“Now it’s 8:22 p.m. and my train is still not here,” she said as a crush of people ran toward a track where a train bound for Newark had been announced. “I can’t even take this train, this only takes me to Newark. I’m going to Wood-Ridge.”

Daniel Kim, who was holding a weekend bag and pushing his headphones into his ears, was another frustrated rider.

“They canceled my train and now my other train is on standby,” he said. “This happens like two to three times a year. It’s probably not worth my money.”

Power was lost on the tracks just outside the station at around 4:30 p.m., according to Amtrak, which owns Penn Station. By 8 p.m., a spokeswoman said, power had been restored and the railroad was “actively investigating what caused the power outage.”

About 15 Amtrak trains were affected, the spokeswoman said.

Sarah Glatt had come into New York earlier in the day for a meeting. She returned to Penn Station at around 5:40 p.m. for her 6 p.m. train to Boston and had been waiting since then.