Trains on the Lowell and Haverhill lines canceled for the evening commute

Police officials were on the scene of a derailment in Wilmington. Wilmington Police Department

Power outages have prompted authorities to cancel a handful of commuter rail trains this evening on the Lowell and Haverhill lines.

MBTA and Keolis Commuter Services have canceled the 4:48, 6:05, and 7:20 trains that were scheduled to travel from North Station to Reading. The 5:38, 6:55, and 8:07 Reading to North Station trains have also been canceled.

Additionally, the 4:15 and 5:35 North Station to Lowell trains were canceled, as was the 5:17 Lowell to North Station train, according to the MBTA.

Utility crews are working to restore power to the commuter rail’s signal systems and grade crossing equipment, the MBTA said in a statement.

“These cancellations have been made proactively to prevent additional service delays caused by train congestion along these lines,” according to an MBTA statement released Thursday afternoon.

The authority and Keolis are deploying backup generators “in an effort to maintain a reliable level of service throughout the evening commuting hours,” according to the statement.

On Thursday morning, an inbound commuter rail train on the Lowell line suffered a “low-speed derailment” with about 100 passengers aboard, causing a ripple of delays for riders across the regional rail system.

Nobody was injured in the incident around 6:30 a.m., according to Tory Mazzola, a spokesman for Keolis Commuter Services. It was one of several incidents slowing travel as commuters attempted to traverse several inches of snow, fallen trees, and downed power lines caused by the region’s second nor’easter in a week.

Crews have concluded that a thick branch from a fallen tree wedged into a railway switch was the likely cause of the derailment. Around 10:45 a.m., Keolis and the T were working to return the train to the tracks using cranes.

The derailment near the Wilmington station inbound affected both the Lowell and Haverhill lines. Keolis also canceled trains on the Fitchburg and Framingham lines and reported delays on the Providence/Stoughton, Newburyport, Needham, and Kingston lines during the morning commute.

Earlier, a truck fire near the entrance to the Ted Williams Tunnel temporarily closed the eastbound lanes of the Massachusetts Turnpike . No injuries were reported in the incident.

The MBTA was also hit by several delays on rapid transit lines.

Shuttle buses replaced service between Riverside and Reservoir stations on the Green Line’s D branch Thursday morning, according to an alert from the MBTA. A tree fell between Newton Centre and Chestnut Hill stations overnight, damaging an overhead wire.

The bus shuttle was running from the start of service Thursday. MBTA officials have not said how long they will replace train service, with the MBTA’s website only saying the shuttles would run “until further notice.”