While riding the NEC this past December, I noticed Amtrak is slowly setting up catenary upgrades in central New Jersey.  Some new supports are in place.

Even still, the old alignment can be used for local service?

Also essential is a new tunnel alignment on the southwest side of Baltimore that bypasses the Civil War-era tunnels,

 

Baltimore and the State of Maryland have just about agreed on a scheme to replace the old tunnel as well as a rework of the tracks northeast of Penn Station. It could begin as soon as this year.  The NE section of Baltimore is pretty scary looking (even by Cleveland standards) - not a great introduction to the city for passengers from arriving from the north. Unlike CT and RI folks, MD locals really WANT to do this, the sooner the better.

Even still, the old alignment can be used for local service?

 

Definitely. That includes the Northeast Regional Service as well as the growing Shore Line East commuter rail service that runs from Stamford, through New Haven to New London. Shore Line East already runs 36 trains each weekday and 20 trains on Saturdays, Sundays and federal holidays. And, only one Acela round trip stops anywhere between New Haven and Providence, so they're not going to miss anything if/when those trains are rerouted onto a new, straighter, faster and more inland routing.

Trump is cutting subsidies for long haul Amtrak routes.

Trump is cutting subsidies for long haul Amtrak routes.

 

Just saw that service would end in Cincinnati.

Trump is cutting subsidies for long haul Amtrak routes.

 

KJP and others probably know better, but I doubt those cuts get picked up in the actual budget. How likely is it that we even get a new budget, instead of just another CR?

Trump "wants" to cut federal operating subsidies for Amtrak. Congress will have the final say, as they have in the past when other presidents have proposed cutting or eliminating Amtrak. But if Trump is successful, cutting all federal operating subsidies means cutting the long-distance trains since all of the state-supported trains and Northeast Corridor trains get no operating subsidies. However.... Many of the state-supported and NEC trains depend on connecting revenue from the long-distance trains, which means they will require more state subsidies. Also more of the costs of the NEC, Chicago, Indianapolis, LA, Bay Area, Seattle servicing/maintenance facilities will fall solely on the short-distance trains, rather than be spread out among many more trains. For example, half of the costs of the Chicago hub are supported by revenues from the long-distance trains.

 

Amtrak also is in midst of taking delivery of $300 million worth of new railcars for its long-distance trains in the east, including for two Ohio routes. And while boardings at Ohio stations are small because we have only five daily trains that pass through our state in the middle of the night, those five trains carry the equivalent of 15 fully loaded 737 jets every day. It should also be noted that boardings at Ohio stations have grown since 2000 by up to 75 percent, especially at stations across the northern part of the state.

 

Lastly, if you want better rail service, it is easier to add service to an existing route, namely over part of a long-distance route. You don't have to build new stations or add a crew base and servicing facility at one end, or completely build a market from scratch, or bear the entire costs of a new service on that service. Many routes like Chicago-St. Louis, Chicago-Milwaukee, Chicago-Quincy, Chicago-Carbondale, Chicago-Indianapolis, Chicago-Milwaukee, Washington DC-Richmond/Newport News/Norfolk, Charlotte-Raleigh/New York, Los Angeles-Santa Barbara, Sacramento-Oakland-San Jose, Eugene-Portland-Seattle/Vancouver, and probably others I'm forgetting were all built on the foundations set by long-distance trains.

 

If Ohio wants more convenient service to places like Chicago, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Toronto, New York, etc. then building them on the foundation of the long-distance trains is much easier than building them where no service exists. Once you lose a train, it's damn near impossible to get one back.

^I'm sure people reading this stuff have heard this a thousand times since Nov. 8th, but it's worth noting again... elections have consequences!  If people are passionate about Amtrak and want to save it, they really need to EDUCATE friends and family (and others) about these issues in depth, and target which pol really is going to help ... and which is going to hurt.  I feel that too many people who know better didn't take this election seriously and allow people to perpetuate fallacies like 'voting doesn't matter' and 'both parties are corrupt/the same' and blah-blah-blah... Tell that to Cincinnati folks when Amtrak pulls up its rails there...

 

As we know, passenger train travel was thin enough in America and should be expanded not shrunk.  But we have to realize that the resistance to Amtrak, and mass transit for that matter, his little to nothing to do with fiscal responsibility as it does to socio/racial politics pushed by republicans... As we see today, Amtrak is just one of the people-centered government programs republicans are pushing... And once again, let's not just focus on Trump.  It's easy to focus our aggressions on him because he's a circus sideshow.  But the fact is he's just an example of republicanism run amok.  They are hiding behind Trump to do their dirty work.  Pence, Ryan, McConnell, ... even smiling John Kasich... Let's not pretend these guys are saints just because they're not Donald Trump.

