There was no way to get off the train and nowhere to go but up as 2009 got under way.
Marcella Rooney and John Dempsey, two juniors at UConn, were on board one of the two Metro-North trains that lost power at 3:40 am New Year's Day.
"They just kept saying, 'Sit tight, folks, sit tight, folks,'"said Rooney. "Throughout the night we just kind of didn't know what was going to happen, or where we'd be."
They knew they were only five minutes from their stop in Stratford, but with power lines down on the tracks, they were not allowed off. The train had no lighting or heating on a ten-degree night.
"It wasn't cold enough to see our breath, but you could definitely feel the temperature change," she said. "We were so close to our stop and we were saying, 'Can we just get out and walk?'. "Some people were trying to pry the doors open."
"People started getting more rowdy as we waited longer and longer," said Dempsey. "I think after the first hour people were really wondering what was going on. Everyone just wanted to get home."
The second of two rescue trains reached them and they boarded it at 6:25 along with about 150 other people stranded on two trains.
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"It started moving back to Grand Central," said Dempsey. "That definitely angered a lot of people who were expecting to go five minutes up the track to Stratford."
Their ordeal lasted two hours and forty-five minutes, by Metro-North's account. The failure in the overhead electrical system could have been caused by winds, by cold, or by mechanical fault, according to Dan Brucker of the railway.
"After watching the sun rise on a Metro-North train when I had actually worked that day (before) it was nice to touch base finally on the platform," said Rooney.
"I'll definitely take the train again," said Dempsey. "I was never concerned for my safety, they seemed to be pretty much in control and they were definitely working hard."
