President Trump must save New York from Amtrak, for two weeks from today, the national railway that can’t do anything right plans to close part of the crucial East River Tunnel, causing years of unneeded chaos for riders of the LIRR and Amtrak itself.
Trump and U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy must force Amtrak to cancel the April 28 closure, which is projected to last three years, and instead repair the waterlogged tunnel nights and weekends, the way that every other railroad in the world does.
The East River Tunnel has four tubes connecting Penn Station with Queens and points east, two which need to be rehabbed. Amtrak wants to fully shut down one of the tubes for repairs and when complete, close down another for repair. It’s a terrible idea that has to be stopped and Trump and Duffy have the good sense to stop it.
Having only three operating tubes will severely curtail service, requiring the elimination of 25% of all Amtrak trips between Penn and Albany and 10% of the peak inbound rush hour trips on the LIRR.
That’s why leaders like upstate Rep. Elise Stefanik and other members of Congress have been objecting to the wiping out of the Albany service. And that’s why Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman wants to avoid the LIRR cuts.
And those cuts are the best case scenario. Who believes that notoriously incompetent Amtrak will finish the fully funded $1.6 billion job in the three years forecast? Based on their track record, maybe make it six years.
Even worse, any problems with equipment or tracks or signals, which happen regularly and are routinely managed with the operational flexibility of having four working tubes, will be much much worse. So what would typically have been a short delay of a few minutes here and there to readjust the schedules, will become a meltdown, with people unable to travel for hours.
And none of this needs to be. The tunnel can be repaired to perfect condition nights and weekends and keeping it fully open during the daytime.
Amtrak is just flat out lying in claiming otherwise and under Joe Biden Amtrak always got its way, commuter services and passengers be damned. But Trump and Duffy won’t put up with that nonsense and they have already fired Amtrak CEO Steve Gardner from his million dollar a year job.
Nights and weekends repair, called repair-in-place or repair-in-service, is the norm elsewhere in the world. The Brits used it in 2017 on a London Underground tunnel built in 1863. The MTA used the same method to fix the subway’s L-train. The New York State Senate held a 2021 hearing on the East River Tunnel and Gery Williams, then Amtrak’s chief engineer and now one of its many executive vice presidents, said his railroad just couldn’t do it: “We need a minimum of three years notice, between hiring and training,” as senators almost fell out their chairs.
If Amtrak can’t do the work, then let someone else do it. Bring in the Brits, bring in the MTA, bring in anyone who can make it happen.
Mr. President and Mr. Secretary, please don’t let Amtrak’s obstinance and stupidity and incompetence wreak havoc with the trains in New York for years to come, all unnecessarily.