^I'm sure people reading this stuff have heard this a thousand times since Nov. 8th, but it's worth noting again... elections have consequences!  If people are passionate about Amtrak and want to save it, they really need to EDUCATE friends and family (and others) about these issues in depth, and target which pol really is going to help ... and which is going to hurt.  I feel that too many people who know better didn't take this election seriously and allow people to perpetuate fallacies like 'voting doesn't matter' and 'both parties are corrupt/the same' and blah-blah-blah... Tell that to Cincinnati folks when Amtrak pulls up its rails there...

 

As we know, passenger train travel was thin enough in America and should be expanded not shrunk.  But we have to realize that the resistance to Amtrak, and mass transit for that matter, his little to nothing to do with fiscal responsibility as it does to socio/racial politics pushed by republicans... As we see today, Amtrak is just one of the people-centered government programs republicans are pushing... And once again, let's not just focus on Trump.  It's easy to focus our aggressions on him because he's a circus sideshow.  But the fact is he's just an example of republicanism run amok.  They are hiding behind Trump to do their dirty work.  Pence, Ryan, McConnell, ... even smiling John Kasich... Let's not pretend these guys are saints just because they're not Donald Trump.

Of course you are correct. I am felling nothing but negatives. :-(

 

 

^If people are really passionate about Amtrak, at the very least maintaining what little we already have, they need to organize at the grass-roots level and pressure their elected representative.  But I just don't sense the rail lobby is that organized or passionate.  Passenger rail, as an issue before the electorate is practically invisible in this country.  The highway lobby and the airlines, pushed by Detroit and Big Oil, dominate.  The only region where Amtrak holds sway is, surprise!, the Northeast where, until Jan. 20, you even had the Vice President of the United States regularly riding the train to commute to his home district in Delaware.  California is moving on their own high-speed rail initiative, but it remains to be seen whether they can defeat the powerful, well financed conservative anti-rail hit men/women.

 

... There is some good news: at least mass transit at the local level has been catching fire in many cities, particularly in the West, South and Southwest (the so-called Sun Belt), even while transit remains a non-starter in more backward regions like Ohio.

... There is some good news: at least mass transit at the local level has been catching fire in many cities, particularly in the West, South and Southwest (the so-called Sun Belt), even while transit remains a non-starter in more backward regions like Ohio.

 

Local transit projects have their own issues to deal with, like the TIGER grants program getting canned in this same budget proposal.

... There is some good news: at least mass transit at the local level has been catching fire in many cities, particularly in the West, South and Southwest (the so-called Sun Belt), even while transit remains a non-starter in more backward regions like Ohio.

 

Local transit projects have their own issues to deal with, like the TIGER grants program getting canned in this same budget proposal.

 

While I question the future of the TIGER grants, the good news is that Trump's budget proposal appears to be DOA.

 

Local transit projects have their own issues to deal with, like the TIGER grants program getting canned in this same budget proposal.

 

Or, even worse, the termination of the much larger New Starts funding.

Rosy scenario case: Trump has specifically mentioned railways in his infrastructure spending  comments.  If all the Feds ddo going forward is underwrite some of the massive tunnel and bypass problems, that would constitute a "huge" contribution. Existing and ad-hoc reactionary state-level support could keep a lot of the long distance trains running at a fairly modest additive cost per state.

 

Transportation has been subsidized by every government that we know of since Cyrus the Great. It will continue in some form or other.

Rosy scenario case: Trump has specifically mentioned railways in his infrastructure spending  comments.  If all the Feds ddo going forward is underwrite some of the massive tunnel and bypass problems, that would constitute a "huge" contribution. Existing and ad-hoc reactionary state-level support could keep a lot of the long distance trains running at a fairly modest additive cost per state.

 

Transportation has been subsidized by every government that we know of since Cyrus the Great. It will continue in some form or other.

 

Only if it is paved and traveled upon by rubber tires.

 

And the cost attributed to running the long-distance trains is very high. The Chicago-Toledo-Cleveland-New York/Boston "Lake Shore Limited" carries nearly 400,000 riders per year but costs $30 million more than the revenues generated by the train. That cost includes substantial overhead, terminal costs, general support, etc. How substantial? If the Lake Shore Limited stopped running, it would save Amtrak only $1.6 million per year. The remaining $28.4 million cost would fall on to the remaining state-supported trains and Northeast Corridor trains, making them less financially viable. And that doesn't include the substantial connecting revenue made possible by this and other long-distance trains. That all goes away too.

