NEW YORK — Amtrak’s work at New York’s Penn Station is on time and within budget, meaning this summer’s work should be complete by Labor Day.
Scot Naparstek, Amtrak Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer, said in a Thursday conference call that the work should be complete by Sept. 2, as scheduled. deemed Infrastructure Renewal on time and on budget.
This year’s project started on June 28, leaving two tracks out of service. A handful of Amtrak departures and arrivals have been affected. The Long Island Rail Road, which generates the most train movements in the complex, has cancelled 14 of 274 morning and evening rush hour trains: in 2017, it cancelled over three times as many. New Jersey Transit has diverted 10 rush-hour trains from Penn Station to its Hoboken Terminal for the duration of the summer work schedule.
Work is being done on JO Interlocking, controlling Amtrak, Long Island Rail Road, and NJ Transit movements heading east and west from the East River Tunnels. The $30 million project involves removal and upgrading rail, ties, switches, track panels, and ballast. As of now, the replacement of switches between Tracks 14 and 15 is proceeding, to be followed by switch replacement between Tracks 15 and 16.
This is the third summer of repair work at the nation’s largest rail passenger station. With two years of previous experience in hand, this year’s repair work has seen minimal train disruption.
“Updating infrastructure is a continuous process”, Amtrak spokesperson Jason Abrams told Trains News Wire. “Amtrak has a multi-year program in place to ensure that we are improving the customer experience with more reliable service in and out of New York Penn Station.”
