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Amtrak has cut service between Penn Station to Albany for East River Tunnel repairs – but everyone from interstate commuters to the governor is bracing for three years of transit chaos.
Critics fear the company’s cuts — which went into effect Monday — could mean crowded trains and service disruptions that could spill onto the Big Apple’s commuter railways while Amtrak repairs the tunnel, which was damaged during Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
“It’s the same as doing roadwork. If they do it during the day it causes a traffic jam,” rider Robert Smith, 73, said as he watched crowds of people board Tuesday.
“I’m just looking at the number of people going to Washington. It’s staggering. If the railway lines are going to be reduced — my gosh.”
Angel Adu rides the train from Penn Station and said trains would lose their convenience for long trips.
“I already take the train because it’s more convenient than flying,” Adu, 27, said. “But if there are delays in the daytime it would kind of defeat the purpose of taking the train in the first place.”
Two fewer trains will run between the city and state capital each day, leaving 10 trips in either direction — a decision Gov. Kathy Hochul blasted in a letter to Amtrak president Anthony Coscia on Monday.
“Enough is enough,” Hochul said. “It’s far past time for Amtrak to put its passengers first, take a hard look at its construction plans and ensure access to reliable train travel throughout this key corridor.
Hochul is pushing Amtrak to either switch to night and weekend work so the tracks aren’t closed during weekdays or add more coach cars so the existing trains can carry more passengers.
“While I continue to be supportive of the efforts to rehabilitate the East River Tunnels, the decision to maintain service cuts amidst this latest delay — and backtracking on public commitments to increase capacity during the shutdown — shows a disregard for Empire Service passengers,” Hochul said.
New York state will pony up $1.6 billion for the repair work.
Long Island Rail Road President Rob Free piled on, saying ripple effects could have widespread problems.
“The greatest risk with this is that if something happens, something that’s mundane that happens every day that doesn’t cause a service disruption, with this type of outage it will exacerbate that type of incident and cause a service disruption we want to avoid,” Free said during a Metropolitan Transportation Authority committee meeting Monday.
MTA committee member Marc Herbst said he was “hesitant and cynical” about Amtrak’s ability to handle the repairs and complete them on time.
“If service needs to be cut, I think they’re probably going to keep their trains running before ours if there’s any problems,” he said.
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Amtrak has called the project “vital.”
“When complete, this project, as well as several others throughout the Northeast and nation, will benefit travelers and fortify our rail network for the first time in 100 years to last for the next 100 years.”
MTA officials were also at odds with Amtrak earlier this month after President Donald Trump fired the MTA from leading a revamp of Penn Station and instead put Amtrak on the project.
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