 

Consider ("direct costs" are those that are incurred "above the rail" and solely attributable to that train):

Long-distance trains direct-cost losses-FY2012 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Note that Amtrak covers 94 percent of its costs from revenues compared to 88 percent for federal aviation (per FAA) and 78 percent for federal highways (per FHWA).

 

And if we are tempted to blast Amtrak for running money-losing trains, consider how Amtrak compares to regional commuter railroads (trains on regular railroad tracks, often shared with freight trains) that some consider "good" and Amtrak "bad." This chart is from 2009 when Amtrak covered only 80 percent of its costs from revenues. Today it covers 94 percent:

Amtrak cost recovery vs regional rail by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

And the cost attributed to running the long-distance trains is very high. The Chicago-Toledo-Cleveland-New York/Boston "Lake Shore Limited" carries nearly 400,000 riders per year but costs $30 million more than the revenues generated by the train. That cost includes substantial overhead, terminal costs, general support, etc. How substantial? If the Lake Shore Limited stopped running, it would save Amtrak only $1.6 million per year. The remaining $28.4 million cost would fall on to the remaining state-supported trains and Northeast Corridor trains, making them less financially viable. And that doesn't include the substantial connecting revenue made possible by this and other long-distance trains. That all goes away too.

 

This says to me that Amtrak is misapplying the non-operating cost burden, perhaps deliberately (creatively?) as an encouragement to state subsidies. I'm much more familiar with airline indirect cost application, but I know you can play those costs like a violin. I'm assuming there's flexibility in RR accounting also.

 

What's really disappointing to me is Amtrak's failure to schedule more trains that would benefit travelers in the middle of their routes, the Toledo-Buffalo passenger, for example. I've read articles that say Amtrak would lose more money per passenger by adding service to a route - and never understood the rationale. At the same time, I have to say I was amazed by how many people riding the Cardinal were traveling from NY and DC all the way to Chicago; maybe there are no Cincinnati-Charleston passengers.

 

The cardinal service is completely oriented around serving West Virginia, since it travels through the state during daylight hours.  Cincinnati has a higher population than the entire state of WV, but the train comes through in each direction around 2am.  If there were two Cardinals per day with one traveling through Cincinnati (and Indianapolis) during the middle of the day, ridership would be very high. 

The champion of that is the late Robert C. Byrd (D-WV).

This says to me that Amtrak is misapplying the non-operating cost burden, perhaps deliberately (creatively?) as an encouragement to state subsidies. I'm much more familiar with airline indirect cost application, but I know you can play those costs like a violin. I'm assuming there's flexibility in RR accounting also.

 

There's been allegations of that for a long time. I remember hearing it when I first got involved in passenger rail advocacy (late 1980s).

 

What's really disappointing to me is Amtrak's failure to schedule more trains that would benefit travelers in the middle of their routes, the Toledo-Buffalo passenger, for example. I've read articles that say Amtrak would lose more money per passenger by adding service to a route - and never understood the rationale. At the same time, I have to say I was amazed by how many people riding the Cardinal were traveling from NY and DC all the way to Chicago; maybe there are no Cincinnati-Charleston passengers.

 

Depends on the route. One of the reasons why the NYC-Florida route does well financially is because it hosts multiple trains per day -- Silver Meteor, Silver Star, Auto Train, Palmetto (north of Savannah), Carolinian (north of Raleigh) and many more trains north of Richmond. These trains carry more than 1 million people per year. But why is their financial performance so much better than the Empire Builder or California Zephyr each of which carry about 500,000 riders per year? Because there's only one daily round trip over most of the route of the Builder and Zephyr.

 

The Lake Shore Limited does very well financially for two reasons. First, it shares half of its route with 4-11 daily round trips east of Buffalo and south of Albany. It also shares the western 341 miles from Cleveland to Chicago with the Capitol Limited, but they would probably do better if these trains were operated on more differentiated schedules. Second, the Lake Shore has a great deal of passenger turnover along its route. Only 10 percent of its 400,000 riders per year travel the entire route, from New York City or Boston to Chicago (or the opposite way). On routes with little passenger turnover, a short-distance passenger leaves that seat empty for most of the train's journey (and potentially blocks a higher-revenue longer-distance passenger from booking a trip). On a high-turnover route like the Lake Shore, the seat never gets cold and thus keeps producing revenue whether it's a short- or long-distance passenger occupying it.

