Mark the calendar today, Dec. 2, 2024, when arrogant and obstinate Amtrak, never caring about anything but the railroad’s own narrow parochial desires, actually had to back down and change course in response to an outcry from these columns and elsewhere, from the halls of Congress to the governor’s mansion. It’s an historic first and there must be more such Amtrak reversals in the future.
Today’s celebration is that the regular dozen weekday round trips between Manhattan’s Penn Station and Albany have been restored. It was three weeks ago, on Nov. 11, when Amtrak wiped out a quarter of the weekday service. The reason was that one of the four East River tubes — suffering saltwater damage from Superstorm Sandy in 2012 — was about to be fully shut down for repairs.
While trains traveling south from Albany don’t traverse under the East River into Queens with passengers, the empty trains do to reach the Sunnyside rail yard. Likewise, trains heading north start empty in Sunnyside and go Penn to pick up their first passengers.
With just three working tubes, there wasn’t enough capacity for all the Albany trips. Also chopped was 10% of the Long Island Rail Road’s inbound trains to Penn during the peak hour of the morning rush, with those two trains diverted to Grand Central. Amtrak predicts the repairs will take a year or two and then they will repair a second of the tubes, so count on three years or longer of disruption.
Advocates like the Empire State Passenger Association and private operator AmeriStarRail, joined by elected officials in the Assembly and upstate Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, asked for a delay to spare travelers during the busy holiday season and, even more importantly, to allow for fair consideration of alternatives. Gov. Hochul added her voice and, miracle of miracles, Amtrak put off the tunnel closure until March.
The next three months is the time to force Albany to take a different path. The smartest and most efficient idea is to never close the East River tubes and repair them nights and weekends, as every rail tunnel owner in the world, except for Amtrak, does.
AmeriStarRail wants to have trains from Albany avoid the East River tunnel by heading south to Philly and D.C. after stopping in Penn. That creates a new one-seat trip between New York’s capital and the nation’s capital.
There could even be trains run to Albany from Grand Central, as the LIRR is doing. Amtrak was aware of all these options and ignored them all. Why? Because that’s the Amtrak way.
The Northeast Corridor Commission was created by Congress for passenger rail between Boston and D.C. The eight states and D.C., which run 95% of the trains and carry 95% of the passengers, have nine votes. Amtrak, with 5% of the load, and its allies in the U.S. Department of Transportation, also controls nine votes. That’s why Amtrak always overrides the states and never listens.
In seven weeks, when the Trump team comes in, the feds need to join with the states and stop letting Amtrak drive the train.