What does it mean by "equipment trouble"

[alekr]

I noticed on the LIRR/MNR status sometimes it said trains are delayed due to equipment trouble or late arriving equipment what does it mean?

[46Dover]

Trains not working properly, breakdown, that kind of thing....

[Kamen Rider]

something is broken but they ether

 

A, don't have enough details to be more specific

 

B, choose to not be more specific.

[nostalgia]

I noticed on the LIRR/MNR status sometimes it said trains are delayed due to equipment trouble or late arriving equipment what does it mean?

Suppose a train's schedule is to go to Huntington, sit in the station and then return to Penn Station. But it arrives Huntington late because the Ronkonkoma train in front of it broke down or had a medical emergency at Mineola. The train so late into Huntington it can't leave on time for the reverse trip back to Penn. Another example is equipment is sitting at Penn but the crew hasn't arrived at Penn from Babylon. The equipment will sit there until the crew shows up, unless the trainmaster redirects crew from another train.

[trainfan22]

Equipment trouble means the train itself has a macanical problem of some sort. Late arriving train could be a train is late on a single track line, or there's no other train at the terminal so the train that's scheduled to turn into another train in the opposite direction is late then.. the run its on after could be late too.

[Amtrak7]

At least on the LIRR, "equipment trouble" tends to be a catch-all for any delays that aren't obviously due to a signal problem, track condition, sick passenger, etc. Its use on AVPS can often refer to heavy loading, since the heavy loading announcement is "because of overcrowded conditions on the train", which may not be accurate.

 

Its use in email/mta.info alerts is usually actual mechanical issues, but not always. Can also be something that they don't want to share (crew didn't show up for work, made an error, etc.)