Amtrak’s project to rehabilitate the East River Tunnels between Manhattan and Queens on the Northeast Corridor is under way, but like many large-scale rail infrastructure projects today, the issues surrounding it seem to concern politics more than planning or technology, and the rail riders themselves could end up being the losers.
The problem started with Superstorm Sandy in 2012, dubbed “Superstorm” instead of “Hurricane” on account of the damage it caused in New York City and nearby New Jersey, proceeding south along the Jersey Shore. Many of the rail tunnels connecting Manhattan with New Jersey and with the “outer boroughs” of Queens and Brooklyn were affected, and those included tunnels that are part of the city subway system. Repairs for some of them took years, and one subway tunnel project was particularly controversial: the Canarsie Tunnel between Manhattan’s Fourteenth Street and Brooklyn, used by the L-train. Then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, after consulting members of the engineering faculties at Cornell and Columbia Universities, implemented the engineers’ plan to hang power and signal cables on the inner walls of the tunnels, rather than demolishing and replacing the benchwalls. That project was completed in one year, with service reductions on weekends and weekday evenings, but a 15-month shutdown was averted.
The present controversy is equally political, if not more so, and it includes some of the same issues and characters involved with the L-train situation five to six years ago. They include Cuomo (now running for New York City Mayor), his successor Kathy Hochul, MTA CEO Janno Lieber, and Andy Byford, New York’s beloved “Train Daddy,” who will soon spearhead development efforts in and around Penn Station for Amtrak. The core issue in the present case is whether it will be necessary to shut one of the tunnel tubes under the East River (sometimes called “lines”) down completely for the duration of the project, as Amtrak claims, or whether the repairs can be completed on nights and weekends, as Hochul, other elected officials and MTA managers claim. There are four such numbered “lines,” 1 being the southernmost. All go east to Queens. Lines 2 and 3 are located under 32d Street, while Lines 3 and 4 are located under 33d Street.
Under normal circumstances, it is difficult but feasible for the railroads concerned to operate with the remaining three, if one is taken out of service. The issue is whether shutting one down completely creates an unreasonable risk for railroad operations, especially through busy interlockings in Queens, to the detriment of the railroads and their riders. The issue is at least as serious in the present case as in the L-train matter, because the total shutdown of one of the tubes is scheduled to last for almost three years unless more delays occur. Construction is just starting, but the project’s effects are already being felt.
Is Shutdown Necessary?
Amtrak says it is. As part of its campaign and outreach effort, Amtrak is generating a series of on-line “newsletters” about the project. The first is dated Spring 2025. Amtrak describes the project this way: “The East River Tunnel (ERT) consists of four tubes connecting New York City to Long Island and New England, and is used by Amtrak, Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), and New Jersey Transit (NJT) trains. The tunnel is part of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor (NEC), which provides train service between Boston and Washington, DC., and is the busiest passenger rail line in the United States. The tubes, which opened in 1910, require significant upgrades and comprehensive rehabilitation to modernize critical NEC infrastructure and improve reliability for a new era of rail.”
Amtrak projected completion in 2028. The tunnels host trains on the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) between Penn Station and several lines on “the Island,” as well as Amtrak trains to New Haven and Massachusetts on the Hell Gate Bridge route. NJT would also be affected, because it and Amtrak store train sets at Sunnyside Yards in Queens and use the ERT to move them between there and Penn Station. NJT will also chip in $88.4 million toward the project, according to a statutory formula, in addition to annual payments to Amtrak for running on the NEC.
Amtrak held a press tour of one of the tubes on the evening of May 14. Railway Age was not invited to the event, a result that Amtrak claimed was due to insufficient space. New Jersey’s best-known transportation reporters, Larry Higgs of nj.com and Colleen Wilson, who reports for the Gannett papers in the New York-New Jersey area, were not present for the event, either. Elijah Westbrook reported for the local CBS TV station: “Our tour of the tunnels revealed some of the specific problems that need to be fixed, including water actively pouring inside and impacting the wires above the tracks (catenary).” A video clip included by Westbrook and local ABC TV reporter N.J. Burkett in their reports showed water dripping at one place in the tunnel.
