One suspected criminal has managed to ruin the start of the weekend for tens of thousands of Long Island Rail Road riders tonight.
The MTA was forced to shut down a crucial portion of the commuter railroad earlier this evening while the NYPD hunted for a suspect in Queens — sparking massive rush hour delays on nearly every line.
Cops asked the MTA to kill power from 5:30 to 6:10 pm from busy Jamaica Station to Valley Stream while they searched for the suspect.
“That’s enough to screw up the rush hour,” said MTA spokeswoman Marjorie Anders.
“We have massive delays, crowding, some combined trains, some canceled. But mostly late. We have some trains that are operating 54 minutes late. It’s terrible.”
Ten of the system’s 11 lines were still experiencing delays over an hour after the MTA turned power back on.
It’s unclear if police ever caught the suspect.
jennifer.fermino@nypost.com