East River Tunnels rehabilitation 2024-2027

shop deals on amazon
Shop deals on ebay
Advertise with us
Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum

Help Support Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
The Park avenue viaduct from GCT is being rehabbed. All the steel and iron works is being upgraded with removal of present steel.. That has one of the 4 tracks not in service so now it is 2 tracks one way with counter flow just one track, MTA did not want Amtrak on the one counter flow track so it said NO! This is what happens when too much deferred maintenance happens all at once.

Find it puzzling why Amtrak had to wait so long to rehab the East River bores after "SANDY". It will be no surprise to this poster if bores 3 & 4 end up being done after 1 & 2 are finally finished.
 
Amtrak waited for MTA to open East Side Access or LIRR would have had to cut rush hour service 20%.

There is no Sandy damage to tunnels 3 and 4.

I have come up with several ways to minimize the impact on the Empire service and posted them here. ESPA has done the same on their Facebook. The fact is Amtrak does not care, nor does the highway obsessed NYS DOT, obviously not wanting to let a crisis go to waste to slash their subsidies. Amtrak knows full when there is poor state oversight of their operations, and will take advantage.

Governor Hochul blew a $15 Billion hole in MTA's capital budget unilaterally killing congestion pricing at the 59th minute of the 11th hour. The Empire Corridor by comparison is irrelevant.

Representative Stefanik, with 6 co-signers, sent a Republican delegation letter insisting Amtrak postpone for 60 days to get past the holidays. It is clear Amtrak is ignoring the 3rd in command at the House of Representatives, playing a juvenile game of chicken.

Absent a new business model to replace DOT as funder with one that would hold Amtrak's arrogant feet to the fire, the future of the Empire Corridor lies in more buses, especially if Tuesdays election goes a certain way. Karma will emerge, and they will deserve it.
 
Last edited:
Amtrak25 said:
Amtrak waited for MTA to open East Side Access or LIRR would have had to cut rush hour service 20%.

There is no Sandy damage to tunnels 3 and 4.

I have come up with several ways to minimize the impact on the Empire service and posted them here. ESPA has done the same on their Facebook. The fact is Amtrak does not care, nor does the highway obsessed NYS DOT, obviously not wanting to let a crisis go to waste to slash their subsidies. Amtrak knows full when there is poor state oversight of their operations, and will take advantage.

Governor Hochul blew a $15 Billion hole in MTA's capital budget unilaterally killing congestion pricing at the 59th minute of the 11th hour. The Empire Corridor by comparison is irrelevant.

Representative Stefanik, with 6 co-signers, sent a Republican delegation letter insisting Amtrak postpone for 60 days to get past the holidays. It is clear Amtrak is ignoring the 3rd in command at the House of Representatives, playing a juvenile game of chicken.

Absent a new business model to replace DOT as funder with one that would hold Amtrak's arrogant feet to the fire, the future of the Empire Corridor lies in more buses, especially if Tuesdays election goes a certain way. Karma will emerge, and they will deserve it.
Click to expand...
1. What was the full story about the demise of congestion pricing in NYC? I recall that it was quite unpopular in the NY suburbs, and perhpas the state legislature also has something to say about it. It would seem that if there's a budge hole, a small increase in the motor fuel tax would provide at least a short-term fix.

2. I wonder what Rep. Stefanik's position is on congestion pricing and increases in the gas tax. Being that she's from way upstate, she might not care one bit about the wishes of suburban New York voters, but I would suspect that she'd raise bloody hell about any increases in the gas tax. But then, she's a US representative, so maybe she doesn't weigh in on state and local issues, unless she has ambitions for running for statewide office.

3. I also suspect that the Empire Service is pretty low in the priority list of most New York voters. Whatever support for funding rail transportation is probably focused on the NY subway, the Metro-North Harlem and Hudson Lines, and the Long Island RR. The state government merely reflects the attitude of the voters.
 
Congestion pricing is law and was passed by the legislature in 2019. It's purpose was to remove 20% of vehicles from Manhattan streets as well as raise $15 Billion for MTA capital projects. It does not matter how much the suburban legislators object to it now. The governor is not the Queen - it was an abuse of power. There was obscure pressure from Minority Leader Jeffries who wants to grab a few Republican House seats in the MTA suburbs since NYS Democrats bungled the 2022 election and lost 4 House seats, one even going to George Santos. Upstate contractors are now suffering from shelved contracts., i.e. platform tactile edging is made in Buffalo, Hochul's hometown. Not smart. DOT has nothing to do with MTA.

Rep. Stefanik is from the North Country and couldn't care less about Congestion pricing in Manhattan south of 60th Street. She does care about the Empire Service, particularly the Adirondack. Amtrak's political acumen is about as defective as their train washing.

Increasing the gas tax in a non-issue and not happening.

1/3rd of New York State residents are upstaters and couldn't care less about the MTA. Some upstate legislators have also raised objections to slashing Empire Service with the East River tunnels as a lame excuse. NYS has learned from the 1970's that way to appease upstate politicians on MTA funding is to heavily subsidize the upstate bus system so they all have pretty low base fares.
 
Last edited:
west point said:
Please clarify. What is the maximum consist that can operate NYP <> ALB? Is Amtrak operating the trains anywhere near this max or planning to after NOV 11?
Click to expand...

I haven't heard offically but,

The combined Canadian train will likely be 10 cars south of Albany, unless they cut a coach from the Adirondack. VIA Rail in Toronto won't accept any train longer than 6 cars due to the wye in Mimico.

I don't think they plan on lengthening any other train, unless they top and tail to avoid the East River tunnels. If they do, it'll be by one coach.

Wait and see.
 
Lots of people in the Hudson Valley north of Poughkeepsie and up into the southern edge of the Adirondacks rely on Empire Service trains from Albany, Hudson and Rhinecliff to get back and forth to NYC for business and personal reasons. The region has a huge contingent of people whose weekend homes over the past couple of decades have become their primary residences, and especially since the pandemic. Even well into Stefanik's district, people drive to Rensselaer to catch the train because the service there is fast and frequent, with many more schedule choices than at Saratoga Springs and north. So slashing the service in a way that leaves three-hour gaps and makes it less convenient to use is going to upset a significant group of people, and legislators clearly are already hearing about it.

Besides making the schedule less convenient, the other issue is capacity. Many of these trains already sell out or are available only at the highest fare buckets in the Thursday-Sunday period unless one books weeks in advance. So in a very real sense riders will be paying more for less service. Most the train sets I see now have five cars. Adding a sixth would help, though it doesn't make up for the scheduling gaps.

I think I recall that if they add more than six cars, they have to add another crew member?
 

Latest posts

Back
Top