WASHINGTON — Responding to criticism on a number of fronts, Amtrak President Roger Harris said the company’s plan for repairs to New York’s East River Tunnel is “the safest, most efficient, reliable, and timely to complete the full rehabilitation … making it the best use of taxpayer investments.”
Harris, in a three-page letter dated May 2, also responded specifically to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who had earlier written Harris and Amtrak Board Chairman Anthony Coscia about issues with the project, saying recent comments from New York officials “erode confidence in public agencies to deliver critical infrastructure projects.”
Hochul, U.S Rep. Mike Lawler, and officials at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority all expressed concern over the impact to Amtrak passengers and commuters as a result of the plan [see “New York governor asks Amtrak …,” Trains News Wire, April 29, 2025]. It calls for the repair of two of the tunnel’s four tubes damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, with one tube removed from service at a time. The work is expected to take three years.
In a Wednesday, April 30, statement, Harris said Amtrak “has coordinated with — and obtained approval from — MTA and NJ Transit for [the] East River Tunnel rehab service plan several months ago, which balances impact to our commuter partners, as well as Amtrak and [New York State Department of Transportation] service to Albany. In addition, MTA has approved the construction plans, designs, and supported the application for funding for this project — which has already been obligated by USDOT. The contractor is ready to start, as they were given Notice to Proceed a year ago and is already committed to a work schedule.”
Amtrak did consider the “repair in place” approach called for by Hochul as part of evaluation with MTA and NJ Transit of “several construction plans utilizing internationa; best practices,” Harris said, and the evaluation resulted in some improvements to the original plan.
“Major construction work will still begin on May 9,” the statement says, “after MTA delayed the work for more than seven months due to their lateness in completing work for their Eastbound Re-Route project.” The company is working with MTA to mitigate the delay and find ways to shorten the overall outage, Harris said, and is “eager to partner with the MTA on [Hochul’s] suggestion of using their commuter trains to provide more options and solutions for our customers.”
Hochul, in her April 28 letter to Harris and Amtrak Board Chair Anthony Coscia, suggested commuter cars could be used to add capacity to Empire Service trains to address the car shortage resulting from the removal of Amtrak’s Horizon cars form service.
In his May 2 response, Harris said Hochul’s “objections are surprising” given the MTA’s long-term involvement in planning, funding, and coordinating the project. After outlining that involvement, Harris writes, “The project’s engineering, safety, and operational requirements have been transparent from the start and fully vetted by your agencies, MTA, and New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT).” He also details the differences between the East River project and the MTA’s Carnarsie Tunnel rehabilitation, or L Project, completed in 2020.
Harris concludes, “This recent barrage of media coverage, which includes misinformation and misleading facts, some of which are attributed to comments by NY State and the MTA are not constructive and only erodes confidence in public agencies to deliver critical infrastructure projects. Amtrak remains committed to delivering this necessary project safely and on schedule. We invite further discussions with your team, but believe it is essential that public dialogue reflect the facts — and the shared responsibility we all hold in stewarding this vital infrastructure, because the riding public deserves coordination, not confusion.”
— Updated May 2 at 12:05 p.m. with Harris letter to New York Gov. Hochul.
Does the MTA have any restroom equipped commuter cars that would work to and from Albany NYP?
Around this time last year NRPC said it “will also not result in a major disruption to LIRR or NJ TRANSIT service”
During the work, which is expected to last approximately three years, Amtrak plans to maintain the vast majority of service, with slight schedule changes for Northeast Regional and Acela trains, as well as modifications to some Long Distance and State Supported services. The project will also not result in a major disruption to LIRR or NJ TRANSIT service. Amtrak and the railroad partners are coordinating closely to mitigate service impacts and will provide detailed service information via numerous channels in the coming months.
https://media.amtrak.com/2024/07/amtrak-awards-contract-for-east-river-tunnel-rehabilitation/
The phased approach listed by the governor makes no sense. Amtrak essentially wants to strip everything from the bores and start over. Phased approach would maybe do 100 feet if lucky then reconnect everything. All the splices on electrical work is a receipt for future failure 5 – 10 years in the future. No electrician wants to do that. This Amtrak way everything should last another 75 – 100 years. I just hope that the work is called for can be done 24 / 7 with just a few holidays off.
The Amtrak way will also not have construction workers interfering with each other in an enclosed area.
Agreed. The nights-and-weekends-only method may work for some quick fixes, but for an extensive rebuild and repair job, you need to shut it down all the way. Mobilization and demobilization takes a lot of time.
Borrowing commuter cars could help with the capacity crunch. In fact, while it hasn’t really been reported anywhere, Amtrak has apparently asked Minneapolis Metro Transit to borrow a Northstar set to hold down the Hiawatha service. There’s a Metro Transit powerpoint on it floating around somewhere (I found it by looking at the Wikipedia citations for the Hiawatha service).