Amtrak dodges responsibility for stuck NJ Transit train
Hey, it’s not always Amtrak’s fault!
The railroad released a statement on Monday saying that it was not to blame for the NJ Transit train that got stuck in an Amtrak tunnel Friday afternoon. Instead, the problem was a broken power collector on the NJ Transit train, company officials said.
“Amtrak has determined that the incident involving NJ Transit Train 3850 last Friday was not caused by Amtrak infrastructure, and that the preliminary cause appears to be a NJ Transit mechanical problem involving the train’s pantograph,” the company said in a statement.
The incident caused chaos at Penn Station as train delayed several NJ Transit and Long Island Rail Road lines. Passengers were also stuck in the tunnel for nearly three hours.
NJ Transit officials on Friday blamed Amtrak for the mishap. NJ Transit officials did not immediately return calls for comment on Monday.
Amtrak has become an easy target the past few weeks. The company admitted that its aging infrastructure caused two derailments at Penn Station the past month. The first one on April 24th snarled train traffic for a day, but an April 3rd derailment caused several days of cancellations an delays.