NEWARK — NJ Transit riders going into New York may have a tough commute because of ongoing repairs to overheard wires inside the Hudson River tunnels. The repairs continued into the weekend after a power cable punctured the roof of a passenger car on Friday night.

Amtrak, which is doing the actual repair, expects the work to be completed and inspected in time for Monday morning's commute. The rail company said it expects to run a normal schedule on Monday morning. However, if the work is not complete all Morris & Essex and Montclair-Boonton Line Midtown Direct trains will be diverted to Hoboken. Northeast Corridor and North Jersey Coast Line trains would also run with 30 minute delays as single tracking would be in effect if the work is not completed on time.

Cross honoring would also be in effect with PATH at Newark Penn Station, Hoboken Terminal and 33rd St. in New York. Customers would also be able to use their tickets on NJ Transit and private carrier buses, as well as NY Waterway to-and-from the Hoboken terminal.

"The safety of our commuters and employees remains our highest priority. We assure our customers that, once the Amtrak repairs are complete and all the necessary safety inspections are made, rail service through the tunnels will remain completely safe," the railroad said in a statement.

Northeast Corridor train #3886 with about 700 passengers heading to New York became disabled on Friday night when the overhead wires dislodged and caused a metal bracket above to fall on the train car. The passengers were transferred later onto a rescue train.

A short time later North Jersey Coast Line train #3297, which left Penn Station in New York at 11:18 p.m. headed for Bay Head reported striking a metal object just west of the North Tube. That train became disabled, and a rescue train took the 350 passengers with no reported injuries.

Passenger Beckie Bintrim told New Jersey 101.5 she was with some friends on her way back from a soccer game in New Jersey. They rode from the Meadowlands to Secaucus and switched to a train for the ride to New York.

"Not long into the ride we saw all these sparks outside the window, then there were some loud noises and more sparks. we realized something wasn’t right and thought the train might derail. The train came to a stop and in our car a window was broken and a piece of metal was punctured. Between cars there was a lot of smoke and in the car behind us more broken windows and two cars behind that a pole went through the ceiling," Bintrim said.

 

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