New York Transit Hell

Wow: Amtrak knew all about the track fault that triggered last week’s Penn Station chaos. Let that be a warning that commuters need to worry about the sad state not only of the region’s transit infrastructure — but also of the agencies managing it all.

An Amtrak inspector had flagged the decaying railroad tie for replacement — without realizing the danger that it would let the rails come out of alignment, derailing a train that in turn broke a vital switch, putting eight of Penn’s 21 platforms out of service and wreaking havoc on NJ Transit and Long Island Rail Road schedules.

Many Jersey trains were rerouted to Hoboken, where commuters could take the PATH (or a ferry) to Midtown.

Except that Hoboken Terminal was also down two tracks, thanks to a major September accident — causing major congestion delays for incoming trains. And the PATH staggered under the increased ridership, with Tuesday morning a particular snafu.

It also turns out that a less-disastrous Penn derailment 10 days earlier was triggered by an outrageous Amtrak failure to notice two mismatched rails.

But Amtrak’s not the only bungler, as Steve Malanga notes at City Journal. The MTA is now years late and $7 billion over budget on the project to bring the LIRR into Grand Central. The Port Authority, which runs the PATH, dropped $4 billion on its new downtown station. And NJ Transit lost $100 million by parking trains below sea level during Hurricane Sandy.

Yet Amtrak, the PA and the New York and New Jersey politicians who oversee the MTA and NJ Transit are players in the $20 billion Gateway project to build a new rail tunnel under the Hudson.

The region needs the tunnel: The existing tube, a century old, desperately needs to close for major maintenance, and the added capacity of a second route below the river would be a huge boon.

A second “tunnel and additional tracks at Penn Station would have certainly helped mitigate some of [last week’s] problems,” Gateway’s interim boss John Porcari told The Post.

But can the public trust the job to be done right when it’s in the hands of those responsible for so much dysfunction?

At the very least, the Trump administration should keep a careful eye on all these players as it looks to cover Uncle Sam’s share of Gateway.

Of course, all the Gateway noise around here has been about the chance that Team Trump might ax the project’s federal funds.

In fact, the White House is full of New Yorkers who know the project’s importance. And Gov. Cuomo, Mayor de Blasio and New York Sen. Chuck Schumer sure don’t seem worried: Each is doing all he can to infuriate the administration.

All in all, it seems like area commuters would be better off electing officials who put a serious priority on funding transit — and on spending those funds wisely.

It’s not just the railroads. The city’s subways, have seen more delays these past few years, while soaring ridership has led to more packed cars.

Even the East River ferry service, which began under Mayor Michael Bloomberg and is to expand next month, may suffer: The new, de Blasio-chosen ferry operator, Hornblower, is apparently having trouble keeping its four boats running and has had to lease two replacement craft.

Bottom line: Area transit needs serious investment — but if management doesn’t improve, your commute will remain at risk.