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Power Problems Strand 2 NJ TRANSIT Trains Hours Apart

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- It was a rough ride for hundreds of NJ TRANSIT rail riders Wednesday morning.

A Midtown Direct train with approximately 800 passengers aboard left Dover for New York City when it lost power in Kearny Junction near Secaucus around 6:12 a.m., NJ TRANSIT spokeswoman Nancy Snyder told 1010 WINS.

About 90 minutes later, a rescue engine towed the train to Hoboken, where passengers could take the PATH to New York City.

There was no heat on the train. There's no word what caused the power outage.

The incident happened just hours after more than two dozen passengers on another train had to be rescued.

That train was headed from Newark's Penn Station when it stopped because of a downed power line in a tunnel under the Hudson River just before 11 p.m.

The passengers were stranded for hours on the train without power or heat.

"They were stuck there for a while," Snyder said. "A NJ TRANSIT bus was called in to remain on standby at Weehawken to help take the passengers through the Weehawken air shaft, but of course safety is a priority and with downed wires we have to be very careful."

The passengers were rescued shortly after 2 a.m.

"We understand that this impacted our customers, but we also had to make sure that safety was a top priority for our customers as well as our employees as we made the transfer and got the customers to where they needed to be," Snyder said.

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(TM and © Copyright 2014 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2014 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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