NEW YORK – Strong winds
and heavy rain at around 3:45 Friday afternoon brought the Metro-North
Railroad’s Hudson Line to a halt as a large tree fell across both
sets of tracks between Cold Spring and Peekskill.
The southbound train, en route to Manhattan, backed up all the way to
Garrison where passengers sat waiting for crews to cut up and remove the
trees from the tracks. Early in the evening, one track was reopened with
a 60 to 90 minute residual delay.
Valerie Gropper of the Town of Poughkeepsie was on her way to visit with
her daughter, who lives in New York City, when the train stopped. They
both love the Netflix series, “Orange is the New Black” and
have an agreement that they will only watch it together.
Mrs. Gropper told Mid-Hudson News by phone from the train she heard what
sounded like a branch hitting the train, but as it backed up, she saw
it was a tree trunk she estimated to be 18 to 24 inches in circumference.
There was no damage to the railcars struck by the tree, a Metro-North
official announced following an inspection while the passengers waited
for the tracks to be cleared.
