Lengthy Island Rail Street commuters have been delayed Wednesday morning after an Amtrak work crew broken a piece of observe close to the East River Tunnel throughout early-morning work.
5 trains have been canceled and 43 have been delayed out of a complete of 62 that usually run in the course of the morning rush, LIRR President Rob Free mentioned, after injury to the third rail was found following Amtrak work.
“Tens of thousands of Long Island Rail Road customers were inconvenienced this morning,” Free mentioned. “Unfortunately, what we’ve seen is a result of poor maintenance practices by Amtrak.”
The incident comes at a second of rigidity between the 2 railroads over plans to restore injury to 2 tubes of the four-tube East River Tunnel that occurred throughout Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
“This is exactly what we have been concerned with and warning our customers and Amtrak about,” Free mentioned.
“Over the last week alone we’ve seen a smoke condition in Line 2, a smoke and fire condition just east of Penn Station and, now, this morning,” he added.
In line with the LIRR boss, in a single day Amtrak observe work on the tunnel’s Queens facet close to the doorway to Tube No. 4 early Wednesday morning went awry when staff for the federal railroad, tasked with stabilizing the observe mattress underneath the rails, inadvertently broken a piece of the powered third rail, bending it.
Shortly after 6 a.m., the LIRR president mentioned, certainly one of his trains hit the affected stretch of labor, breaking off a number of of the contact footwear that trains use to get energy from the third rail.
A number of trains needed to be inspected, and site visitors to Penn Station was diverted via Tube No. 2 for the remainder of the morning. The issue was mounted by 10:58 a.m.
The East River Tunnel, owned by Amtrak and first opened in 1910, hyperlinks Manhattan and Queens. Tubes Nos. 3 and 4 primarily serve the LIRR, whereas Tubes Nos. 1 and a couple of are utilized by Amtrak for service on the Northeast Hall and by NJ Transit for storage of commuter trains within the Sunnyside Yard in Queens.
Throughout the repairs, Amtrak needs to shut every of the 2 broken tubes — the Nos. 1 and a couple of — for alternating 13-month restore initiatives, successfully turning the tunnel right into a three-tube construction for greater than two years. The work is scheduled to start Might 23.
However Free and different MTA brass say closing a tube for repairs will overload the tunnel’s remaining three tubes to the extent that there will probably be no room for error within the railroad’s schedule.
They’ve known as on the federal railroad to provide you with a phased strategy for the work that might enable for shorter shutdowns or transfer the undertaking to nights and weekends.
Amtrak apologized for the delays Wednesday, characterizing them as the results of work working longer than anticipated — and mentioned the incident confirmed why beginning and stopping the work round daytime practice schedules wouldn’t work.
“This illustrates the risk of a nights and weekends approach to complex projects, and why the full tube closure of the East River Tunnel is the most efficient method and least disruptive to service and customers,” Amtrak spokesman Jason Abrams mentioned in an announcement. “Unexpected service disruptions, like the one experienced today, are far worse than a well-coordinated and well-planned approach that [is] scheduled in advance and have stronger mitigation plans in place.”
Free mentioned he was “baffled” by Amtrak’s assertion.
“What happened this morning is not a result of late track work,” he mentioned. “What happened this morning is a result of poor quality control.”
“There would have been a shutdown [of LIRR service] if Line 2 had been out of service,” Free added.
Initially Revealed: Might 7, 2025 at 4:19 PM EDT
