Storm-related transit delays, power outages linger for Wednesday night’s commute

Nope, tonight’s commute home won’t feature car-shaking gusts and driving rains which bring trees down, but the effects of Tuesday night’s storm still linger.

Commuting details

As of 2:30 p.m., SEPTA regional-rail passengers faced 15-to-20 minute delays, with the exception of the Media/Elwyn Line which was suspended until further notice thanks to 10 downed trees that wreaked havoc on the signal wires.

Manny Smith, a SEPTA spokesman, said that line “may not resume until Thursday morning.”

In addition to minor route detours for SEPTA buses across the region, Smith noted that the Norristown High Speed Line was still not operating between Radner and the Norristown Transportation Center. He suggested passengers use the Manayunk/Norristown regional-rail line instead, or to check SEPTA’s website for alternative-service details.

PATCO resumed train service between Philadelphia and South Jersey at 1 p.m. after a storm knocked out service during Tuesday night’s commute.

Spokesman Mike Williams said trains will run every 20 minutes (even during rush hour) until normal schedules resume at midnight.

NJ Transit’s Atlantic City Line remained suspended Wednesday on account of weather-related issues as well.

Power outages

Commuting woes notwithstanding, hundreds of thousands of residents will return to homes without electricity.

Atlantic City Electric said that 170,000 customers around South Jersey still don’t have power, even though it was restored to another 100,000. The utility could not estimate when power would be restored to all customers, but its utilities outage map is accessible via this link.

PSE&G said 47,000 customers were waiting for power mainly in Cherry Hill, Mt. Laurel, Medford and Maple Shade, but restoration for many was expected this afternoon.

Some 145,000 PECO customers, mostly in Delaware and Chester counties, remained in the dark, and the utility anticipated that most people will have service restored by Friday evening, with some homes getting illuminated over the weekend.

Delmarva Power was working Wednesday to restore power to more than 30,000 customers in Delaware and Maryland; a map of the outages with anticipiated restoration times is available via the utility’s website.