In a document released on May 27, Amtrak reported: “Over the weekend, Amtrak crews kicked off the first long-term track outage in support of the East River Tunnel Rehabilitation Project (ERT Rehab), a critical infrastructure investment that will restore the two tunnel tubes damaged by Superstorm Sandy (Line 1 and Line 2). This is Amtrak’s largest planned outage in recent history, an important undertaking planned in coordination with our partners over several years … The ERT Rehab project will involve demolishing the existing tunnel systems down to concrete liners, then reconstructing the tunnels with modern, state-of-the-art tunnel systems. The work will take place in one tunnel tube at a time under a full closure for maximum efficiency, beginning with Line 2 on June 2. Throughout the project, three of the four East River Tunnels will remain available for service to ensure continued Amtrak, LIRR and NJT service. Amtrak crews are on standby throughout the Penn Station complex to respond quickly to any emergencies and minimize the impact of the track outage to the maximum extent possible. We appreciate the cooperation of our partners in modifying schedules and operations to accommodate the work.” That includes demolishing and rebuilding the tunnel benchwalls, which originally contained cables, rather than hanging cables from racks, as was done in the Canarsie Tunnel for the L-train and was done in London for the recently constructed Crossrail/Elizabeth Line.
In a May 16 story in the New York Post, Haley Brown reported: “Amtrak engineers took reporters on a tour of one of the corroded tunnels in the overnight hours Wednesday into Thursday to prove their point that the repairs cannot be completed on nights and weekends as Gov. Kathy Hochul, Mayor Eric Adams and MTA board members have all publicly suggested in recent weeks.”
So far, Amtrak has been standing firm about shutting one of the “lines” down completely for the duration of the project (now estimated at 29 months, not including delays that customarily come with projects of this scope). Still, the May 27 Amtrak document says: “While still structurally sound and safe for passenger use, the reliability of the systems inside the tubes has continued to deteriorate since the 2012 storm. The century-old tunnels have reached the end of their useful lives and must be completely rehabilitated for another 100 years of service.” While the present controversy is not about the need to rehabilitate the tunnels, but whether it is necessary to rebuild the benchwalls and to shut one of the tubes down for an extended period to accommodate the project, Amtrak appears to concede that the actual level of urgency does not preclude hanging the cables or doing the work at night and on weekends, when there are fewer trains running than during peak-commuting periods on weekdays.
New York elected officials and rail managers expressed concern, along with advocates. In his ABC TV report, Burkett said: “The shutdown will cut Penn Station’s capacity by 25%. The LIRR is routing a dozen trains to Grand Central [Madison] and Atlantic Terminal, but even a minor incident could have a major impact.” He quoted LIRR President Rob Free as saying: “We’re not disagreeing that the work doesn’t need to take place, but what work absolutely needs to take place?” (emphasis in original). Burkett also reported: “Governor Kathy Hochul has urged Amtrak to do the work at off-hours to avoid a complete shutdown. Engineers say it’s not feasible.”
Since November 2024, the number of trains on Amtrak’s Empire Service serving the Albany area and points west has experienced service reductions, even though construction is now just beginning. Hochul has expressed concern about those reductions since that time. She wrote to Amtrak Board Chair Anthony Coscia and President Roger Harris on April 28, reported by Jennifer McLawhorn in our sibling publication Railway Track & Structures (RT&S) on April 30: “Given the challenges Amtrak has faced to date, Amtrak must re-examine whether a total shutdown of the ERT is required to rehabilitate the tubes, or whether a ‘repair in place’ approach based on night and weekend work would be feasible. If a total shutdown is unavoidable, all possible alternatives to mitigate its impact on Empire Service riders—including acquiring rolling stock from commuter railroad partners and operating service to Grand Central Terminal— must be fully considered. Further, the risk of additional impacts to LIRR service must be thoroughly evaluated and prevented.”
In announcing the release of the previously quoted April 28 letter to Amtrak officials, Hochul particularly expressed concern for New York State riders: “While I continue to be supportive of the efforts to rehabilitate the East River Tunnels, the decision to maintain service cuts amidst this latest delay—and backtracking on public commitments to increase capacity during the shutdown—shows a disregard for Empire Service passengers … Enough is enough. It’s far past time for Amtrak to put its passengers first, take a hard look at its construction plans and ensure access to reliable train travel throughout this key corridor.”
Harris replied in a letter on May 6, which was released by Amtrak. It asked for a meeting with Hochul, but also stood firm, saying in pertinent part: “Please understand our intent for this meeting is not to revisit the dialogue around our approach to the rehabilitation of the ERT as this approach has been thoroughly vetted and agreed upon by MTA, NJ Transit, Amtrak and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). A total singular tube shutdown is the most responsible method and the only way to fix the damage inflicted by Superstorm Sandy. Any other solution would be an expensive, short-term band-aid and a disservice to passengers and taxpayers.”
