The acrid stench of burning metal filled the air as flames erupted beneath a crowded PATH train at Newport Station just after 6 a.m. Monday, transforming the morning commute into a scene of chaos and terror.
Thick, yellow smoke poured into the train cars, choking passengers who screamed for the doors to open while fire licked at the windows.
“Open the doors! Open the doors!” desperate riders shouted in harrowing cellphone footage that captured the panic inside.
When the doors finally parted, commuters stumbled onto the platform, gasping for air, as flames shot up from beneath the train, casting an eerie glow against the station walls.
At least thirteen people were treated for smoke inhalation—nine rushed to hospitals—while others abandoned belongings in their scramble to escape.
The fire, which ignited under an eastbound train during peak rush hour, snarled service across three major lines, leaving thousands stranded between New Jersey and Manhattan.
By 11 a.m., service had limped back to normal, but the scars of the morning lingered—both in the soot-streaked station and the shaken nerves of those who lived through it.
“I’m surprised nobody got trampled,” said Eric Robinson, a witness who saw passengers clutching their chests, their faces masked in soot as first responders administered oxygen. “The amount of smoke—it was suffocating.”
Port Authority officials are still investigating the cause, but riders reported hearing a “loud explosion” before the blaze erupted. “This wasn’t just smoke,” one passenger posted online. “The car was literally in flames.”
The incident marks yet another breakdown in a summer of transit nightmares for New Jersey commuters—from NJ Transit bus collisions to a car fire in the Lincoln Tunnel last month, and the crippling rail strike in May that left thousands stranded.
Each disruption chips away at the fragile trust in a system that thousands rely on daily.
For those who fled the burning train this morning, the question isn’t just what sparked the flames, but whether the next ride could bring another brush with disaster.