Repairs may halve NJ Transit service
New Jersey Transit might have to cut in half the number of trains that come into Penn Station while Amtrak does weekday repairs, which could lead to extreme overcrowding, the agency head warned Friday.
NJT Executive Director Steven Santoro told the New Jersey Legislature that Amtrak showed him a plan to tackle the repairs this summer, and they involve possibly dropping the number of NJ Transit trains from 63 during morning rush hours to 30 or even just 25 on some days.
And that would be a nightmare for commuters, said Santoro.
“If their proposal is the only or the best one and it results in us only able to run holiday service, we are going to have a concern in regards to overcrowding,” he said.
“We might have to have people on platforms to control the crowd, which is an extremely difficult thing to do.”
Santoro said he hoped Amtrak would also step up and cancel a comparatively equal number of its own trains in such a dire situation. Amtrak has 13 trains into Penn Station between 6 and 10 a.m. on an average weekday.
There have been two derailments at Penn Station in the past five weeks that have severely disrupted train traffic into the hub — especially for LIRR and NJ Transit customers.
The most recent, on April 3, caused an entire week of delays and cancellations as Amtrak scrambled to replace aging timber and damaged switches.
Earlier Friday, New Jersey legislators grilled Amtrak officials, demanding to know why it took two derailments to realize its decrepit Penn Station tracks posed a major safety risk.
“There were two derailments in a row, so why did it take a second incident to say we should change things here because safety is at risk?” asked Sen. John McKeon.
Amtrak CEO Wick Moorman claimed the two incidents were vastly different, but that did little to appease the lawmakers.
Amtrak officials said they hope to have a detailed plan for its massive overhaul of the tracks at and around Penn Station ready by the second week in May and hope to have repairs done by Labor Day.
One legislator suggested that the New Jersey and New York state governments work with businesses to encourage employees to stay home on certain days so Amtrak can shut down most tracks and get the work done more quickly.
Meanwhile, MTA officials said they still haven’t heard how Amtrak’s repair plans will affect the LIRR. They plan to meet with Amtrak next week.
If [we are] only able to run holiday service, we are going to have a concern in regards to overcrowding. — NJ Transit’s Steven Santoro