“When Amtrak proposed to significantly reduce Empire Service trips for several years to accommodate the East River Tunnel project, I demanded better. That’s why today, I’m proud to announce that Amtrak will be restoring all suspended or combined Empire Service trains between New York Penn Station and Albany-Rensselaer beginning in early March.
At the same time, I have felt the enthusiasm that met our announcement to run Metro-North’s high-quality service between Albany and Grand Central as a mitigation for reduced Amtrak service. With the full restoration of Empire Service, Amtrak has notified New York State and the MTA that it will no longer sanction temporary Metro-North service to Albany at this time. I remain fully committed to short and long-term proposals to bring better transit - including expanded Metro-North service if the demand exists - beyond Poughkeepsie and into the rest of the Hudson Valley and Capital Region. New Yorkers rely on high quality rail transit like no other state, and I will always fight to save commuters time and to make service better."
Amtrak will use the existing service disruptions during the Portal Bridge cutover to make urgent track repairs in NY Penn. Since service is already reduced, barring any issues during the planned work, service wouls not need to be altered any more than it already is.
The issue at the heart of the lawsuit dates back to August 2021, when Amtrak was testing its new Acela trains. The lawsuit says the train’s pantograph — a device on top of the train that connects it to the power line — was damaged when it hit a Metro-North bridge.
The lawsuit states Amtrak redesigned the device on top of its train, but in January this year, one of them damaged a Metro-North power line during rush hour, upending commutes for thousands of riders.
Amtrak wrote in court documents that its engineers went back to the lab after the fiasco and came up with a new design for the faulty pantograph, but the MTA denied Amtrak access to the tracks to continue testing.
MTA spokesperson John McCarthy suggested the lawsuit was politically motivated, but did not address the allegations the agency refused Amtrak access to its tracks.
“It’s not clear who in the federal government is directing Amtrak’s lawyers to create distractions from the real issue — getting Bronxites the service they deserve,” McCarthy wrote in a statement.
In Vancouver, will improve service in the cascades corridor.
King Street Yard Maintenance Facility continuing construction in Seattle. This will also help improve service and reliability on the cascades corridor.
Construction continues with the B&P program, mostly enabling work before the big tunnel replacement.
These projects aren’t as fancy or exciting as new high speed rail but this is how transit progress is going to be achieved in the US. It’s a positive feedback loop.
