Long-delayed tunnel project leaves Long Island rail riders in lurch

In a parallel universe where utility projects finish on time and budget, at least some beleaguered passengers disrupted by planned summer repair work at Pennsylvania Station could have used Grand Central Terminal.

But the latest estimates for that undertaking are that it won’t be operational until 2022, 13 years after the original completion date.

The agency that runs the Long Island Rail Road, the busiest commuter railroad in the U.S., has spent more than a decade carving out tunnels and a massive subterranean cavern that will bring suburban trains beneath the East River to Grand Central in Manhattan.

Besides being more than a decade behind on construction, the East Side Access Project is billions of dollars over budget.

“Had East Side Access been completed on time, there would have been redundancy in the system and would have alleviated pressure on the system,” said Victoria Vanterpool, executive director of the TriState Transportation Campaign, who recently joined the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the agency responsible for the project. “That would have been important route as a backup.”

So for now, Long Island Rail Road passengers bound for Manhattan are stuck with Penn Station, which handles an estimated 600,000 passengers each weekday also on Amtrak, New Jersey Transit and New York City subway trains.

Two derailments in the last several months, a power failure, signal problems and other issues at Penn Station have pushed Amtrak, which owns the property, to begin replacing aging tracks and other equipment. The station is a critical part of travel on the Northeast Corridor, between Washington, D.C., and Boston.

The summer repairs are expected to knock several of the station’s 21 tracks out of service for approximately seven weeks, beginning in July. That will lead to some reductions in service, and probably other delays.

“A summer of hell,” for commuters, Vanterpool predicted, echoing language used by New York’s governor.

“This summer will be the culmination of years of frustration and anger,” added Mark Epstein, chairman of the Long Island Railroad Commuter Council. “Repairs go up and services go down.”

The MTA has complained it is not getting the cooperation it needs from Amtrak to make progress on the East Side Access Project, and fears work at Penn Station could add to delays in completing the project. Amtrak counters that the summer work at Penn Station won’t impact the Grand Central project.