Keeping America on Track

Just when you thought mass transit couldn’t get worse, Amtrak just racked up a string of alarming mishaps.

Last week, two cars on an Acela heading to Penn Station decoupled. Noonewashurt, but three people died in a Washington state derailment in December, another was killed when a train hit a truck in Virginia last month and a crash in South Carolina last Sunday claimed yet two more lives.

Meanwhile, city subways show barely any sign of improvement since last year’s “Summerof Hell.” The region’s suburban rail lines remain a mess, as does Penn Station itself. AndManhattan’s only passengerrail tunnel across the Hudson continues to rot, threatening chaos.

On Monday, President Trump is expected to roll out his $1.5 trillion, 10-year infrastructure plan for the nation. What will be key is whether politics (a desire to please politically important voices) prevails over sensible policy (funneling money and resources to places and projects where the needs are the greatest).

And Trump reportedly wants just $200 billion of that cash to come from Uncle Sam; the rest would be up to states, local governments and the private sector. That might makeworking out a financing plan for a newcross-Hudson rail tunnel particularly tricky — even though the existing one’s days are numbered.

Nor is money the only problem. As Nicole Gelinas noted in The Post on Thursday, Amtrak trains run on a “motley collection of fragmented tracks” owned by other entities. Cutting downonaccidents, she says, mayrequire a government takeover of “swaths of land along rail corridors.”

Amtrak’s grip on the metro area, meanwhile, has been at the root of many of its problems. The company owns the tracks and rail tunnel leading to Penn Station — as well as the station itself.

And while its finances have improved in recent years, repairs and upgrades are way behind and require mountains of new cash.

Of course, NewYorkhasits ownproblems. Though major delays (those involving 50 or more trains) are down, wait times are about as long as ever. Andwhile Albany continues to demand more than $400 million from City Hall for subway fixes, the city continues to balk.

Political leaders in New York and Washington clearly have their work cut out for them. America’s roads, bridges and, most notably, mass-transit networks are what keep the nation humming.

Without a laser-like focus on them, it’s hard to see how America can remain great.