 

BTW, if I was king of Amtrak, I would limit its responsibility to operating a basic train service (locomotive, coach cars with food cart) and rent out the last coupler to a food service provider wishing to offer made-to-order meals and lounge/beverage service as well as to hospitality companies and others wishing to offer sleeping car services. I would also enter into a revenue-sharing and marketing partnership with the freight railroads to provide high-priority mail/express shipments. In other words, I would do what the railroads did when passenger rail service was successful, albeit with Amtrak's better technologies, less onerous work rules, and more public ownership of rail stations.

Trump's proposed budget would stop Amtrak in Ohio

 

http://www.wkyc.com/news/local/cleveland/trumps-proposed-budget-would-stop-amtrak-in-ohio/424057364

Quoting KJP:

Depends on the route. One of the reasons why the NYC-Florida route does well financially is because it hosts multiple trains per day -- Silver Meteor, Silver Star, Auto Train, Palmetto (north of Savannah), Carolinian (north of Raleigh) and many more trains north of Richmond. These trains carry more than 1 million people per year. But why is their financial performance so much better than the Empire Builder or California Zephyr each of which carry about 500,000 riders per year? Because there's only one daily round trip over most of the route of the Builder and Zephyr.

 

 

This makes me daydream about regular train service in Ohio. I live near Toledo, which by the standard of any other country as wealthy as the US, should have regular train service NESW of town. I imagined hourly express service from Toledo to Chicago, with quick stops in Angola, Mishawaka, South Bend, and Gary...that basic frequency to nearby cities would so quickly rejuvenate the centers of each of them - imagine hundreds and hundreds of people *without cars* arriving and departing each hour from Toledo. Ugh, one can daydream.

the beautiful hell gate bridge celebrates it 100th anniversary this week. it certainly could be better utilized, it only carries 40 amtrak runs and a few freight runs daily. anyway, sydney sends it regards.

 

more:

http://www.amny.com/news/hell-gate-bridge-an-astoria-icon-turns-100-years-old-1.13324799

 

 

It probably will, with expanded MetroNorth New Haven Line train service coming to Penn Station -- unless federal funds for rail projects get axed by Trump/Heritage Foundation adherents.

^ i believe that work is supposed to start as soon as east side access is completed. or was? yeah funding seems up in the air these days.

You know, mrnyc, I never noticed the similarity of Hell Gate to Sydney's Harbour (aka "the Coat Hanger") Bridge, but there is one.  The Hell Gate is certainly a majestic bridge, but it's kind of off to the side away from Manhattan and largely in a semi industrial-type area -- I'll bet most people, even New Yorkers, don't pay attention to it and certainly don't know its name (like we transit geeks) whereas the Coat Hanger sweeps into Sydney's dramatic downtown next to the clam-shell Opera House -- plus it carries auto and ped traffic, too, unlike the Hell Gate ...

 

If I'm not mistaken, MTA-MetroNorth (New Haven) currently runs Giants/Jets non-stop specials into Secaucus for the Meadowlands connection.  btw, aren't there currently only 2 active tracks across the Hell Gate?  Is there room for 4 and are they planning to add tracks once MetroNorth

Three tracks across Hell Gate: two passenger and one freight.

Why do trains cost so much? Here is your answer.

 

I didn't realize they cost "so much." Compared to what?

I didn't realize they cost "so much." Compared to what?

 

How many 737's worth of passengers can a single train carry? 

Depends. During the holidays, each train of the Lake Shore Limited route through Cleveland and Toledo carries 400,000 riders per year. During the holidays (Thanksgiving-New Years), it peaks at more than 700 people over the course of its route. There are different types of 737s, but the most common is the 737-300 with a seating capacity of 137 people. 700 / 137 = just over 5 airplanes per day per direction (east and west), or 10 737s per day total. The Lake Shore route averages 500 passengers per day over an entire year. 550 / 137 = 3.65 airplanes per day per direction. Since there is one Lake Shore train traveling each direction per day, the Lake Shore Limited route carries 1,000 people total per day, or 7.3 Boeing 737s total per day.

 

Some of the western long-distance trains, like the Empire Builders  (Chicago-Seattle) or the Coast Starlight (Seattle-Los Angeles) carry even more riders than the 500,000 riders per year.

Trump Budget: Amtrak's long-distance train routes could get the ax

 

The proposal, which Congress has not take up yet, would do away with money for all 15 long-distance passenger rail routes, including the Lake Shore Limited that stops here each day.

