Not my fault Penn went off rails: gov

GOV. CUOMO on Monday denied that his ambitious plan for a new train depot near Penn Station pushed off critical track repairs that led to crippling derailments.

Contractors for the Moynihan Train Hall got access to track space at Penn Station for 2,200 weekend hours from December 2013 to March 2017, The New York Times reported. Amtrak crews got 1,800 weekend hours of access to the tracks for repairs, according to The Times. Work for the Moynihan Hall also got bigger blocks of time to use track space, more than track work, The Times reported.

But when two trains derailed at Penn Station earlier this year, Amtrak officials determined they needed to crunch a multiyear weekend and overnight track repair schedule into two months during weekday rush hours — which Cuomo (inset) labeled the “Summer of Hell.” Cuomo, however, said the work on the Moynihan Hall blocking track work at Penn is an “impossibility.” “They’re the federal government. They run the entire Amtrak system,” Cuomo said at the Columbus Day Parade. “We respond to their schedule.”