In a comprehensive report on WAMC, the NPR station in the Albany area, Jesse King summarized the situation that existed as of April 30. King reported: “The reduced schedule for the Empire Service cuts two trains, including a southbound train leaving Albany at 12:10 p.m. and northbound one departing Penn Station at 3:15 p.m. It also combines the Maple Leaf and Adirondack trains—running from New York City to Toronto and Montreal, respectively into one single train between Penn Station and Albany, resulting in an extended layover for passengers at Albany … Steve Strauss, Executive Director of the Empire State Passengers Association (ESPA), says he supports the renovation of the East River Tunnels, but he worries the service reduction unfairly impacts passengers in the Hudson Valley, where ridership has increased since the COVID-19 pandemic.” Strauss was quoted as saying: “When you include the round trip that was removed in November and never returned, there’s a 23% reduction in train frequencies … That’s going to be a big impact, because there’s not going to be enough capacity in the corridor to meet the demand.”
According to King’s report, Hochul’s is not the only voice calling for a “repair in place” solution: “New York Congressman Mike Lawler, a Hudson Valley Republican who is considering a run for Governor, has called on the [POTUS 47] Administration to force Amtrak to keep the tunnels open during the day.” King also reported that the MTA Board had passed a resolution asking Amtrak to reconsider, and noted: “MTA Chair Janno Lieber questions Amtrak’s ability to address infrastructure and service issues as they arise, and says the MTA has repeatedly recommended a ‘repair in place’ model,” and quoted Lieber as saying: “I’m not giving up these hard-won gains for on-time performance for Long Islanders because Amtrak is too hide-bound (narrow-minded, inflexible) to consider a different way of performing work.”
Riders Feeling Impacts
At this writing, it has been seven months since Amtrak riders first felt the effects of the planned tunnel project. To reduce moves between Sunnyside Yards and Penn Station, Amtrak eliminated the north-of-Washington portion of the route of the Silver Star (1939-2025) to Florida and combined it with the Chicago-Washington Capitol Limited (1923-71 and 1981-2025), creating the Floridian and reducing the number of trains between NEC points and places south of there to one per day and eliminating direct service to such places as Tampa, Raleigh, N.C., and Columbia, S.C. Amtrak claimed that, in addition to reducing movements in New York, the change was made to reassign Superliner equipment from the “Cap” to Western trains. Icovered these changes last fall, including obituaries for the trains that were discontinued.
More recently, though, the two trains serving Canada, the Maple Leaf between New York and Toronto (Trains 63 and 64) and the Adirondack between New York and Montreal (Trains 68 and 69) have been running as a combined train between New York and Rensselaer and splitting there. This operating change means that passengers bound for points north of Schenectady and as far as Montreal are now forced to wait for 90 additional minutes at Rensselaer. The Adirondack now leaves Penn Station at 7:15 AM, rather than its former departure time of 8:45 AM, but its schedule north of Rensselaer has not changed. Similarly (or possibly to spread the misery), riders from west of the Albany area on the Maple Leaf must wait for the Adirondack with a scheduled layover of 95 minutes, but it can last much longer if the train from Montreal is delayed at customs or for some other reason. Some rail bloggers who were forced to endure those long waits have been using blogging sites to complain about their experiences.
The WAMC story also reported: “ESPA also recommends Amtrak shift the Maple Leaf and Adirondack train schedules to shorten layovers in Albany.” That has been done in the past, but it requires arranging with CSX (which owns the Empire Line north of Metro-North territory at Poughkeepsie) for a later departure from Toronto and with CPKC (of which the historic Delaware & Hudson is part) for an earlier departure from Rensselaer toward Montreal in cooperation with CSX.
Is the Dispute Really Political?
Joseph M. Clift, a former LIRR Planning Director and now an independent advocate in New York City, says it’s about “intelligent, modern management, rather than being a political dispute.” He told me: “This is not about politics. When elected officials from the Nassau County Manager through Congressional members, the Mayor and the Governor agree, it’s bipartisan. It’s not a partisan battle. It’s really a battle over intelligent, modern infrastructure management. It’s also about maintaining service whenever possible. Amtrak failed miserably on both counts. Despite the positive experience of the MTA in rehabilitating the L-train and F-train tunnels under the East River, working only nights and weekends, Amtrak has ignored that experience completely. Instead of learning and benefitting from that experience, they have done everything they can to claim they cannot use it. The result is a reduction in service to and from Albany, and for the LIRR into Penn Station. The constant danger is that a small operational problem in one of the remaining three tubes will result in a complete meltdown of service, not only for Amtrak, but also for the LIRR and NJ Transit, because all use the tunnels that are being shut down.” