TRANSPORTATION

Amtrak speeds up Penn Station repairs, but delays ahead

Kaitlyn Kanzler, Katie Sobko, and Carla Baranauckas
NorthJersey
An NJ Transit Train heading to Secaucus Junction arrives at the Broadway Station in Fair Lawn Thursday morning April 27, 2017.

It's going to get worse before it gets better at New York Penn Station.

Amtrak announced on Thursday morning an ambitious plan that officials say will cost tens of millions of dollars to attack the problems that have plagued commuters at the nation's busiest rail station over the past month.

Commuters can expect more track shutdowns this summer — and not just on weekends. Tracks will also be closed on weekdays as Amtrak accelerates a three-year program to repair the byzantine maze of tracks below Madison Square Garden in an attempt to finish the most critical work by Labor Day.

In addition to fixing the aging infrastructure, Amtrak will also address security concerns and how passengers are treated, the rail company's chief executive said in a telephone conference call.

"The events of the past month have shown that we just have to step up our game there," said Amtrak Chief Executive Wick Moorman, referencing the recent derailments and resulting delays and crowds at Penn Station.

Commuters board an NJ Transit Train heading to Secaucus Junction at the Broadway Station in Fair Lawn Thursday morning April 27, 2017.

"We take our responsibilities as owner and operator very seriously," he said, adding that it was "critical to make sure that we operate the station at a high level."

But even as Moorman outlined the plan, he was unable to provide a specific timeline of when the work would start, the cost of the project, how many tracks would be closed and how long the work would continue. And some of Amtrak's critics and passengers said they were taking a wait-and-see approach on the efforts.

“What are we going to do?" said Patricia Stewart of Lyndhurst as she passed through Secaucus Junction. "We have to sacrifice, we have to leave earlier, get an earlier train somehow. I’ll do it as long as they fix it because every few weeks there’s problem. It’s not fair.”

Keith Zemski of Manhattan said: “Between NJ Transit and the PATH in the last two, three weeks, I would say 80 percent of the trains have had some kind of delay. My mother had a 30-minute delay from Westfield, New Jersey. We’ve routinely stopped for 10 to 15 minutes on our way out of Manhattan.”

He added, “It seems like now, all the infrastructure around Manhattan is under repair at once and I wonder if this couldn’t have been done in stages.”

Moorman did say that the bulk of the work in the most critical areas would be completed by the end of the summer, but work is expected to continue after that on weekends.

"We're developing the final outage plan right now," Moorman said. "We won't really be talking about how far it extends until we sit with LIRR and NJ Transit to work through final plans."

New York Penn Station on Wednesday, April 27, 2017.

The three companies are scheduled to sit down in the next few days, he said.

Moorman also acknowledged that the project "is not going to be cheap," estimating costs in the "tens of millions" at one point. Amtrak plans on deferring technology upgrades to pay for the renewal plan, he said.

He was quick to point out that this plan is "aggressive" and that Amtrak will communicate with the public in advance of the disruptions after saying that he was aware that users are "frustrated."

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In addition to the structural fixes, Amtrak plans on making improvements in managing how commuters use the concourse. That will include establishing a concourse-level operations center to be run jointly by Amtrak, NJ Transit and the Long Island Rail Road. A task force to address security concerns at the station will also be created.

“I think this is critical work and it’s work that Amtrak needs to go ahead and get done,” Moorman said.

But Moorman was questioned on whether  Amtrak should have responsibility for Penn Station when the LIRR and NJ Transit account for a majority of the passengers coming in and out of the station. Moorman defended Amtrak and the job it has done managing the station.

"I think the Amtrak people, along with NJ Transit and LIRR, have done a really remarkable job for a long period of time," Moorman said. "It's extraordinarily complicated to manage and maintain, especially at the infrastructure level. I think we can do better and that's why I'm announcing the plans today."

Penn Station is responsible for 1,300 train movements on a weekday basis, two times more than it had in the 1970s, said Moorman, who added that the station is providing services it was never designed to handle.

Moorman said he was bringing in the retired chief executive of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Thomas Prendergast, as a consultant on the management of the passenger concourse. "We want to look at the ways in which we handle not only normal daily operations but operations when there's any kind of disruption, event or incident," Moorman said. "Tom's going to be looking at everything and developing a set of recommendations for us on how we can improve the passenger experience."

