Train wreck: Amtrak blasts Hochul and MTA for tunnel delay spin
In a sharply worded letter to Hochul, Amtrak President Roger Harris said Hochul's last-minute objections to Amtrak's tunnel shutdown plan were 'surprising' because MTA approved Amtrak's service plans for the $1.6 billion East River Tunnel rehabilitation months ago.
Harris also said MTA's mismanagement of another project delayed the 'critical' East River Tunnel repairs by six months — and he accused the state of pushing 'misinformation' that undermines public trust.
'This underscores the importance of aligned public messaging,' Harris wrote to the governor. 'The project's engineering, safety and operational requirements have been transparent from the start and fully vetted by your agencies, MTA and New York State Department of Transportation.'
Harris warned that spinning the story could 'erode confidence' in all the agencies trying to fix the city's crumbling rails.
Starting May 9, Amtrak will close for repair one of the four East River Tunnels that connects Penn Station to Queens — forcing the MTA, Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains to operate on fewer tracks while the aging infrastructure, which was battered by Superstorm Sandy in 2012, undergoes major repairs.
There will be only 10 roundtrips from Penn Station to Albany instead of the usual 12 because of the closurre.
Workers will alternate which tunnel they work on during the three year project.
Passengers were outraged after MTA heads warned the tunnel closures could cause delays for all trains running through the remaining three East River Tunnels.
4 Amtrak President Roger Harris pushed said MTA has been a part of the controversial plan to close parts of the East River Tunnel for repair work all along.
REUTERS
4 Governor Kathy Hochul wrote a letter Monday calling on Amtrak to change its repair plans – even though the NYDOT had worked closely on the project plans.
Robert Miller
In response to Harris' letter MTA issued a statement from Long Island Rail Road President Rob Free.
'If they proceed as intended, while finger-pointing about unrelated issues as a distraction, Long Islanders' reliance on record on-time and reliable trains will be jeopardized—which is unacceptable,' Free said.
Laura Mason the executive vice president at Amtrak said Amtrak engineers worked with the MTA 'in a lot of detail' on the East River Tunnel plans.
'This collaboration goes back years,' she told The Post Friday.
4 There will be only 10 roundtrips from Penn Station to Albany instead of the usual 12 during the three year project.
AP
4 The White House put Amtrak in charge of the Penn Station redo. Two weeks later the MTA board passed a resolution condemning Amtrak's construction work on the East River Tunnel project.
Mason said Amtrak was already working with MTA to mitigate delays by adding more standby crews to rescue trains if something goes wrong and by changing train schedules.
'I don't want to opine on their motives, but I do think the timing is questionable,' Mason said.
The engineer is working on the Penn Station revamp too — that project was recently yanked from the MTA and handed to Amtrak instead by the Trump administration.
'It is always challenging in an environment that has a lot of intense politics, as well as a high degree of ridership that people do get nervous ahead of these outages,' Mason said.
A spokesperson for Hochul said said Amtrak has failed to deliver on promises to mitigate service disruptions and that's why the governor is now concerned.
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