Politics & Government
LIRR Service at Port Jefferson Branch Still Suspended
Port Jefferson is one of many smaller branches still without railroad service due to the winter storm that froze all train traffic in the middle of the blizzard.
The blizzard that dumped 11 inches of snow in Port Jefferson according to the National Weather Service brought service on the Long Island Railroad to a standstill on Sunday and Monday. Travel from the is still suspended and officials don't know when they will be able to restore service.
"There is no specific time table for Port Jefferson to be opened," said Salvatore Arena, spokesman for the LIRR.
Port Jefferson is one of seven branches that have not been sufficiently cleared to restore service and the LIRR will eventually get to them.
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"Gradually they will come back on as the week progresses," he said. "Things are getting better everyday.
The powerful storm with high winds that kicked up enormous drifts is to blame for the closures and service disruptions. But the unusual became the usual during the storm. Aside from the snow, there were a number of abandoned cars on the railroad crossings that hampered efforts and blocked trains.
Find out what's happening in Port Jeffersonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
"You never know what's going to happen next," Arena said.
The LIRR concentrated its efforts on getting the four major branches up and running in order to give travelers some options. They made decisions based on ridership concentrating on the busiest branches first.
"We cleared the Port Washington branch that takes passengers to western Nassau. Huntington takes passengers to the north shore. Ronkonkoma is central and Babylon is south shore," said Arena. "In theory they represent the major branches."
Yesterday all train traffic was suspended either way into and out of Penn Station. A major issue was frozen switches at Jamaica Station, the same ones that were . According to Arena, the upgraded technology was not intended to prevent the problems that occurred in the storm.
"The actual switch is the same," he said. "The connection that makes that switch move is the new technology. The technology of the switch itself is one that is still subjected to extreme weather situation like freezing. So we're out there trying to heat these switches."
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