New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie today issued a joint letter to the CEO of Amtrak and Executive Director of the Federal Railroad Administration calling for a complete review of Amtrak’s infrastructure and maintenance protocols at Penn Station.
The text of the letter is below:
“Following recent train derailments and severe service disruptions at New York’s Pennsylvania Station, the need for a complete review of Amtrak’s infrastructure and maintenance protocols has become clear. While Amtrak and the Federal Railroad Administration are undertaking these badly needed assessments, the states of New York and New Jersey have not been invited to participate in the assessment and in the development of the needed response.
“As the primary users of Penn Station via the Long Island Rail Road and NJ Transit, New York and New Jersey are requesting independent verification of track safety at Penn Station. Specifically, this comprehensive review should take into account the causes of recent failures at Penn Station and any needed changes to the processes by which routine maintenance and emergency repairs are performed.
“As you know, Penn Station is more than just a rail hub – it is a regional economic engine. The Long Island Rail Road carries 230,000 passengers through Penn Station every day. NJ Transit brings nearly 200,000 commuters to and from Manhattan every day. These riders, residents of our states, deserve safe and reliable rail service.
“Severe service disruptions at Penn Station not only impact and inconvenience riders, but also create a ripple effect across the region.
“Our passengers and our residents deserve better. “
Ridgewood NJ, the resent derailment at Penn Station New York has suggested new urgency to the Hudson Tunnel Project.
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and NJ TRANSIT are jointly preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to evaluate the Hudson Tunnel Project. The Project is intended to preserve the current functionality of the Northeast Corridor’s (NEC) Hudson River rail crossing between New Jersey and New York and strengthen the resiliency of the NEC. The EIS is being prepared pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). As appropriate, FRA and NJ TRANSIT will coordinate with Amtrak and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) on the EIS.
The FRA and NJ TRANSIT have identified a Preferred Alternative for examination in the EIS. The Preferred Alternative would include two new tracks extending from the NEC in Secaucus, NJ, continuing in a tunnel beneath the Palisades (North Bergen and Union City) and the Hoboken waterfront area, and beneath the Hudson River to connect to the existing approach tracks that lead into Penn Station New York, as well as rehabilitation of the existing tunnel once the new tunnel is complete. For more information, see the Preferred Alternatives Summary (also available on the Library page.)
The Hudson Tunnel Project has completed an Alternatives Development Report (also available on the Library page) describing how the Preferred Alternative was developed.
The FRA and NJ TRANSIT invite you to learn about the proposed Project and the environmental review process. We have also added a document to our Library for your review.
Many weekday commuters struggle to exit trains as the number of riders is increasing and construction compounds the problem
By
MELANIE GRAYCE WEST and
ANDREW TANGEL
March 20, 2017 4:13 p.m. ET
The morning rush has become the morning crush for some NJ Transit commuters arriving at New York Penn Station.
The scene plays out like this: When a train pulls in, commuters queue up for the doors and arrive on a platform that is both narrow and jammed, people shoved together elbow to elbow. To exit from the platform, commuters sometimes encounter an onslaught of passengers trying to catch another train or a crush of passengers from an arriving train.
Sometimes the escalator is going down instead of up, the narrow stairwells are packed single file or, in a truly frustrating situation, a new stairwell is gated.
The morning commute for thousands already ends at the much maligned Penn Station. Now, some say, the escape from Penn Station is worse, with platforms more jammed than ever as the number of commuters increases.
In 2016, average weekday boardings at Penn Station numbered 94,859 people, up from 92,314 in 2015 and 87,130 in 2014, according to Nancy Snyder, a NJ Transit spokeswoman. Each weekday, about 57,000 NJ Transit customers use Penn Station platforms between the hours of 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., according to Nancy Snyder.
on December 08, 2016 at 6:28 AM, updated December 08, 2016 at 6:29 AM
You don’t need Wikipedia to tell you that New Jersey is the most densely populated state. Just go for a drive.
