A dangerous fire in the switching tower shut down just about the entire Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) this morning and afternoon. The entire LIRR was shut down with the exception of the Port Washington branch which remained open.

Railroad officials are trying to come up with a plan for this evenings rush hour which will see over 120,000 passengers looking for a ride home from work. The Long Island Rail Road system was inoperable since a little after 10:30 AM. However limited operations have resumed, and they plan on announcing more news on the situation at 3:30 PM.

The switching tower which was damaged, is located just east of the Jamaica train hub. Fortunately no one was injured in the fire.

If the system isn’t back up and running fully in time for rush hour, up to 350 trains may be affected.