Skittish commuters returned to the Hudson Line Wednesday morning – with some choosing to sit further back in the train and other cars half-full – just three days after a horrific derailment killed four passengers and injured more than 60 others.
New York City employee Thomas Amalathas, 60, a commuter since 1999, said the trains were eerily empty.
“It just wasn’t normal. There were much, much less people today than normal. He [the engineer] was going much slower too,“ he said.
Eric Marshall, 30 year-old facility manager, sat further back as a precautionary measure, as most of the injuries in Sunday’s derailment occurred in the front three cars.
“I chose to sit in the back of the train, a little further than I normally would, facing backwards. But other than that I’m confident that it was a one-time error and things will get straightened out, “ he said.
Others took their first ride since the derailment in stride.
Manny Gonzales, a 55-year-old private investigator who has been taking the train from Poughkeepsie for the last 15 years, said he felt confident that everything would go well.
“It went very well. I wasn’t nervous,” he said, adding that he was impressed the MTA got the trains back to normal so quickly. “They did a good job.”
Michael Pitkin, 42, a construction superintendent, said he wasn’t thinking of Sunday’s deadly accident as he was passing the sharp curve just north of the Spuyten Duyvil station in the Bronx.
“I wasn’t even thinking about it. I felt like it [train] was going a little slower today. Everybody [engineer] was a little more cautious.”
Only one of the line’s three tracks was in operation, causing slight delays, but riders reported few problems as officials said service was 98 percent restored.
“Some trains will be canceled or combined. Customers should expect scattered delays of up to 15 minutes due to limited track capacity in this area and crowded conditions during peak periods,” the MTA warned on its Web site.
William Rockefeller, the engineer of the train that derailed, has admitted he was asleep at the switch when the train approached the Bronx curve where the Harlem and Hudson rivers meet at 82 mph.
Meanwhile, the head of the Federal Railroad Administration blasted the MTA over the derailment – the latest mishap for the troubled agency this year.
Joseph Szabo said in a letter that his administration and the US Transportation Department “have serious concerns” following Sunday’s accident and three others that occurred in New York and Connecticut from May through July.
Szabo noted that a federal team has been working closely with Metro-North Railroad and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. But he said that “immediate corrective action is imperative.”
In response, the MTA said the safety of its customers “has always been, and will always continue to be” its top priority.