That brings up a question that hung over a joint legislative committee hearing on transportation Tuesday:
What will the effort to build transportation infrastructure look like under President Trump?
The Donald may have gotten elected with the votes from people who live in states where driving is a perfectly fine way of getting around. But he is a New Yorker and therefore congenitally inclined to understand the transportation needs of this part of the country.
The Donald’s No. 1 boast is that he knows how to get around the bureaucracy that stalls construction. In his 1987 book “The Art of the Deal,” Trump tells of how the city of New York began in 1980 to rebuild the Wollman ice-skating rink in Central Park but still had not completed it six years later.
“If it took me two and a half years to put up a major skyscraper,” he wrote, “surely it was possible to build a $2 million ice-skating rink in a matter of months.”
Trump took over the project and finished it in six months.
Compare that to the attitude of the many conflicting government entities that throttled the predecessor to Amtrak’s Gateway Project, which would add two new rail tunnels to Manhattan.
The original Access to the Region’s Core plan in the 1990s was to build two new tunnels that would be shared by NJ Transit and Amtrak trains.
Ridgewood NJ, The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and NJ TRANSIT invite the public to learn more about their recommendation for the Hudson Tunnel Project at two upcoming information sessions. During the meetings in November, the public will be able to learn more about the recommendation (Preferred Alternative) and the Environmental Impact Statement for the project.
The Preferred Alternative identifies a specific alignment that includes two new tracks extending from the Northeast Corridor in Secaucus, N.J., continuing in a tunnel beneath the Palisades, and beneath the Hudson River to connect to the existing approach tracks that lead into Penn Station New York, as well as rehabilitation of the existing North River Tunnel once the new tunnel is complete.
The first meeting will be held at the Secaucus Junction Rail Station, Upper Level Long Hallway in Secaucus, N.J. on Thursday, November 10, 2016.
The second meeting will be held at the Hotel Pennsylvania, Skytop Ballroom (18th Floor), in New York City on Thursday, November 17, 2016.
Both meetings will be held from 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM and will be in an open house format. Although there will be no formal presentations, project staff will be available to answer questions. See attached flyer.
The new tunnel would be constructed first, so that upon completion of construction, trains could be diverted from the existing tunnel to allow its rehabilitation. When the rehabilitation is complete, both the existing and new tunnels would be in service, providing redundant capability and increased operational flexibility for Amtrak and NJ TRANSIT.
The Project is intended to preserve the current functionality of the Northeast Corridor’s Hudson River rail crossing between New Jersey and New York and strengthen the resiliency of the Northeast Corridor. FRA and NJ TRANSIT have made a recommendation (identified a Preferred Alternative) that consists of a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River and rehabilitation of the existing Northeast Corridor Hudson River crossing, the North River Tunnel.
More information about the Hudson Tunnel Project, the upcoming meetings, and the Preferred Alternative is available at the Project website,www.hudsontunnelproject.com. Project staff may be contacted via the Project website as well, at www.hudsontunnelproject.com/contact.html.
By Larry Higgs | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on October 20, 2016 at 5:58 PM, updated October 20, 2016 at 5:59 PM
Tolls on the Port Authority’s bridges and tunnels will not be increased to help fund construction of new Hudson River rail tunnels, officials said Thursday after approving a financing plan for the Gateway Project.
Authority officials will discuss revising the agency’s 10-year capital plan next month to include Gateway, building a new Port Authority Bus Terminal and replacing the aging Newark Airport Monorail, said John Degnan, the board chairman.
Both Foye and Degnan said revising the capital plan won’t include a toll hike. The last toll hike took place last December as part of an increase that was phased-in over five years.
“The two governors said the Port Authority will take the lead for a financing plan,” Degnan said. “We’re not accepting that the Port Authority will pick-up the entire (local share of costs).”
