Honcho: Derail shows Penn work needed

THE NJ TRANSIT train that derailed at Penn Station Thursday night won’t make the first rush-hour commute during the Summer of Hell any worse.

A top Amtrak official on Friday said that the spot where a NJ Transit train derailed Thursday evening was going to be taken out of service later in the evening anyway, as part of the agency’s accelerated emergency repair work. It was the third derailment at Penn Station this year. “The incidents are the No. 1 symptom of why we need to do the work we’re going to do this summer,” said Scot Naparstek, Amtrak’s chief operating officer. “What these incidents are saying to us is, we need to speed up the process.”

About 180 people were on the Pennbound NJ Transit train when the first passenger car behind the locomotive derailed around 9:10 p.m. as it pulled into the station at a slow speed, according to transit officials.

The passengers were on board for about 90 minutes. There were no reported injuries. Amtrak crews rerailed the train around 2:45 a.m. The cause is still under investigation.

It happened near the site of derailments in March and April — the same area on the western side of the station that will get extensive upgrades and repairs during Amtrak’s eight weeks of emergency work beginning on Monday.

The work will mean fewer rush hour trains running through Penn Station.

That means there will be a tighter margin of error for Amtrak to recover from a problem with a rail, a track switch or another piece of equipment.

“Because we have less tracks we have less ability to recover,” Naparstek said. “Then the commuter will see delays.”