A major power outage stranded thousands of rush-hour commuters Thursday between New York and Washington, stopping five trains inside tunnels and forcing many passengers to get out and walk to the nearest station.

Three NJ Transit trains and one Amtrak train were stuck in a
tunnel under the Hudson River heading into New York. A fifth train was stuck in a rail tunnel in Baltimore. Amtrak said it planned to use diesel locomotives to remove them.

The outage happened about 8 a.m. along Amtrak's Northeast
Corridor line, affecting trains from Washington all the way to
New York's Queens borough.

Mike Kenny of West Windsor has been commuting to Manhattan
for 30 years and said the outage was "shaping up as one of the
worst ever.''

"It's getting pretty hot in here, and the bathroom is getting backed up,'' he said.

Krista Barry spent the morning of her 23rd birthday sitting
on the floor of a sweltering NJ Transit car, reading a book for
more than 90 minutes.

"Everyone is calling me on my cell and saying, 'Uh, happy
birthday; too bad you're stuck,''' said Barry, who boarded the
train in Trenton bound for her job as an office temp in
Manhattan. "At least I get to relax and not go to work.''

In New York, John McAlonan planned to catch an 8 a.m. Amtrak
train from Penn Station to Philadelphia. He sat on the train for
an hour but then gave up when it failed to leave the station.

"The lights went out three times and then they just stayed
off,'' McAlonan said.