Record-breaking heat crippled NJ Transit on Thursday, turning the evening rush hour into a nightmare for commuters trying to get home. As the region baked under some of the highest temperatures in years, the rail agency's electric trains were slowed by the heat, cascading into cancellations, long delays and stranded passengers across the network.
The conditions inside the system were brutal. New York Penn Station, the busiest hub in the network, reached 148 degrees inside, leaving commuters packed onto platforms and into trains with little or no air conditioning as they waited for service that in many cases never came on time.
Officials told riders to look elsewhere. NJ Transit urged its rail customers to find other ways home if they could, cross-honoring tickets on NJ Transit and private carrier buses, on the PATH system, and even on NY Waterway ferries, in an effort to move people around the crippled rail lines.
The delays piled up quickly. Riders faced massive cancellations and waits of an hour to 90 minutes, as the strain of the heat on overhead power lines and equipment rippled through the evening schedule and left platforms crowded well into the night.
At several points the trouble became acute. Sagging overhead wires temporarily stopped two trains during the commute, and a rescue train had to be dispatched to Harrison to carry roughly 300 stranded customers back to Hoboken Terminal after their service stalled.
The heat strained the system's aging infrastructure as well. The century-old Hackensack drawbridge, which crosses the Hackensack River between Secaucus and East Rutherford, got stuck open for about 25 minutes because of the high temperatures, adding another bottleneck to an already snarled evening.
There was even fire to contend with. The extreme heat sparked a blaze at the Hoboken station after 5 p.m., compounding the disruption at one of the network's key terminals as crews worked to keep passengers moving amid the breakdowns.
For weary commuters, the meltdown capped a punishing day across the New York metropolitan area, where temperatures soared to record or near-record levels. With similar heat forecast to continue, riders were left bracing for the possibility of more disruption before the extreme weather finally broke.