Power restored to Hicksville LIRR station following hours-long outage

Some passengers had to navigate the station in the dark as the power outage that occurred in the afternoon turned off the lights, creating what some said was an unsafe condition.

News 12 Staff

Nov 13, 2022, 2:37 AM

Updated 740 days ago

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Power was back up and running at the Hicksville Long Island Rail Road station Saturday night after a power outage knocked the lights out for much of the day.
As of Saturday night, PSEG LI and the LIRR said the station was back up and running on full power.
The earlier situation caused a potentially dangerous situation for customers once the sun went down.
Some passengers had to navigate the station in the dark as the power outage that occurred in the afternoon turned off the lights, creating what some said was an unsafe condition.
"You should see what it's like up there. This is really bad," said Michele Sanchez, of Levittown.
Stunned LIRR passengers walked off trains at the station after it had plunged into darkness.
PSEG LI said the station was left without power since 1 p.m. but once the sun went down, the station, platforms and stairwells got dark quickly.
"We just got here now and there are no lights. Hopefully, we can get home tonight," said Jody Schwartz, of Edison, New Jersey.
The power was still running on the rails, so trains were moving. But from sunset to around 8 p.m., there were no lights and a few LIRR personnel helped passengers to safely get off trains or down stairwells.
PSEG LI said three poles near the station were damaged, taking down six sections of wires, possibly they said from Friday night's high winds.
Crews worked to repair them on Saturday evening and by 8:16 p.m., the MTA said generators got the main parts of the station lit for passengers. Still, some riders said they felt left in the dark for several hours without help.
By 10 p.m. full power had been restored at the station as LIRR employees continued to helped passengers on the platform.