Regular commuter service back on Friday at New York’s Grand Central

By Marcus E. Howard

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Commuter trains to and from New York City’s Grand Central Terminal were due to resume a regular weekday schedule on Friday, transit officials said, after a fire disrupted service earlier this week.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said on Thursday that Metro North riders should expect some delays due to speed restrictions on all four tracks. It said trains would operate on an enhanced weekend schedule through Thursday.

It said hundreds of employees had worked around the clock and on Thursday completed installation of six temporary steel columns to brace a column that had been damaged in Tuesday’s fire.

The New York City Fire Department determined that the four-alarm fire involving elevated track at Park Avenue and 118th Street had been caused by gasoline being accidentally spilled onto a hot generator at a garden supply store beneath the tracks.

(Reporting by Suzannah Gonzales in Chicago; Additional reporting by Mike Wood and Franklin Paul in New York)