11:15 p.m. “Just got on the first train out to New Haven,” he messaged via Facebook. “After a 3 hour wait! Can’t wait to get home.”
During the evening’s outage, Wilton’s State Rep. Gail Lavielle (R-143), a longtime critic of the current management took to social media to update her constituents–and express her anger with MetroNorth.
Metro-North: unacceptable evening to beat all unacceptable evenings. Total shutdown – a first. This can’t wait.
— Gail Lavielle (@RepGailLavielle) January 24, 2014
In an email to GMW around midnight Lavielle had trouble containing her frustration:
“Watching Metro-North’s performance deteriorate during the past few months and now, even more so, during the past few days, has been like watching one of those horror movies where the world gradually falls apart. Now that Metro-North’s management is officially ‘in transition,’ the wait for the company’s new chief seems to be an excuse for doing nothing to prevent all performance, safety, and communication standards from deteriorating to completely unacceptable levels. Service is so bad now, and so unpredictable, that commuters can’t wait until new management settles in for things to improve. They have to put up with something new every day now. They can’t take anymore.”
Lavielle said during the evening she was in contact via Twitter with passengers, who she said reported multiple problems. “Not only were they stranded–they also had trouble getting information for quite a while. Many were exhausted after Wednesday night’s disruption episode. Metro-North must be held accountable.”
Congressman Jim Himes (CT-4) also tweeted updates, after speaking with the president of the MTA, Howard Permut:
Just spoke with Howard Permut, MTA Pres. GCT upper & lower levels just opened, will allow trains in and clearing of GCT in next hour plus(1)
— Jim Himes (@jahimes) January 24, 2014
Permut said cause was electrical work next to control center in GCT which shut down computer and cut power to signals on all lines. (2)
— Jim Himes (@jahimes) January 24, 2014