Officials investigating a train collision in Connecticut have ruled out foul play and are studying a rail fracture where a derailed commuter train was struck by another bound for New York City.
National Transportation Safety Board member Earl Weener says the broken rail is of substantial interest to investigators and a portion of the track was sent to NTSB headquarters in Washington, D.C. for analysis. It was not clear if the accident caused the fracture or if the rail was broken before the crash.
Commuters face a potential nightmare of detours and traffic jams after the collision of the two Metro-North trains near the Fairfield-Bridgeport line in Connecticut Friday night.
Three people remained in critical condition on Saturday and more than 70 people were injured in the collision, which officials said appeared to happen after one of the trains derailed. Eight people were still in hospitals on Saturday, officials said.
Metro-North train service between New Haven and South Norwalk is indefinitely suspended, as is all Amtrak service between New York and New Haven, Conn. Officials on Saturday said they do not know when service will be restored.
“You should begin making plans … for alternate travel,” said Gov. Dannel P. Malloy at a Saturday morning briefing near the site of the crash.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board were on the scene on Saturday, and said it may take up to two days to finish their work. Until then, state workers cannot clear up the wreckage.
At a press conference Saturday evening, NTSB officials said the investigation is “still in the very early stages.”
The NTSB has requested full inspection reports on the train cars, and will conduct a full inspection as soon as they can be removed from the track. The train that previously traveled that route will also be inspected.
NTSB officials said they would not speculate about what caused the crash.
The Metropolitan Transit Authority, which operates the Metro-North trains, was still working, as of Saturday afternoon, on plans for getting commuters around the crash site, a spokesman said.
Starting Monday, commuters who normally park at stations to the east of Bridgeport will have to use other transportation to get around the blocked tracks, or drive to already crowded stations like South Norwalk or Stamford to park and ride.
Jim Cameron, chairman of the Connecticut Metro-North Rail Commuter Council, said these “refugee commuters” should not assume that a solution will be in place after the weekend.
“None of this is going to happen quickly,” he said, adding that the NTSB investigation can’t be rushed because the cause of the accident needs to be discovered to prevent it happening again.
“Commuters should leave early, think creatively and don’t all drive to Stamford,” Cameron said.
He suggested driving to one of the stations further south, or head west to catch a train on the Harlem line. Cameron said he hopes there will be continued communication from all the agencies involved so commuters are aware of possible travel and parking options.
“This is unknown territory to a lot of these people,” he said.
Average weekday traffic on the New Haven line is 125,000 passengers — counting the full day, both directions of travel, according to the MTA.
On Friday evening, the eastbound 4:41 p.m. train out of Grand Central Terminal in New York derailed just east of the Fairfield Metro station, said Marjorie Anders, an MTA spokeswoman. It then hit the side of a westbound 5:35 p.m. train from New Haven on the adjacent track. Some cars on the second train also derailed, Anders said.
Cars on each train and the rails were severely damaged in the 6:10 p.m. collision.
“The damage is absolutely staggering,” said U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who viewed the scene Saturday.
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