An unlikely alliance of MTA management, Democrats and Republicans are calling on Amtrak to rethink a piece plan that may shut down one in every of 4 tubes of a vital Lengthy Island Rail Highway tunnel for the following three years.
The East River Tunnel — a century-old set of 4 tubes that carry trains between Penn Station and Queens — has been in want of an overhaul since 2012’s Superstorm Sandy, when an incursion of salt water into two tubes threatened to corrode the wiring and infrastructure inside.
Amtrak, the federal railroad which owns and maintains the tracks, intends to close down every broken tube for 13 months apiece with the intention to restore them — a plan that leaders on the Lengthy Island Rail Highway say may wreak havoc on service.
“Amtrak owns the infrastructure, but the Long Island Rail Road is by far the biggest user, with approximately 461 trains a day using the East River Tunnels,” LIRR president Rob Free stated Wednesday.
The tunnel can be utilized by Amtrak passenger trains headed towards Boston by way of the Hell Gate line, in addition to by NJ Transit trains that proceed on from Penn Station with out passengers every morning with the intention to wait in Queens on the Sunnyside Yards for the afternoon rush again to the Backyard State.
Underneath Amtrak’s plan, trains from all three railroads should compete for slots in simply three tubes whereas the work to restore both of the broken tubes is underway.
“With the tunnel closure, trains will be operating very close together for most of the rush hour period, which leaves little to no room for error,” Free stated. “The slightest deviation could have significant impacts to our operations reliability, including possible shutdowns of service depending on the issue.”
In an April 9 letter from Free to Amtrak’s govt vice chairman Gerhard Williams, the LIRR boss stated any incident or outage affecting a second tunnel in the course of the rebuilding undertaking may very well be “catastrophic” to LIRR service.
“While we are all uneasy with the planned reduction of capacity due to the tunnel outage,” Free wrote, “we are even more concerned given the recent increase of infrastructure incidents that have impacted operations.”
Free stated the MTA could be positioning further crews to reply to any energy or signaling outages in the course of the undertaking, and requested Amtrak to decide to the identical.
MTA officers Wednesday referred to as on Amtrak to rethink their plan — which might require the wholesale alternative of wires for traction energy and signaling in addition to structural elements like tracks and bench-walls — and go for a technique that may shut the tunnel on nights and weekends to switch wiring elements, however depart some structural parts in place.
An identical answer averted the MTA’s deliberate 15-month shutdown of the L prepare’s Canarsie line tunnel — additionally flooded by Sandy — in 2019.
In a Monday letter, Gov. Hochul referred to as on Amtrak to think about the same “repair-in-place” possibility that may permit all 4 tubes of the tunnel to run trains in the course of the workday.
However the MTA additionally garnered help from unlikely quarters this week, with GOP Rep. Mike Lawler, a congestion pricing foe, calling on President Trump and his transportation secretary Sean Duffy to “step in and force” Amtrak to undertake a plan that may maintain the tunnel totally operational throughout weekdays.
Nassau County Govt Bruce Blakeman additionally referred to as on Duffy to intervene this week, holding up the L prepare reconstruction as a mannequin.
“When the governor and the county executive of Nassau are on the same page, that’s a special occasion,” MTA chairman Janno Lieber quipped Wednesday.
However in a press release Wednesday, Amtrak president Roger Harris stated a “repair-in-place” plan had been evaluated, however didn’t match the invoice.
“[T]he plan we are implementing proved to be the safest, most efficient, reliable, and timely to complete the full rehabilitation of East River Tunnel, making it the best use of taxpayer investments,” he stated.
East River Tunnel’s Tube No. 1 is ready to be taken out of service on Might 9 for every week of prep work. Tube No. 1 will then be put again into service whereas Tube No. 2 is closed for related work. By mid-Might, in accordance with Amtrak’s plan, Tube No. 2 can be closed for main development set to final till 2026.
Initially Printed: April 30, 2025 at 5:14 PM EDT
