Full Amtrak service from New York City to Albany is expected to return Thursday, after structural concerns at a Manhattan parking garage led to a days-long commuter headache stretching, Amtrak announced Wednesday.
Full service on the Empire Line is set to resume Thursday morning but customers may see minor delays until Saturday when both tracks will be restored.
On Amtrak's website, the first train set to leave New York Penn Station for Albany would depart at 7:15 a.m. and arrive in the capital at 9:50 a.m.
"We remain in close coordination with the NYC Department of Buildings and the parking garage owner’s contractor, who made significant overnight progress on construction and anticipate completion tonight," Amtrak said in a statement on Wednesday. "In addition, we have been assured by the NYC Department of Buildings, and other city and state agencies that we are collaborating with, that upon the garage work completion, it will be safe again for train travel."
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It would appear the construction is proceeding faster than originally thought.
Mayor Eric Adams had said at a press conference Tuesday that partial service would return Thursday and full service would be coming back on Friday — less than a week after suspensions upended service. The city's Department of Buildings confirmed what the mayor said.
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"The owner’s engineer and contractors have given us a timeline for the work, and they expect to complete enough of the shoring and repair work to open one of the two Amtrak lines on Wednesday evening, in time to run trains on the line early Thursday morning," a DOB spokesperson said. "Repairs will continue, and the contractors and engineer tell us the second Amtrak line could be open as soon as Friday night."
A spokesperson for Amtrak had earlier confirmed that service would return in-part Thursday and in-fill Friday, but it now appears according to sources that full service will resume a day earlier, on Thursday.
Officials on Sunday discovered a number of "structural issues" at the garage on 10th Avenue in Manhattan. Tracks for Amtrak's Empire Line runs underneath the garage on the west side of the island, about 15 blocks north of New York-Penn Station.
The garage's owner contacted an engineer on Friday about a hole in the entrance ramp of the parking garage, a Department of Buildings spokesperson told News 4. Officials from the DOB, FDNY and NYCEM were subsequently brought to the scene to inspect the issue, finding cracked and deteriorating steel as well.
One driver said he was able to hear the trains running below whenever he parked in the garage. Here are photos of a few of the holes in the garage ramp, which sit right above train tracks:
DOB officials issued a vacate order of the garage and Amtrak planned to install "overhead protection" above the tracks below to keep operations running normally.
By that morning, installers alerted DOB to more structural defects in steel beams. The additional cracks and deterioration discovered on Sunday proved too great a safety concern and prompted a suspension of the Empire Line between New York City and Albany, as it was determined not to be safe for trains until repairs are made.
Service has been suspended since the weekend.
Travelers impacted by the suspension were given the option to use tickets on Metro-North between Westchester County's Croton-Harmon stop and New York-Penn Station. However, many travelers on Monday found those Metro-North trains were sold out.
Passengers can call Amtrak at 1-800-USA-RAIL for help with their ticket. Amtrak said change and cancelation fees will be waived for travelers whose trip has been impacted by the suspension.
The owner of the parking garage, Lineage Properties, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Icon Parking, which leases and operates the garage, said that structural repairs are the building owner's responsibility and that the landlord's engineers were already working to make fixes to the ramp and other structural areas.
Icon added that the earliest that the cars inside the garage can be removed appears to be Saturday, depending on "the DOB's approval of the landlord contractors' work."
There were 104 vehicles inside the garage, including those belonging to Icon employees, the garage operator said.
New York City officials stepped up the inspection of parking garages after a three-story parking structure in lower Manhattan collapsed in April, killing one worker, injuring several others and crushing dozens of cars. More than 1,000 inspections are due by the end of December, with more than 3,000 due by Summer 2024.
"We appreciate the patience and understanding of our customers who were inconvenienced by the structural issue at the non-Amtrak owned parking garage," Amtrak said Wednesday. "Amtrak has been working throughout to assist the garage owner’s contractor and the NYC Department of Buildings to ensure that our customers can travel between New York City, Croton-Harmon, and points north again as soon and safe as possible."
