Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) officials revealed Tuesday falling leaves have knocked approximately one-fourth of all train cars into the repair shop.

In what LIRR deems a particularly tough season, wet leaves on the tracks are posing a serious safety problem for the wheels of trains. The slippery nature of the leaves causes trains to slide, which engages the automatic brakes. The resulting friction flattens the bottom of the wheels, requiring immediate repair.

With hundreds of trains out of service, routes during the afternoon rush were late 15 percent of the time Tuesday as opposed to the average 7 percent tardiness. It takes a full day's work to grind one train's wheels back into shape, leaving LIRR repairmen with a 10-day backlog if no additional trains are affected this week.