Amtrak stays firm on East River tunnels shutdown plans despite pushback from New York officials
A war of words has broken out between Amtrak and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul over a repair plan for the East River tunnels that could affect the commute of tens of thousands of people in the New York City area.
The three-year project is intended to repair two of the four tunnels that were damaged by Superstorm Sandy, and would require closing down each tunnel 24/7 for 18 months each.
The plans could impact 125,000 commuters who ride 461 trains every day. In addition to the Long Island Rail Road and Amtrak trains, the service disruption could also affect NJ Transit trains that run out of Penn Station.
Hochul asked Amtrak to rethink the plan, but Amtrak said absolutely not.
Officials want Amtrak to consider alternate options, sources say
LIRR President Rob Free is the most unhappy about the project.
"This outage will put those riders in jeopardy of either cancellations, suspensions, really disruptions to their lives, if something were to happen in the Penn Station environment," he said.
Free said there are alternatives to a complete shutdown of the tunnels, which he says could cause chaos if there are other operational problems.
"You could have a switch problem. You could have a signal problem. You could have a train disabled. You could have a third rail problem. You could have a fire in Penn Station, even a tie fire, a small fire," he said.
Sources tell CBS News New York that officials want Amtrak to consider other options that would cause less transit chaos, including:
- Closing the tunnels for extended weekends from Friday to Monday,
- Possibly working overnight and on weekends,
- Limiting repairs to the summer when ridership is down,
- And change the repair plans the way the MTA did to repair the Canarsie Tunnels.
Amtrak calls objections "surprising"
In a letter to Hochul, Amtrak President Roger Harris called the governor's objections "surprising" and chided her for the barrage of media coverage, which he says has put the railroad in a bad light and "only erodes confidence in public agencies to deliver critical infrastructure projects."
Amtrak Letter to Governor Hochul on East River Tunnel Rehab Project 050225 by CBSNewYork Scribd on Scribd
Hochul was not pleased with Amtrak's refusal to look at other options, especially on its Empire Service line to the Hudson Valley, Albany, Buffalo and Niagara Falls.
A spokesperson for the governor's office said in a statement, "In February, Amtrak publicly committed to mitigate the impact of service disruptions on Empire Service riders. They have failed to deliver on that promise, calling into question the outlook for reliable service throughout the duration of the project."
