One of New Jersey Transit's busiest lines has been suspended indefinitely after a centuries-old tree fell on tracks in Maplewood and crushed crucial power infrastructure amid Monday's powerful windswept storms, while tens of thousands remain without power Tuesday across the tri-state area, especially Hudson Valley.
The tree toppled onto the tracks on the Morris and Essex line, which serves tens of thousands of customers daily and is home to four of NJT's top 20 stations by passenger volume. It also took out the catenary system, leaving debris everywhere.
NJ Transit messaged the outage on their website, app and social media, but many commuters said they were still confused. Some resorted to Uber, sending prices soaring.
The 6-mile ride from Maplewood to Newark Penn Station, for example, was about $60 at one point Tuesday. That's triple the usual fare. And there's not even a hint at this point about when service might be restored. The damage was extensive.
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The less busy Gladstone line was also affected.
NJ Transit said tickets for both lines are being cross-honored on its Raritan Valley and Montclair-Boonton rail lines, as well as its bus and private-carrier services. Customers are advised to allow for additional travel time.
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The transit agency said that limited service will operate on a modified schedule from South Orange both New York's Penn Station and Hoboken on Wednesday. Service on the Gladstone branch will remain suspended, NJ Transit said, with cross-honoring remaining in effect.
Check the latest real-time transit updates from all your key sources here.
Power Knocked Out to Tens of Thousands
More than 20,000 customers remained without power in New York and New Jersey by 11 a.m. Tuesday, hours after heavy winds and lashing rain overnight.
The bulk of the outages, well more than 40% of them, were in the Hudson Valley particularly Ulster and Orange counties, and spots to the west, where gusts above 40 mph brought down tree limbs and rattled homes.
Central Hudson had more than 6,200 customers out by mid-morning Tuesday in Ulster County, which was battered by an ice storm last month.
“Central Hudson’s crews are working to make repairs and restore power to our customers as safely and quickly as possible,” Ryan Hawthorne, Central Hudson’s vice president of electric engineering and operations, said in a statement Tuesday.
Fewer than 1,000 outages were reported across New York City's five boroughs at that time.
Over in New Jersey, Union, Morris and Somerset counties, along with Hunterdon, remained most impacted by outages late Tuesday morning.
