“Even if it means less service, it’s still train service,” Helena E. Williams, the president of the railroad, said at a news conference. “We restored it; we’ll get them home.”
More than 100,000 commuters leaving the city are having to make do with about 75 trains between 4 and 8 p.m., 40 percent fewer than the usual schedule of 120 trains, officials said. Trains that depart Pennsylvania Station will not stop at Jamaica Station, in Queens, where the fire occurred. Delays are expected, but officials declined to estimate how long they might be. Tuesday morning’s commute also looked uncertain.
Ms. Williams encouraged evening commuters to “take their time” and not rush to Pennsylvania Station, where officials hope to avoid overcrowding. “This is not like a snowstorm where the snow is still falling and everybody tries to get an early seat,” she said. “Enjoy a nice stroll in Manhattan.”
With Jamaica Station, the railroad’s main pivot point, mostly unusable, passengers were asked to make connections to their branches at stations farther east. Trains to Oyster Bay, for instance, will depart Pennsylvania Station and make local stops to Mineola, where passengers can transfer. Passengers on the Port Jefferson line can transfer at stations in Hicksville and Huntington.
The West Hempstead line will run to the Valley Stream station, with farther stops available by shuttle bus. Trains on the Hempstead and Far Rockaway lines will depart from Atlantic Terminal on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn. And trains on the Montauk, Patchogue and Speonk lines will make transfers at the Babylon station.
The fire occurred around 11 a.m. on Monday after an electrical surge in two or more cables embedded in the tracks near Jamaica Station, officials said. The surge fed into a crucial control tower just east of the station, known as the Hall Tower, and sparked a fire in the ancient equipment that controls the station’s track switches.
That equipment, which was designed in 1913 and requires individual workers to use levers and pulleys to move switches, is scheduled to be replaced this fall with a modern, computerized system.
To restore some service, track workers used mallets and spikes to physically lock the switches into place so trains could move through the station.
The railroad does not yet know how service will be affected Tuesday morning. Officials are assessing the condition of the signal system.
Update, 4:29 p.m. | Service on the Long Island Rail Road is being restored to about 60 percent of normal for the evening rush after an electrical fire in a 1913 vintage, manual train-switching system in Queens crippled the railroad for most of Monday afternoon. Officials said they were not sure whether service would be completely restored in time for Tuesday morning’s commute.
Update, 3:42 p.m. | Service was partially restored on the Long Island Rail Road around 3 p.m., as five trains departed Pennsylvania Station, including trains bound for Ronkonkoma, Babylon and Huntington.
But thousands of riders still remained stranded there — some agitated, some resigned.
Jason Nuñez, 25, a student at Adelphi University trying to get to the school’s Garden City campus, said he saw his train on the Hempstead line listed briefly and tantalizingly on the departure board, only to see it taken down.
Mr. Nuñez said around 3:15 that he needed to hand in paperwork for an internship by 5 p.m.
“I am going to have to beg the manager for an extension,” Mr. Nuñez said. “If he doesn’t give it to me, I might lose my job.”
Updated, 2:59 p.m. | Nearly all train service on the Long Island Rail Road has been suspended since 11 a.m. after a fire broke out in a crucial control tower at the railroad’s hub at Jamaica Station in Queens, the railroad said.
Officials do not know whether repairs can be made in time for the afternoon rush, but service is not expected to be fully restored.
“We are not going to be able to operate all of our trains in the evening rush hour,” said Sam Zambuto, a railroad spokesman.
The railroad is currently unable to control the switches that allow trains to change tracks just east of Jamaica Station, a juncture point for 10 of the railroad’s 11 branches. The problem means that trains headed to and from New York City cannot pass that point.
The railroad has suspended nearly all its trains until the problem can be resolved, but trains on the Port Washington branch, the one route that does not pass through Jamaica Station, are continuing to operate on their tracks through northeastern Queens to Nassau County.
The fire, believed to be electrical, began in the switching tower around 11:10 a.m. and was under control by noon with no injuries, said a Fire Department spokesman, Steve Ritea.
“It was fairly contained, not a lot of damage,” Mr. Ritea said. But the flame apparently did enough to throw the railroad’s switching system out of commission.
Alternative options for evening commuters remained unclear. If operations cannot be restored, “you’re talking a major disaster here,” said William Henderson, executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Council, a riders’ group. “You are going to have a lot of people who are looking for ways to get home tonight.”
Riders leaving Manhattan and Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn may be able to reach Jamaica Station via the E, J, and Z subway lines, but it was unclear whether the railroad would be able to restore eastbound service out of Jamaica.
Mr. Henderson said the station is not built to handle the capacity of the railroad’s primary terminal, Pennsylvania Station in Midtown Manhattan.
“Jamaica is not really designed as a station for people to come in from the outside,” Mr. Henderson said. “It’s designed as a station for people to walk across the platform and transfer to another train. It doesn’t have the capacity to handle a big crowd coming in from the subway.”
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