 

But 23 states now are served only with long-distance trains would have no passenger rail under the Trump administration proposal. It would become impossible to travel via train to the West Coast, the South or the nation's midsection, eradicating the concept of a national rail system.

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/nation-now/2017/04/12/long-distance-train-service-endangered/100395912/

Trump Budget: Amtrak's long-distance train routes could get the ax

 

The proposal, which Congress has not take up yet, would do away with money for all 15 long-distance passenger rail routes, including the Lake Shore Limited that stops here each day.

 

But 23 states now are served only with long-distance trains would have no passenger rail under the Trump administration proposal. It would become impossible to travel via train to the West Coast, the South or the nation's midsection, eradicating the concept of a national rail system.

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/nation-now/2017/04/12/long-distance-train-service-endangered/100395912/

 

This from President Infrastructure. ... What a phony.  What  a fraud.

The good news is that Congress has completely ignored what Trump wanted to do with the Department of Transportation. Trump wanted to eliminate funding for public transportation and Amtrak and instead Congress decided to increase funding for Transit by 5.5% and increase funding for Amtrak by $75 million. This includes funding for three new programs that Congress created in late 2015 but it had yet to fund. Thankfully Congress has funded these new programs which will allow expanded passenger rail service, including in states like Ohio that don't provide any state funding for passenger rail. The new federal funding isn't much but it is a very important start, especially in the face of an administration seeking to go in the opposite direction.

The Republican-led congress is not letting Trump accomplish anything.  They're purposefully weakening him to bolster challengers in 2020. 

You know, mrnyc, I never noticed the similarity of Hell Gate to Sydney's Harbour (aka "the Coat Hanger") Bridge, but there is one.  The Hell Gate is certainly a majestic bridge, but it's kind of off to the side away from Manhattan and largely in a semi industrial-type area -- I'll bet most people, even New Yorkers, don't pay attention to it and certainly don't know its name (like we transit geeks) whereas the Coat Hanger sweeps into Sydney's dramatic downtown next to the clam-shell Opera House -- plus it carries auto and ped traffic, too, unlike the Hell Gate ...

 

 

 

yeah its definately not totally prominent like the brooklyn bridge or the sydney bridge. however, its not totally hidden to locals. yes, the western half of the bridge connects to randalls island, which is mostly a park, and the industrial south bronx. however, the eastern half connects directly into heavily residential astoria, queens, where it dominates the western end of that neighborhood. you even have to travel under the approach arches everywhere to get around there. more on that:

 

http://forgotten-ny.com/2009/11/hells-arches-concrete-supports-of-the-hell-gate-bridge-approach/

 

 

 

i did a little thread on the western bronx half of the hellgate bridge here -- which is more accessible these days:

https://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,30442.0.html

 

 

what most locals don't realize even if they do know the bridge is that it is over three miles long when you count all the approach arches. they also do not know that 'hellgat' actually means 'beautiful strait' in dutch, but obviously there was no way that was not going to turn into hellgate in english (and especially after the general slocum boating disaster occurred there, which tragically decimated the german population of nyc).

wow, hard to believe he came thisclose to getting away with murder:

 

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/penn-ag-office-files-charges-amtrak-engineer-crash-article-1.3159690

time to take penn station operations away from amtrak:

 

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/wrest-penn-station-amtrak-article-1.3160618

time to take penn station operations away from amtrak:

 

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/wrest-penn-station-amtrak-article-1.3160618

 

Dumb idea. A private operator adds another cook to an already crowded kitchen. The problem is that Penn Station's infrastructure is old, needs investment and expansion, and no amount of political grandstanding is going to relieve them from doing their duty -- come up with $20 billion or watch New York's economy choke.

time to take penn station operations away from amtrak:

 

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/wrest-penn-station-amtrak-article-1.3160618

 

Dumb idea. A private operator adds another cook to an already crowded kitchen. The problem is that Penn Station's infrastructure is old, needs investment and expansion, and no amount of political grandstanding is going to relieve them from doing their duty -- come up with $20 billion or watch New York's economy choke.

 

 

no, what's dumb is anyone with 8% of the business operating the place. how do you think it got that way?

Because all of Penn Central's assets in the Northeast Corridor went to Amtrak on the day that Conrail was formed on April 1st 1976.

