Northeast rail services disrupted after trains collide
Baku, May 18 (AZERTAC). High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article.
Rail services between New York and New England face days of disruption after two trains carrying hundreds of passengers collided in Connecticut on Friday after one of them left the rails. Sixty people were injured, five of them critically.
A Metro-North train with about 300 people on board was travelling from Grand Central in New York City to New Haven when it derailed near Bridgeport, about 60 miles from Manhattan. A train carrying up to 400 people heading to Grand Central on an adjacent track struck the derailed train.
High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail.
Connecticut governor Dannel Malloy told reporters at the scene that one of those hurt was in a “very critical condition”. Sixty people had been taken to local hospitals.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority police and FBI officials are among those involved in the investigation, according to the MTA. The US`s National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending a team to investigate what had happened.
Mr Malloy said he had no reason to believe the crash was anything other than an accident.
He said the route along the Northeast Corridor was likely to remain shut at least until Monday, as investigators tried to establish what had caused the crash, removed the damaged carriages and repaired the track.
The route is used by Amtrak long-distance passenger trains as well as Metro-North services, which carry commuters to and from New York City. Metro-North, operated by New York State`s MTA, suspended services on its New Haven line at South Norwalk, near Bridgeport, after the incident. Amtrak said all services between New York and Boston were suspended “indefinitely”.
Acela Express and Northeast Regional trains between New York`s Penn Station and Boston were disrupted. Information about restoring services would be published when available, officials said.
It is the most significant incident in the US involving passenger trains since two trains on the Washington DC metro collided in June 2009, killing the train operator and eight passengers.
There are four tracks in the area but two of those are out of service while overhead wires are replaced. The other two tracks and overhead wires suffered extensive damage.
Mr Malloy said it would normally have been possible to divert trains to the other tracks through the area.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo sent MTA chairman Tom Prendergast to the scene as well as additional emergency MTA personnel and resources. The governor spoke with Mr Malloy to co-ordinate the two states` responses.
Other news in this section
