LIRR Cuts Tuesday Service, Repairs Ongoing After Fire in Jamaica

The Long Island Rail Road will operate on a reduced service schedule Tuesday, with 25 percent of westbound trains to be canceled during the morning rush.  

The railroad continues to deal with the ramifications of Monday's electrical fire at a control tower at Jamaica Station that shut down 10 of the railroad's 11 branches for several hours. 

On Tuesday morning, 33 westbound trains, of the 144 that normally operate, will be canceled. Those trains include:

• The 8:16 a.m. Babylon train due in Penn Station at 9:31 a.m.

• The 8:35 a.m. Babylon train due in Penn Station at 9:37 a.m.

Service will also be affected on Tuesday evening, with the railroad running about 60 percent–the same as Monday evening–of its normal 120 trains departing from Manhattan between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. Evening trains will make all local stops.

Commuters are also advised to expect delays and no scheduled connections at Jamaica Station on Tuesday.

LIRR crews have been working to repair the damage to the tower's switching board, but officials said it will likely take several days to complete the repairs.  More than 200 wires need to be checked for possible damage from the fire, which started around 11 a.m.

Officials said the cause of the fire was still under investigation, but it appeared to be weather-related.

The fire at Hall Tower, a key signal tower through which trains are routed onto appropriate tracks into and out of Jamaica Station, disabled its electrical signal system forcing railroad crews to use a manual system of locking the switches into place in order to allow trains to pass through the railroad hub.