Perfect storm of traffic snafus drives some NJ commuters back home

It was the perfect storm of traffic nightmares for some New Jersey commuters.

Page Six Managing Editor Ally D’Aluisio started out Tuesday morning driving to the Lincoln Tunnel, then spent another nearly hour and a half diverting to the Secaucus train station, only to pay $30 for parking there, activate her ticket — and then learn rail service was suspended.

At that point, “I said f–k that and went right back down and drove home,” she said.

D’Aluisio was only one of thousands of New Jersey-to-New York City commuters who suffered through hellish, hours-long ordeals thanks to several accidents grinding traffic to a halt at the tunnel and an NJ Transit power outage that suspended trains.

D’Aluisio’s typical 60-minute commute from the New Jersey suburbs to Manhattan devolved into a “3-hour tour of northern New Jersey” thanks to the early-morning transit woes, she said.

After leaving her house by car, D’Aluisio decided to forgo the drive in favor of catching a train to Penn Station when she heard that a stalled bus and an overturned vehicle were causing 90-minute delays at the Lincoln.

“I usually drive all the way in but went to Secaucus to take the train because of the tunnel issues,” she explained.

The residual traffic from the tunnel debacle dragged out the usual 20-minute ride to Secaucus to almost an hour and a half, she said.

When she finally got to the station, she forked over $30 dollars for parking and scanned her ticket to hopefully board the next New York-bound train – only to learn that service into Penn Station was suspended because of an Amtrak power outage in the wiring in the Hudson River tunnels.

“The second I scanned my ticket at the train station … they made an announcement that trains into NYC were suspended and we needed to transfer to Hoboken to take the PATH,” D’Aluisio said.

She said that’s when she decided to call it a morning and headed back home to work.

Post Deputy Photo Editor Evelyn Cordon also battled the nightmare of getting into Manhattan.

Cordon left her Jersey home just before 7:30 a.m. but did not arrive at her desk until 10:45 thanks to the series of transit failures.

When Cordon’s 7:40 a.m. bus was canceled, she thought about grabbing the next one at 8:40 a.m., but that was delayed, so she took an Uber to the nearest NJ Transit train station.

The 9:08 a.m. train arrived on time, and she was hopeful to make her morning meeting. But the train was delayed and then completely rerouted to the PATH in Hoboken because of the tunnel wiring issues, she explained.

Some of the PATH trains were packed to the gills.

After her PATH trip, Cordon finally grabbed the subway three stops uptown and made it to work – over three “hellish” hours after she first walked out the door of her home.

Tuesday’s chaotic commuting scene started shortly before 4 a.m., when a motorcycle accident in the center tube of the Lincoln Tunnel forced lane closures.

A disabled bus subsequently broke down in the south tube just before 7 a.m., resulting delays that stretched to more than 90 minutes to make it through the tunnel.

The back-ups got so tedious that some bus riders hopped off their stopped vehicles and started walking along the New Jersey Turnpike, according to video from PIX11.

NJ Transit service to Penn Station resumed after about an hour, but passengers still faced delays of around 60 minutes because of the effects of the wiring outage.

Justin Penik of the “Talkin’ Giants” podcast documented his experience on a stalled NJ Transit train during the Amtrak outage.

“We’re stuck. There’s no food, there’s no water, there’s no hope, NJ Transit …die,” he said in the sarcastic clip.

“Nothing like a three hour commute to work. Thanks a lot f—heads @njtransit,” he added in another post.