Commuters have been plagued with a growing number of problems in the past few months from chronic delays to train derailments. The latest problem was earlier this week when an Amtrak train broke down for 30 minutes on the west side of Penn Station, causing 45-minute delays on the Northeast Corridor, North Jersey Coast and Raritan Valley lines into and out of New York. Midtown Direct trains were forced to be diverted to Hoboken.

Conductors to each other after all the passengers board an NJ Transit Train heading to Secaucus Junction at the Broadway Station in Fair Lawn Thursday morning April 27, 2017.

On Tuesday, NJ Transit announced there would be delays "until further notice" due to speed restrictions from ongoing Amtrak maintenance work and track inspections. Commuters traveling to and from New York Penn Station could experience estimated delays of 15 minutes on weekdays and 30 minutes on the weekends. Some tracks may also be taken out of service for repair, which will also cause delays.

In April, a derailment stranded at least 1,200 people on an NJ Transit train and led to five injuries and delays for a week. Two weeks before that, an NJ Transit train was sideswiped by an Amtrak train, causing its derailment.

NJ Transit officials have placed much of the blame on Amtrak.

"It is Amtrak's responsibility to take immediate action and all corrective actions to resolve the continuing problems at Penn Station New York for the sake of all of our customers and the region's transit system," NJ Transit Executive Director Steve H. Santoro said in an April 5 press conference at the company's headquarters.

Santoro said NJ Transit served as a tenant and had signed an agreement with Amtrak to provide funding for "state-of-good repair" for the Northeast Corridor.

"Having two derailments in just over a week is unacceptable, and our customers are bearing the brunt," Santoro said. "We have and will continue to press Amtrak on the need for corrective actions now."

Commuters board an NJ Transit Train heading to Secaucus Junction at the Broadway Station in Fair Lawn Thursday morning April 27, 2017.

NJ Transit emphasized on Thursday that it needs to be part of the discussion regarding work that can affect its passengers.

"It’s imperative that NJ Transit see Amtrak’s plan to review its impact on our customers and the region’s economy," Jim Smith, senior public information officer for NJ Transit, said in an email. "We met with Amtrak last week and have daily contact with Amtrak to discuss all matters which impact our service and customers.  NJ Transit has been assured by Amtrak that when their PSNY track rehabilitation plan is fully developed, NJ Transit will get a full briefing and be part of that dialogue."

Santoro, in testimony in Trenton on Thursday, said that NJ Transit officials expected to receive Amtrak’s plan “within days.”

“I’m also a little concerned about potential revenue hits,” Santoro told lawmakers. “If they’re talking about cancellations and delays, we need to analyze that very quickly and determine the impact on our customers.”

Frustration has been expressed on both sides of the tunnel, with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo calling for Amtrak to fix the problems.

Christie said on Thursday he had not yet reviewed Amtrak's plan, but that he planned to do so in the afternoon. He is seeking to recoup about $60 million in rental payments made to Amtrak by NJ Transit, and has threatened to withhold future payments until the appropriate work on the rail line is done. Speaking to reporters at a public event in Jersey City, Christie said his review of the plan would determine if he will reconsider his position on making payments to Amtrak.

"This was not meant to be punitive; just do what we're paying you for," Christie said. "And so if in fact this plan meets what we've been paying them for, then I'd be happy to continue making the payments."

Generally speaking, Christie said the Amtrak plan to speed up work at Penn Station is "going to be good for the commuting public."

"Amtrak's admission today about how much they're going to have to spend and how long it's going to take tells you that these issues were predominately Amtrak issues," Christie said. "So now we're going to try to hold them to account on that, and that was the whole purpose of my talking about this from the beginning."

Moorman said that he understood the frustration and that Amtrak would do its best to expedite the work to be done at the station and for there to be a minimal impact on commuters.

While NJ Transit trains were running close to on schedule, travelers at New York Penn Station don't buy the expectation Amtrak work would be complete.

"For the past two days, it's been awful. I understand Amtrak is doing changes," said Peter Brase, who was on his way to Newark Penn Station. "You have to cope with it."

Staff Writers Dustin Racioppi, Nicholas Pugliese and Keldy Ortiz contributed to this article.