As one rider just Tweeted, "BITE MY LEFT NUT NJ TRANSIT!!!" NJ Transit just suspended service on the Northeast Corridor, North Jersey Coast Line and Midtown Direct lines due to "an Amtrak power supply problem" for the afternoon/evening commute. And it was just at 7:15 a.m. when NJ Transit had to suspend service due to Amtrak's power issues! more ›

New Jersey police were using a robot to inspect the two gasoline cans with attached wires found in a car close to the busy McCarter Highway, but have determined it's not a threat. Following a call about a suspicious vehicle, police examined the Dodge Omni parked under a railroad overpass. According to the AP, "Newark Police Director Garry McCarthy said police found two gasoline canisters sitting on top of a tool box inside the car. There were wires protruding from the tool box and a battery pack nearby but nothing was connected." (Unlike that Nissan Pathfinder in Times Square on May 1.) McCarthy said, "At this point we know it's not a bomb," but it was unclear why the car was there. Amtrak and NJ Transit continued to run as scheduled. more ›

Amtrak and NJ Transit service is suspended in and out of Penn Station, due to Amtrak electrical issues. PATH is cross honoring NJ Transit at West 33rd, Hoboken and Newark, but that's probably little comfort for holiday travelers. more ›

In what seems to be separate incidents, NJ Transit and PATH commuters are facing a rough Thursday morning commute into the city. more ›

Yesterday afternoon, downed wires in a train tunnel caused hours of delays for trains in the Northeast Corridor yesterday. The downed wires stopped a passenger train from entering the tunnels, and then the domino effect: Amtrak trains from Boston were backed up on their way to NYC, while trains from Philadelphia to NYC only made it to Newark. The outage occurred around 8:30AM and service was restored around 2:30PM, after affecting at least 50,000 riders... more ›

On May 25, 2006, there was a power outage along Amtrak's Northeast Corridor line, a heavily traveled route that stranded over a hundred trains from Amtrak, NJ Transit and other transit companies. Now, nine months later, Amtrak has revealed what went wrong - and it's a doozy. The NY Times reports:

A 4-year-old computer in Philadelphia failed to execute a single command given 36 hours earlier, after maintenance had been done on the evening of May 23, and then failed to alert human controllers that it had not followed instructions, according to an extensive investigation performed by outside experts. The effect was to limit the amount of power available in the system, leaving no margin during periods of peak demand. more ›

be investigated otherwise (well, Amtrak is "investigating"). And we'd hope that an outage that would leave thousands of commuters stranded - especially the commuters trapped in the trains that were in tunnels. Anyway, Schumer wants to convene a blue ribbon panel of independent experts, saying, "It is clear that we need outside experts to step in and fix what's broken." The outside experts can say whatever they want, but the bigger issue is whether the federal government will give the struggling Amtrak any money.
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The Ninth Annual NYC Fringe Festival is now in its second day and it's probably time you took advantage of it ("But its 98 degrees outside," you say, to which we respond: its much cooler inside most of the theaters). Gothamist already gave you a peak at the shows that caught our eye, but seriously folks there are a lot of shows going on and at least a few of them are definitely worth your time. Don't believe us? Check out their "Slice-o-matic" search engine and just ask for everything going on this afternoon and evening and you'll get 43 shows that you could attend including, but definitely not limited to: "The Miss Education of Jenna Bush," "Sex with Jake Gyllenhaal and Other Fables of the Northeast Corridor," "Unholy Secrets of the Theremin," "The Mayor Who Would Be Sondheim," "TAROT READING: Love, Sex and Mommy," "Grandmotherfucker & The Seducers," and "Slow Children Playing." more ›