North Jersey Coast Line Affected by Storm Outage

The storm that has  locally may complicate the evening rush hour for those who travel to and from New York City.

New Jersey Transit suspended rail service between Newark Penn Station and New York Penn Station shortly before noon Wednesday, spokesman Dan Stessel said in a telephone interview. Trains are not running in either direction due to overhead electrical wire damage on the Portal Bridge, and repairs are expected to take at least several hours.

Service between New York and New Jersey might not be restored before the evening rush hour, Stessel warned. He said to expect significant delays across nearly all NJ Transit lines, including the North Jersey Coast Line.

What caused the wires to fall down remains unclear and under investigation, Stessel said. At 11:30 a.m., service was halted when wires just west of Secaucus fell into the path of both inbound and outbound NJ Transit tracks, he said. One inbound train carrying about 600 passengers lost power and was stranded for about 40 minutes before it was towed back to Newark.

Northeast Corridor and North Jersey Coast line trains are operating to and from Newark Penn Station only. Northeast Corridor service is operating hourly. Expect 20-30 minute delays on these lines. The North Jersey Coast line includes the train stations at Pt. Pleasant Beach and Bay Head.