 

Amtrak should continue to own the real estate as it has a better track record of real estate development then any of the transit agencies do. I'd be fine with the operations going to MTA but it sounds like the governors want a private sector entity to oversee the operations. I would not support that. That sounds more like someone gave campaign contributions to the governors in exchange for the rights to Penn Station's operations and who knows what else.

except amtrak has a minor presence at penn and status quo is not improving the deteriorated situation.

 

so who can blame the locals wanting to try to run it? by all rights they should be anyway.

 

they have moynihan going forward, so no doubt they feel they are on a roll with penn.

Which is why MTA is probably the better choice for the operations (especially after MetroNorth comes to Penn). Amtrak is better for the property ownership and development.

 

But Corrupt Christine/Cuomo will screw it up with short-term cosmetic BS while the infrastructure continues to fall apart.

hey it could be worse, they could have port authority do it.

 

yes, unfortunately the tri-state nature of the metro really opens the door to corruption and easy money for tri-state issues, especially transit. it seems to be an unsolvable problem.

btw per audits i see mta gets much more bang for its property holdings than amtrak does. mta earns $200M per year and amtrak $94M. however, its no surprize that both noted plenty of room for improvements.

amtrak won't give it up -- for the moment anyway:

 

 

 

Amtrak won’t cede control of Penn Station to Port Authority

 

By Danielle Furfaro May 23, 2017 | 4:01am

 

 

 

Amtrak officials claim the company is perfectly capable of running Penn Station, including carrying out the crucial repairs needed to stop frequent delays at the hub, and they have no plans to cede control to the Port Authority or anyone else.

 

“It is Amtrak’s role and our responsibility to step up and run that station as well as we can, and that’s exactly what we intend on doing,” Amtrak CEO Wick Moorman told The Post’s editorial board on Monday. “Our name is on the deed.”

 

Gov. Cuomo and other politicians have said they don’t have faith in Amtrak after a rash of incidents and derailments caused by ancient infrastructure crippled the LIRR and New Jersey Transit.

 

 

more:

http://nypost.com/2017/05/23/amtrak-wont-cede-control-of-penn-station-to-port-authority/

well, he wrote a letter to trump and now he made a task force. no mention of mta taking a crack at it, but hopefully the pa does not get the duty, because they will probably just make it worse. it's likely nothing happens anytime soon with trump making cuts left and right, but we'll see.

 

 

 

Cuomo taps Roth, LeFrak for Penn Station task force

 

Governor recommends booting Amtrak and having the state take over

 

By Kathryn Brenzel | May 23, 2017 03:00PM

 

 

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday tapped Richard LeFrak, Steve Roth and others to serve on a task force dedicated to addressing myriad issues at Penn Station — including its management.

 

A key step to resolving issues at the busy station, according to the governor, is booting Amtrak. During an event at the City University of New York, Cuomo proposed shifting control of Penn Station to either the state, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey or a private “qualified operator.”

 

In the first scenario, the state would use design-build authorization and work with the private sector to make repairs and operate the station. Whoever takes control of the station will also oversee the redevelopment of the James A. Farley Post Office and the Gateway tunnel project.

 

“The best way to do this, if you weren’t dealing with all these levels of bureaucracies, is to do it as one, unified project, one project manager and have the entire project work together,” Cuomo said.

 

In a statement, Amtrak President and CEO Wick Moorman noted that Penn’s current condition is largely the result of “decades of underinvestment” and commuter volume well-above what the station was designed for.

 

 

more:

https://therealdeal.com/2017/05/23/cuomo-taps-roth-lefrak-for-penn-station-task-force/

Which is why Amtrak is going to remove from Penn Station its up to 26 daily Empire Corridor trains including the Lake Shore Limited from Cleveland and Chicago, and put them back into Grand Central Terminal (where they were before 1991). Grand Central is under capacity while Penn Station is above capacity. It's a short-term move necessitated by the lack of state/federal funding of Penn Station.

Which is why Amtrak is going to remove from Penn Station its up to 26 daily Empire Corridor trains including the Lake Shore Limited from Cleveland and Chicago, and put them back into Grand Central Terminal (where they were before 1991). Grand Central is under capacity while Penn Station is above capacity. It's a short-term move necessitated by the lack of state/federal funding of Penn Station.

 

This is frustrating and shouldn't be happening in THE rail transportation mecca of the nation. 

 

This is frustrating and shouldn't be happening in THE rail transportation mecca of the nation. 

 

A nation that shortchanges its rail system in particular and infrastructure in general. NE Corridor has some $50 billion in unfunded state of good repair needs. Sooner or later, this first-world resource is going to fall apart and stop working under a third-world transportation budget.