What to Know
- The April 3 derailment was the second at New York's Penn Station in 11 days; the first involved an Amtrak Acela
- The derailments brought days of havoc for NJT, Amtrak, Long Island Rail Road and PATH riders; Amtrak blamed "track problems" for both
Rail commuters who endured days of aggravation after a train derailment at Penn Station woke up Friday morning with assurances that track repairs would be completed and service restored, but soon discovered that wasn't entirely accurate.
The MTA says it canceled 10 Long Island Rail Road trains into Manhattan for Friday's morning rush hour and terminated four others at stations in Queens because Amtrak crews didn't finish track repair work by 4 a.m. as promised.
Amtrak issued a statement shortly before 7 a.m. saying the "major repair work" had been completed, but crews were conducting tests to ensure safe operation. By 7:30 a.m., Amtrak said service had been restored at all tracks, but warned of delays for New Jersey Transit and LIRR riders.
The minor derailment so badly damaged a switch machine at the Manhattan hub that more than a third of the 21 tracks at the station were out of commission for days, forcing NJ Transit to run high-trafficked lines out of Hoboken, hobbling Amtrak and LIRR service and causing extensive congestion on PATH trains as rush-hour riders sought alternatives.
PATH was cross-honoring through the morning rush, but that was to discontinue at 10 a.m.
At a news briefing Thursday, Amtrak President & CEO Wick Moorman said he wanted to apologize "personally" to the tens of thousands plunged into the depths of despair by service changes from the second derailment at the Manhattan hub in 11 days.
The two derailments renewed calls for accelerating progress on an ambitious, $20 billion-plus project, known as Gateway, to add a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River and expand Penn Station. The current tunnel is more than 100 years old and operates at capacity during peak commuting hours.
John Porcari, a former deputy U.S. secretary of transportation who is the interim head of the development corporation overseeing Gateway, said a new tunnel wouldn't have prevented the two recent derailments. It would, he said, lessen the aftershock to commuters because the eight tracks knocked out of service April 3 would have been able to connect to the new tunnel.