The federal government and both states have agreed to a 50-50 financing plan for Gateway, but New York and New Jersey officials said they would turn to the Port Authority for some of that funding and to create a development corporation to apply for financing.
Ridgewood NJ, National Association of Railroad Passengers (NARP) President and Chief Executive Officer Jim Mathews on Tuesday urged federal leaders to fast-track necessary approvals to replace the Hudson River rail tunnels.
If the tunnels aren’t replaced in time, the New York City region could face a “transportation meltdown,” Mathews wrote in a letter to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and New Jersey Transit.
Each day, the aging tunnels accommodate 100 trains carrying 24,000 Amtrak riders. Additionally, NJ Transit trains move 90,000 weekday passengers through the tunnels, which run between New York and New Jersey.
“Given the importance of these tunnels to the entire East Coast transportation system and to passenger rail, NARP strongly urges the government to proceed as expeditiously as possible, within the confines of applicable law, to begin desperately needed and long-overdue construction of new tunnels,” Mathews wrote.
He also advocated separating the Hudson tunnels project from Amtrak’s larger Gateway Program, which calls for a number of upgrades to improve capacity between New York City’s Penn Station and Newark, N.J. Separating the two projects would help ease the funding burden, simplify permitting and design, and “secure the widest possible agreement to proceed from elected and appointed officials throughout the region,” Mathews said.
Currently, Amtrak removes one of the tunnels from service each weekend for continuing maintenance, which results in slow, single-tracking operations. Until new ones are built, this will continue indefinitely, according to Mathews.
Additionally, the existing tubes will be removed from service for a full year for complete rehabilitation after the new ones are built.
“There is a real danger that if one of the current bores becomes permanently damaged or disabled, the throughput of trains would fall some 75 percent,” noted Mathews.
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood commuters ,the Federal Railroad Administration and NJ TRANSIT are jointly preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to evaluate the Hudson Tunnel Project. Two public meetings have been set up with will offer a presentation and take comments .
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and NJ TRANSIT are jointly preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to evaluate the Hudson Tunnel Project. The Project is intended to preserve the current functionality of the Northeast Corridor’s (NEC) Hudson River rail crossing between New Jersey and New York and strengthen the resilience of the NEC. The Project would consist of construction of a new rail tunnel beneath the Hudson River, including railroad infrastructure in New Jersey and New York connecting the new rail tunnel to the existing NEC, and rehabilitation of the existing NEC tunnel beneath the Hudson River, referred to as the North River Tunnel.
The North River Tunnel is used by Amtrak for intercity passenger rail service and by NJ TRANSIT for commuter rail service. The approach to the tunnel begins east of NJ TRANSIT’s Frank R. Lautenberg Station in Secaucus, NJ (which is 5 miles east of Amtrak and NJ TRANSIT’s Newark Penn Station). East of the Secaucus station, the NEC has two tracks that approach the tunnel on a raised embankment through the towns of Secaucus and North Bergen, NJ. Tracks enter a tunnel portal in North Bergen, passing beneath Union City and Weehawken, NJ and the Hudson River before emerging within the Penn Station New York (PSNY) rail complex in New York City. The tunnel has two separate tubes, each accommodating a single track for electrically powered trains, and extends approximately 2.5 miles from the tunnel portal in North Bergen to PSNY. The existing North River Tunnel is a critical NEC asset and is the only intercity passenger rail crossing into New York City from New Jersey and areas west and south.
Service reliability throughout the tunnel has been compromised because of the damage to tunnel components caused by Superstorm Sandy, which inundated both tubes in the North River Tunnel with seawater in October 2012, resulting in the cancellation of all Amtrak and NJ TRANSIT service into New York City for five days. While the tunnel was restored to service and is now safe for travel, chlorides from the seawater remain in the tunnel’s concrete liner and bench walls, causing ongoing damage to the bench walls, imbedded steel, track, and signaling and electrical components.
