It’ll be a long schlep back to Long Island tonight for thousands of commuters.
Service on the LIRR will be cut nearly cut in half after a fire ravaged a main switching tower at Jamaica station, where 10 of the 11 lines converge before heading east.
Rush hour riders are arriving at Penn Station and waiting for a train that would take them directly from Midtown to their section of the railroad — there are no connections at Jamaica, MTA officials said.
NYPD and MTA police have set up barricades for riders waiting for their train along W. 31 St. and W. 33rd streets outside Penn Station, and also blocked off W. 32nd St and Madison Square Garden with emergency tape.
The 60-percent “limited” service was an improvement from earlier in the day, when no trains were running.
Still, many riders were scrambling to get home to take care of families.
“My son is sick. My husband stayed with him and I have to relieve him,” said Shelley Benizri, 41, from Cedarhurst.
Others said they were told to go to Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn to wait for a train.
“Maybe I’ll just stay here and have a beer and wait it out,” said tech projects manager Robert Colonne, 41, from Floral Park, who was waiting at Penn Station.
“I’m email alerts telling me different things from what I’m hearing here,” he said. “I’m not getting accurate information.”
Many of the trains were cancelled or combined, meaning riders weren’t working off a time table but were instead simply arriving at Penn Station.
No one was injured in the 11:00 a.m. cable fire, which could have been weather related, officials said.