Amtrak work delays dozens of LIRR trains weeks before planned tunnel work

Yahoo

07-05-2025

Long Island Rail Road commuters were delayed Wednesday morning after an Amtrak work crew damaged a section of track near the East River Tunnel during early morning work.
Five trains were canceled and 43 were delayed out of a total of 62 that typically run during the morning rush, LIRR President Rob Free said, after damage to the third rail was discovered following Amtrak work.
'Tens of thousands of Long Island Rail Road customers were inconvenienced this morning,' Free said. 'Unfortunately, what we've seen is a result of poor maintenance practices by Amtrak.'
The incident comes at a moment of tension between the two railroads over plans to repair damage to two tubes of the four-tube East River Tunnel that occurred during Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
'This is exactly what we have been concerned with and warning our customers and Amtrak about,' Free said.
'Over the last week alone we've seen a smoke condition in Line 2, a smoke and fire condition just east of Penn Station and, now, this morning,' he added.
According to the LIRR boss, overnight Amtrak track work on the tunnel's Queens side near the entrance to Tube No. 4 early Wednesday morning went awry when workers for the federal railroad, tasked with stabilizing the track bed under the rails, inadvertently damaged a section of the powered third rail, bending it.
Shortly after 6 a.m., the LIRR president said, one of his trains hit the anomaly, breaking off several of the contact shoes that trains use to get power from the third rail.
Several trains had to be inspected, and traffic to Penn Station was diverted through Tube No. 2 for the rest of the morning. The problem was fixed by 10:58 a.m.
The East River Tunnel, owned by Amtrak and first opened in 1910, links Manhattan and Queens. Tubes Nos. 3 and 4 primarily serve the LIRR, while Tubes Nos. 1 and 2 are used by Amtrak for service on the Northeast Corridor and by NJ Transit for storage of commuter trains in the Sunnyside Yard in Queens.
During the repairs, Amtrak wants to close each of the two damaged tubes — the Nos. 1 and 2 Tubes — for alternating 13-month repair projects, effectively turning the tunnel into a three-tube structure for more than two years. The work is scheduled to begin May 23.
But Free and other MTA brass say closing a tube for repairs will overload the tunnel's remaining three tubes to the extent that there will be no room for error in the railroad's schedule.
They've called on the federal railroad to come up with a phased approach for the work that would allow for shorter shutdowns or move the project to nights and weekends.
Amtrak apologized for the delays Wednesday, characterizing them as the result of work running longer than expected — and said the incident showed why starting and stopping the work around daytime train schedules wouldn't work.
'This illustrates the risk of a nights and weekends approach to complex projects, and why the full tube closure of the East River Tunnel is the most efficient method and least disruptive to service and customers,' Amtrak spokesman Jason Abrams said in a statement. 'Unexpected service disruptions, like the one experienced today, are far worse than a well-coordinated and well-planned approach that [is] scheduled in advance and have stronger mitigation plans in place.'
Free said he was 'baffled' by Amtrak's statement.
'What happened this morning is not a result of late track work,' he said. 'What happened this morning is a result of poor quality control.'
'There would have been a shutdown [of LIRR service] if Line 2 had been out of service,' Free added.