By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2026-08-08 18:56:00 | Updated at 2026-08-08 19:13:22
18 minutes ago
About 700 people – many of them returning to New York City from a Chris Brown concert in New Jersey – were trapped on a disabled train in stifling heat for about two hours before being evacuated early Saturday, according to the FDNY and passengers.
The train stalled at around 1:45 a.m. and passengers – many of whom had been at the concert at Metlife Stadium that also featured R&B artist Usher – were left without electricity and air-conditioning, a woman said in a video posted to YouTube by videographer Dakota Santiago.
“We were on the train and we smelled smoke like rubber burning,” said the woman, who was not identified. “Then all of a sudden the lights flickered and the train stopped.”
The FDNY got the call about the disabled train around 1:45 a.m. and 21 FDNY units responded, including 79 fire and EMS personnel, an FDNY spokesman said. The incident was marked under control by 3 a.m.
There were an estimated 700 passengers on the train, the FDNY said.
The woman in the video said the conductor told passengers the power was out, but that was all.
“He told us that the power was out and we just waited and waited and waited,” the woman said. “Finally they got a booster train or something to hook up and to drag us back here two hours later.”
NJ Transit personnel were going to walk the passengers back to the station, “but that got too complicated,” she said.
“People were starting to get to the point they were starting to bug out,” the woman said.
The video shows the passengers walking along a train platform at Manhattan’s Moynihan Train Hall station behind members of the FDNY after they were removed from the inoperable locomotive.
When they were finally rescued, the stranded straphangers were stunned to realize just how close to freedom they had been all along.
“It took … two minutes to go from where we were to the platform,” Ernesto Valverde, 37, told The Post.
Valverde, who had gone to the concert with his wife, said the train had broken down less than a mile from the platform.
“So we literally were stuck there for two hours in heat and humidity, essentially, for what amounted to a less than a mile trip,” he said.
Valverde took to social media to slam New Jersey Transit for the ordeal.
“@NJTRANSIT you are deserving of an A grade on awful service and unpreparedness,” his post on X read. “Stuck less than a mile from NY Penn and there is no crew ready to pull us in. Make it make sense.”
He also said that there was a diabetic passenger on the train.
“Thank goodness for the riders on board that are actually ready to jump into action,” the post read.
Damara Lee, 49, who also took to social media about the experience, told The Post she didn’t make it back to her Far Rockaway home until 4 a.m.
“It was hell,” Lee added, who arrived back to home to Far Rockaway, Brooklyn at 4 a.m. “We lost power. The train got hot. It was bad. It was hot, sweaty, it wasn’t needed.
“It took the beauty from the concert,” Lee said, which she noted had also been delayed due to inclement weather. “The concert was great but the commute… What a night, let me tell you.”
NJ Transit didn’t return The Post’s call seeking comment Saturday.