The damage caused by Superstorm Sandy is compounded by the tunnel’s age and the intensity of its current use (operating at capacity to meet current demands), resulting in frequent delays due to component failures within the tunnel.
Public Scoping Meetings
FRA and NJ TRANSIT will hold two public scoping meetings on the following dates:
May 17, 2016
Hotel Pennsylvania
Gold Ballroom, 3rd Floor
401 Seventh Avenue at West 33rd Street
New York, NY
May 19, 2016
Union City High School
2500 Kennedy Boulevard
Union City, NJ
Both days will include an afternoon session from 3 to 5 PM with a brief presentation about the Project at 4 PM, and an evening session from 6 to 8 PM with a brief presentation about the Project at 7 PM. The public will be able to review Project information, talk informally with members of the study staff, and formally submit comments to the FRA (to a stenographer or in writing). The meeting facilities will be accessible to persons with disabilities. Spanish language translators will be present. If special translation or signing services or other special accommodations are needed, please contact the Project team five days prior to the meeting at 973-261-8115, or email team@hudsontunnelproject.com.
After years of discussion and months of only preliminary progress, the Gateway Tunnel under the Hudson River took a big step forward Wednesday when officials announced $70 million in new funding for preliminary engineering work, plus a framework establishing who has decision-making power over the project.
JANUARY 7, 2016 LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 2016, 6:48 AM
BY PAUL BERGER
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
When Governor Christie, citing potential cost overruns, scuttled an $8.9 billion tunnel project in 2010, he set in motion a string of moves by local, state and federal officials that have resulted in a proposal for a much larger, federally driven project to build new rail tunnels under the Hudson River that by some estimates could cost $20 billion.
Planning for the new tunnels, dubbed Gateway, is expected to ramp up this year as the Port Authority takes the reins of what could be the largest public works project in the nation. And it joins new efforts – such as one announced Wednesday by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to spend $3 billion to overhaul New York Penn Station — to rebuild crumbling infrastructure in the region.
Like its predecessor, Gateway plans to deliver rail tunnels that would double the train capacity into New York City. And Gateway, like the canceled Access to the Region’s Core project, also envisions a new set of tracks that bypass Secaucus Junction, creating a one-seat ride from North Jersey into Manhattan.
But Gateway is a much broader project that also includes critical repairs to the existing train tunnels, upgrades and replacements of several bridges along Amtrak’s heavily traveled Northeast Corridor line, and miles of additional tracks between Newark and New York City.
With any luck, it should be completed in the next 20 years.
The Port Authority’s commissioners voted Thursday to assume the lead role in a $20 billion project that is expected to double rail capacity between New York and New Jersey.
Chris Christie’s (R) presidential campaign is pushing back on a Gawker report that said the New Jersey governor was asked to leave an Amtrak Quiet Car on his way to New York from Washington on Sunday morning because he was yelling.
Christie got on the train “yelling at his two Secret Service agents I think because of a seat mixup,” Alexander Mann, a passenger on the train, told Gawker.
The governor sat down and immediately started making phone calls, according to Mann. Christie appeared to be having a heated phone conversation, repeating “this is fricken’ ridiculous” and “seriously?! seriously?!”
After about 10 minutes, a train conductor reportedly asked the governor to stop yelling or move to another car.
“He got up and walked out again yelling at his Secret Service,” Mann told Gawker.
Today, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo sent a letter to President Barack Obama outlining a viable funding framework to break the logjam over funding for a new trans-Hudson commuter rail tunnel – a critical infrastructure project of regional and national economic importance. Politicker Staff, PolitickerNJ Read more
Testifying this morning in front of the Senate Legislative Oversight Committee, Steve Gardner of Amtrak cited outdated, deteriorated infrastructure – worsened by the impact of Hurricane Sandy in 2012 – as the culprit for massive train delays during the week of July 20th. (Max Pizarro, Politickernj.com) https://politickernj.com/2015/08/amtrak-contextualizes-apology-for-july-transit-delays/
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