There were reportedly around 1,200 passengers traveling between New Jersey and New York when it happened. Due to overhead power problems, the train got stuck in the Hudson River tunnel for around three hours. As if this wasn’t enough, on arrival at New York’s Penn Station chaos ensued after Amtrak police had to subdue a man with a stun gun after he caused disruption in the station. This sparked a panicked stampede in the busy station.
Power goes off in the Hudson River tunnel
According to a New Jersey Transit spokeswoman, the train was stuck in the Hudson River tunnel on Friday afternoon after Amtrak experienced overhead power problems.
The spokeswoman said the train eventually reached Penn Station in New York during the early evening. On arrival at the station, Amtrak police were forced to use a Taser to subdue an unruly man who was causing a disturbance in the station. According to New York police, this led to panic after false rumors quickly did the rounds after the crackling sound of the Taser was mistaken for gunshots in the station.
As reported by the New York Post, people in the station started screaming, with some of them running out of Penn station, leaving their bags behind them. Reportedly it also led to Macy’s department store briefly being locked down. In the pandemonium that ensued, sixteen people suffered minor injuries.
A train got stuck in tunnel between New York and New Jersey for nearly 3 hours, then a stun gun sparked a stampede https://t.co/e2FpSzDhDU pic.twitter.com/HuT415vlhj
— The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) April 15, 2017
A bump and sparks as the Amtrak train stopped in the tunnel
Fox News quotes Mia Sanati, who was traveling on the train with her husband when she felt a bump and then saw sparks.
She said the Amtrak train came to a stop after around 30 seconds. Sanati said the power and the air conditioning went out on the train and it got hot really quickly, with so many people tightly packed together in the train car. She said some passengers handled the situation well by making room on their seats for standing passengers, while others started pacing and becoming anxious.
Sanati added that once the train started moving again, everyone was cheering.
New Jersey Transit train with 1,200 passengers gets stuck in tunnel for nearly 3 hours https://t.co/GXYGcxOtO2 pic.twitter.com/YpYAkyc5qr
— aasseew (@asdfgeeeee2) April 15, 2017
Not the first recent problem with Amtrak
The latest incident comes a week after a derailment of the New Jersey Transit shut down eight of the 21 tracks, causing disruptions to travel in the area for several days. Three weeks ago an Amtrak train also derailed at Penn Station.
Steven Santoro, executive director of New Jersey Transit apologized to the affected passengers in a statement, while spokeswoman Nancy Snyder said they are working together with Amtrak to find out the cause of the electrical problem. An Amtrak spokesperson also said on Friday night that the tasered man wasn’t a passenger on the train in question and is currently in police custody.
