Unless there’s another delay caused by Amtrak incompetence, or much better, a freeze order from the White House or the U.S. Department of Transportation, Amtrak is going to shut down one of the four tubes of the vital East River Tunnel tomorrow.
It’s a huge mistake, putting at risk the timely travel of anyone using Penn Station for years to come. And, most maddening and what has riled up disparate New Yorkers from Gov. Hochul to Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman to Mayor Adams to Reps. Mike Lawler and Elise Stefanik, it is not necessary as the damaged tunnel can be fully and completely repaired for the next 100 years by doing the needed work on nights and weekends.
President Trump and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy must command Amtrak to stand down.
Amtrak has already eliminated 25% of all its trains between Albany and Penn and forced the LIRR to cancel 10% of the a.m. inbound rush hour trains. And that’s the best case scenario, which will last at least three years. Since it’s Amtrak, count on it taking much longer. But what has terrified Rob Free, the president of the LIRR, the busiest railroad in the country, carrying 75 million passengers a year and running 461 daily trains to Penn, is that operating on just three tubes is a terribly risky prospect.
With so many trains for LIRR, Amtrak and NJTransit (which stores its trains in Queens each day) using the tunnel, there is often a minor glitch here or there, from a rail issue or a signal malfunction or a power problem. But with one of the tubes being demolished and rebuilt from scratch, should there be a minor glitch, nothing will move.
Amtrak gave the press a tour of the damaged tunnel last week. We agree 100% it needs a fix. The bench walls now house power cables. But a smarter way, which is equally safe, is to put the cables on racks on the sides of the tube. That’s what was done with the L train in 2019. And the exact same solution will work here.
Amtrak is lying that while the subway’s 600-volt DC cables can be racked, Amtrak’s 12,500-volt AC cables can’t. Trains in Europe run on 25,000 volts AC and they rack their cables. It’s completely safe and effective. Amtrak says the bench walls are needed for passenger egress (which they are not). OK, then, the cable-less bench walls stay in place and get repaired as needed nights and weekends.
When the L train switched to racking the cables, a firm called Snake Tray, which makes the specialized racks to hold cables, was retained. Amtrak is also planning to use Snake Tray cable racks on its tunnel for everything but the power. Duh, just buy one more set of Snake Tray racks. Snake Tray sells racks for high voltage and low voltage cables.
Today, the Amtrak board of directors is holding a rare public meeting and tellingly, the looming Amtrak-caused East River Tunnel disaster isn’t on the agenda. Duffy serves on the board. He should tell the board to use to repair-in-place.
If Amtrak doesn’t comply, then Gov. Hochul should say that New York will no longer cooperate with Amtrak’s Gateway boondoggle building a new Hudson tunnel. She can veto any action of the bistate Gateway Development Commission. That should get Amtrak to agree to the smart fix for the East River.
