Wednesday at 5:05 p.m., as the evening rush hour gained momentum, an overhead wire that transmits traffic lights fell and struck a cable that supplies electricity to trains on the northeast corridor of Amtrak in Kearny, New Jersey, a few miles west of New York City.
This contact caused a “flare” that interrupted service on Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains in both directions between Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan and Newark. With no trains entering or leaving New York on the Hudson River, the disruptions rippled down the line to Philadelphia and beyond, leaving passengers stranded along the tracks and in stations full of disgruntled travelers .
With delays reaching more than four hours, many commuters abandoned the train and paid high fares to Uber and other ride-hailing services to get home. Service was not restored until after 10 p.m. and residual effects carried over into the Thursday morning commute.
Amtrak officials still had no explanation Thursday for what caused the cable to break. But the disaster does not appear to be linked to a problem Tuesday morning with cables in a tunnel under the Hudson, which caused delays of up to 60 minutes. New Jersey Transit on Thursday warned of delays of up to an hour due to signaling problems at Amtrak’s Dock Bridge in Newark.
Why does this keep happening?
“It’s really the consequence of decades of underinvestment in the system,” said Thomas K. Wright, executive director of the Regional Plan Association, who was among the commuters left behind Wednesday. (Stranded in Newark on his way to Princeton, he found two strangers willing to share an Uber with him. Fare: $116. Tip: $50.)
For too long, Amtrak has not had sufficient federal funds to maintain the tracks and equipment it owns, said Mr. Wright, whose organization conducts transportation and infrastructure research in the metro area. New York. In recent years, thanks to an infusion of cash from the Biden administration, Amtrak has caught up on improvements along the corridor, which narrows to just two tracks between Newark and Manhattan.
Anthony R. Coscia, chairman of Amtrak’s board of directors, said upon his appointment in June that “overcoming several decades of underinvestment in passenger rail will not happen overnight.”
Work has begun on the first stages of a sprawling project known as Gateway, which would eliminate that bottleneck and add a two-lane tunnel under the Hudson. But the $30 billion project would take at least a decade.
Until then, Mr Wright said: “This system is going to continue to fail. »
Why are Amtrak’s problems affecting New Jersey Transit?
New Jersey Transit operates the largest statewide train and bus network in the country. Its trains carry an average of about 130,000 passengers to and from New York each weekday, according to the agency.
But the main rail line that runs through central New Jersey – the Northeast Corridor – is beyond his control. Amtrak owns the tracks and its trains have priority. New Jersey Transit owns most of its other lines, but is a tenant of the busiest segment, the two tracks that connect New York City.
Yet many New Jersey travelers are at the mercy of Amtrak because they can’t get to and from Manhattan without riding Amtrak’s tracks, bridges, or tunnel.
“There are several weak links in the chain between New York and Newark,” Mr. Wright said. As an example, he cited the 114-year-old Portal Bridge, which sometimes causes delays for thousands of commuters when it opens to let small boats pass on the Hackensack River.
If this segment of the corridor had four tracks like the New York City Subway, one or two lanes could be closed for maintenance or emergencies without stopping all traffic, he said.
New Jersey Gov. Philip D. Murphy, a Democrat, sent an angry letter to Mr. Coscia on Thursday, writing that he refused to accept “these Amtrak infrastructure challenges as an inevitable part of operating integrated public transportation systems.” He said New Jersey Transit is paying Amtrak more than $100 million as a “tenant” and expects more investment in improvements and updated emergency management plans.
In a response, Gery Williams, Amtrak’s executive vice president, apologized and said: “We will implement any changes to prevent an incident similar to yesterday from happening again.” »
What saves New Jersey Transit is that it has a terminal in Hoboken, New Jersey, which serves as a safety valve. During disruptions like Wednesday’s, some commuters take PATH trains or New York Waterway ferries across the Hudson to Hoboken and catch trains that bypass the bottleneck.
These other transit systems generally honor New Jersey Transit passengers’ tickets and are later reimbursed by the agency.
Is there a solution to this difficult situation?
Amtrak and other transit agencies have been trying to untangle this knot for decades with ad hoc support from Washington.
More than 15 years ago, New Jersey Transit began work on a second rail tunnel under the Hudson that would have led to a new station buried beneath 34th Street, near the Macy’s flagship store. This project would have provided an alternative for commuters when things were bad on the corridor. But Chris Christie, then the Republican governor of New Jersey, canceled it in 2010, fearing how much it could cost his state.
The Gateway Project is the long-delayed successor to this plan. This would significantly increase capacity on the Hudson and at Penn Station – if all of its components were completed.
The first phase, a $2 billion replacement of the Portal Bridge, is half-built and expected to be completed in 2026. The broad plan includes replacing other bridges and adding lanes in northern New Jersey and Penn Station. In between would be a new two-lane tunnel under the Hudson estimated to cost $16 billion.
The Gateway Development Commission, created to oversee the sprawling project, is set to ask the federal government to cover half that cost. New Jersey and New York agreed to split the other half.
Once the new tunnel is completed, Amtrak would be able to decommission some of its outdated infrastructure, including the existing century-old Hudson Tunnel, for complete repairs.
After battling the collapse of public transport on Wednesday, alongside thousands of other commuters, Mr Wright said: “None of this should come as a surprise. This is why we need Gateway.
News Source : www.nytimes.com
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