I’m sorry about the delay. The train must stay away from a bull.

It wasn’t all that unusual for New Jersey Transit service to be delayed. The reason on Thursday, however, was something out of the wild, wild west. There was a bull, one with long horns, walking on the rails.

During the final hours of the morning commute at Newark Penn Station, trains were stopped by the brown bull charging the passenger platform.

When Javier Perez, 54, arrived at Penn Station around 10:30 a.m., he learned that there had been delays caused by some obstacle. He scanned the tracks and saw the bull strolling along the railway line.

“I thought, ‘Okay, that’s the barrier,’” he said.

According to New Jersey Transit, the state agency that operates trains and buses, the bull was off the track around noon and service resumed after a 45-minute delay.

Ellie VandenBerg was standing on the platform waiting to transfer to a PATH train when she saw several police officers running along the tracks – including one holding a rope. When she looked closer, she saw horns.

“It’s definitely a first for New Jersey Transit, even though we’ve seen a lot of strange things,” Ms. VandenBerg, 31, said. The transit agency did not immediately respond to questions about where the bull might have come from or whether Thursday was the first time the service had been delayed by livestock.

The bull incident was the latest in a tough month for the transport company. On December 4, the morning commute for thousands of passengers on the agency’s Morris and Essex lines was ruined when damage to overhead lines caused a power outage. Ten days later, New Jersey Transit is still making repairs to the line, which is operating with modified service.

The agency is the nation’s third-busiest transportation system, behind the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad networks operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Approximately 270 million passenger journeys are provided annually.

Ms. VandenBerg said her fellow travelers on Thursday did not seem frightened or irritated by the excitement. They seemed annoyed, she added. Ms VandenBerg and others left the station and took Ubers to try to reach their destination.

“Everyone acted shockingly unfazed,” she said.

As the bull’s slowdown continued, more police officers tried to restrain the animal as it became increasingly aggressive and ran back and forth, Mr. Perez said. Eventually, he said, the bull escaped the tracks and ran away.

Newark police said Thursday that no injuries had been reported related to the bull’s appearance, and that the bull had been confined to a fenced property and would be taken to a local animal shelter.

“It would only happen in New York,” Mr. Perez said.

Patrick McGeehan reporting contributed.