Trains running well despite heat

NEW YORK (WABC) -- It may be a bit slower, but things are running a lot smoother than Wednesday.

That's what commuters on New Jersey Transit and Amtrak can expect so far Thursday evening.

Delays by just minutes are a far cry from what happened Thursday.

The problem in this heat is that the overhead wires get so hot; they expand and begin to sag, posing problems for the trains.

In addition to power problems, in Iselin, maintenance work ruled out any spare tracks for miserable commuters who ended up having to get onto buses.

Amtrak tried to get ahead of the game by imposing speed restrictions for the evening commute to safeguard all the equipment.

"We're not expecting severe delays because of this. Again, it's more of a proactive measure that we take when the weather gets this hot," said Cliff Cole, Amtrak Spokesman.

They said that resulting delays from the speed limits would only be 10 to 20 minutes on New Jersey Transit.

"We are closely monitoring everything, wires, tracks, our equipment," said Nancy Snyder, NJ Transit Spokesperson.

At Metropark, some Amtrak trains are delayed twice as much or more.

It's not fun when trying to make connections in other cities for a vacation.

Get more ABC7 Traffic Center »

mass transit, abc7 traffic center, stacey sager

• Comment Now
• Email
• Print
• Report a typo
•