Amtrak suspended service between New York City and New Haven, Conn., just before the evening rush hour on Tuesday after a fire in the Bronx cut off power to trains in the area, officials said.
The railroad operator announced the suspension at 3:30 p.m., saying it would last through the end of the day, and did not provide an estimate for when service would return to normal. Limited service was available between South Station in Boston and New Haven, officials said.
In a news release, Amtrak cited “reports of a brush fire” east of Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan as the reason for the power outage. The release did not provide additional details, but an Amtrak spokesman said that initial reports indicated the brush fire was connected to a transformer at an Amtrak substation.
Philip O’Brien, a spokesman for Con Edison, said that the fire started around 2:30 p.m. as Amtrak employees were working on a high-voltage feeder cable at an Amtrak substation in the Parkchester section of the Bronx that is near a Con Edison substation.
A spark ignited material on the ground, and flames soon spread to a nearby warehouse and to a parking lot on the Con Edison property, Mr. O’Brien said. No one affiliated with Con Edison was injured, but two or three employees’ cars were damaged, he added. No Con Edison customers were affected, he said.
The Fire Department said it had 12 units and 60 firefighters and emergency services workers battling the blaze.
Hundreds of fires have flared up in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut recently as a record-breaking season of drought continues, with the dead leaves on the ground and still clinging to trees acting as kindling, and gusty winds fanning the flames.
The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for a broad swath of the New York City metropolitan region on Tuesday, indicating that a combination of strong winds, low relative humidity and dry fuels created a significantly heightened risk of fire.
As for train passengers affected by the service suspension on Tuesday, Amtrak encouraged those traveling between New York and New Haven to take Metro-North trains, where their tickets would be honored because of the disruption.
Customers arriving at Penn Station in Manhattan and choosing that alternative to travel north must make their own way to Grand Central Terminal and board Metro-North trains there.
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