Fire halts commuter rail service in Pittsburgh

An electrical fire in Pittsburgh's subway forced shutdown of the city's commuter rail service and evacuation of subway stations for two hours during Wednesday's morning rush, the Port Authority said.

No injures were reported. Smoke was seen coming from an electrical box near a switch along the tracks between the First Avenue and Steel Plaza stations downwtown, so crews cut off power to the entire downtown light rail line to investigate, Port Authority spokesman Adam Brandolph said.

The city's four subway stations were evacuated because the power cutoff meant lighting and ventilation systems were shut down. Buses were brought in to shuttle passengers.

"No trains were stuck anywhere," Brandolph told Paste BN. "It could have been worse."

The system was fully up and running at about 11 a.m., although Brandolph said repairs wouldn't  be completed until late Wednesday.

The 26.2-mile light rail system, known as the T, has 50 stations, 46 of them above ground. Ridership averages about 28,000 on weekdays.

PIttsburgh's rail shutdown comes six weeks after the system in Washington, D.C., held an unprecedented, full-day shutdown March 16 for safety inspections. The shutdown came after a tunnel fire March 14 blamed on deteriorated electrical cables at a station — similar to the cause of a fire in January 2015 that killed a woman and injured dozens more at another stop.