Metro

LIRR service suspended after two people fatally struck by trains

Two people were struck and killed by separate non-passenger Long Island Rail Road trains Monday morning, causing widespread service disruptions for several hours, officials said.

An unidentified man was killed when he jumped on the tracks near Woodside at 4:45 a.m., according to Metropolitan Transportation Authority police.

Service between Jamaica and Penn Station was temporarily suspended.

About 45 minutes earlier, service was suspended between Hicksville and Ronkonkoma after a person on the tracks east of the Hicksville station was struck, police said.

Details about the two fatalities were not immediately available.

The incidents sparked chaos during the morning rush, as commuters scrambled to find alternative means to get to work – or ended up being delayed for hours.

“If it rains hard, there’s a problem with the tracks. If it snows hard, there’s a problem with the tracks. If it’s too windy, there’s debris on the tracks. It’s just a mess,” Chris Manning, 45, of Holbrook, LI, told Newsday at the Ronkonkoma station as he waited for service into Manhattan to resume.

At the Hicksville station, Keith Barth, 39, said he planned to head to the Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn and take a subway to his usual destination, Penn Station.

Another commuter said he gave up and called Uber.

“They didn’t really give us a time frame, so I was waiting for two hours before I called an Uber. If they would’ve given us a time frame of two hours, I would’ve called it earlier. Now I’m spending $100 on an Uber to Ronkonkoma,” Ryan Gray told News 12.

By 9:30 a.m., the LIRR announced on Twitter that service was still operating with “scattered residual delays of 10-15 minutes.”