Today was to be the first day with one of the four tubes of East River Tunnel closed down by Amtrak for at least the next three years, leaving just three tubes for the 461 Long Island Rail Road trains carrying 125,000 daily commuters to Penn Station and it may have been a horrible mess.
But help is coming, as Mayor Adams has joined the bipartisan pushback by New York leaders such as Gov. Hochul and Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman and Reps. Mike Lawler and Elise Stefanik, who are asking that the tunnel be repaired nights and weekends. Doing so will also allow Amtrak to rescind its 25% cut in trains between Albany and Penn.
Last week the mayor wrote to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy urging repair-in-place, as was done with the L-train and is the standard around the world, including on the exact same kinds of tunnels as the ERT, as the experts from London Bridge Associates found in a comprehensive study of Amtrak’s New York tunnels.
On Friday, the mayor kept at it, recommending repair-in-place during an Oval Office meeting with President Trump.
Over the weekend, we asked the mayor if Trump was receptive to his ideas on Amtrak: “Yes,” said Adams, who continued: “He understood both Penn Station and Amtrak. He understands our concern to close down the whole tube; that is not the best way. He had a sensitive ear to it. We don’t have to close the whole tube at one time. We can do it in sections and he was sensitive to that concern.”
Adams knows that the L-train worked well and those nights and weekends repairs also saved time and money. And here too, nights and weekends repairs will save time and money as well as headaches. Amtrak is lying that such innovative work will cost more. It will not, as LBA proved.
Last Wednesday, an Amtrak rush hour error in the tunnel caused huge problems on the LIRR, with 43 trains delayed, five canceled and six diverted.
Figuring a 1,000 passengers on a train, that’s 54,000 Long Islanders who had their morning screwed up by Amtrak. And if that happened after Amtrak had shut down one of the tubes, it would have been the total nightmare the LIRR is fearing.
Due to the pushback by the LIRR and New Yorkers, Amtrak has delayed the closure until May 23. Amtrak blinked, now they must reverse course. If Amtrak, whose Biden-era CEO, Steve Gardner, was fired by Duffy and Trump, doesn’t want to make the smart choice, Duffy and Trump will have to overrule the federal railway monopoly.
On Tuesday night, hours before Amtrak wrecked the next day’s commute, Amtrak Executive Vice President Laura Mason told NY1 that there is “misinformation out there right now circulating about this project.” Correct and it’s coming from Amtrak, as she and Amtrak President Roger Harris call repair-in-place a “Band-Aid.” That’s a lie. The L-train repair will last 100 years, as long as a full shutdown. It would be the same for the Amtrak tubes. Unless they consider 100 years a Band-Aid and a patch job.
Asked about our points about the permanence of the repairs and the obsolescence of bench walls, she said, “With all due respect to the New York Daily News, I don’t believe they have the licensed engineers to make those assertions.” We don’t, but the LBA report did. She should read that report and put it in effect.
