Train Stalls, 475 Trapped in Tunnel
WEEHAWKEN, N.J. — A train broke down in a tunnel Saturday on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River, trapping 475 passengers without air conditioning in a record heat wave until they were evacuated through an air shaft two hours later.
At least 25 passengers were treated at hospitals for heat exhaustion, and a Weehawken police officer was treated for debris that lodged in his eye as he guided passengers through the tunnel.
The New Jersey Transit train, en route from Manhattan to Trenton, N.J., lost power shortly after leaving Pennsylvania Station because an overhead wire used to power it became entangled and snapped.
Most of the 475 passengers were “tired but in good spirits” after walking about half a mile underground and climbing eight flights of stairs to a New Jersey Transit parking lot near the Lincoln Tunnel entrance, Weehawken police Lt. John Traynor said.
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