Amtrak is lying to President Trump and Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, just as the unaccountable, incompetent railroad monopoly has been lying to the public and New York leaders about their horrible plan to close part of the East River Tunnel, putting at severe risk of a catastrophic meltdown impacting tens of thousands of commuters.
The newest lie is that an outmoded 1910 technology, the bulky concrete bench walls on the sides of the tubes, are needed to insulate the electric power cables. That was the case in 1910, when the tunnel was built, but not now.
Forced to admit the truth, that yes, nights and weekends repairs are possible, as demanded by a bipartisan chorus of New Yorkers, from Rep. Elise Stefanik to Gov. Hochul to Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman to Rep. Mike Lawler, Amtrak whines that such a procedure would cost vastly more money than their plan to fully shutter part of the conduit for at least three years. Why? Because demolishing and repouring the bench walls nights and weekends is very complicated and very expensive.
The president and secretary must ignore the smokescreen. The truth is that bench walls are not needed to prevent derailments, they are not needed to insulate the high voltage cables and they are not needed to serve as walkways along the edge of the tunnel, the three phony excuses offered by Amtrak.
And without having to remove and rebuild the bench walls, nights and weekends work can bring the East River Tunnel into pristine operating condition, abiding by every modern fire and safety code written into National Fire Protection Association section 130 Standard for Fixed Guideway Transit and Passenger Rail Systems.
New York already had this debate, in 2019, regarding the repairs to the L-train. A team of six engineering professors from Columbia and Cornell, including both deans, concluded that the bench walls were expendable and superfluous.
As then-Columbia Dean Mary Boyce said: “We see a dramatic reduction in what we refer to as the non-value-added project scope. So, we don’t reduce the scope, but we eliminate those parts of the scope that had no value. For example, if we do not need to remove the bench wall and reconstruct the bench wall, we’re not going to do it. And that’s an incredibly time-intensive, labor-intensive element that we’ve removed. It had no real value, when we do not need to do that. We also see that we have enhanced safety and functionality of the project, and of the end experience for every commuter. And we have enhanced flood resilience.”
It’s the truth then and the truth now. The independent experts from London Bridge Associates, in a comprehensive 2020 report proved that nights and weekends work would be a perfect fit to fully repair Amtrak’s New York tunnels. LBA offered a range of options and now Amtrak has latched on to the most expensive option: demolishing and rebuilding the bench walls. Trump and Duffy must say absolutely no way; use a more economical approach.
Trump and Duffy already fired Amtrak’s Biden-era CEO, Steve Gardner. They should not accept such garbage from Gardner’s No. 2, Roger Harris, an airline man whose job before Amtrak was at Aeroméxico. What the hell does Harris know about tunnel engineering that the professors and LBA don’t?
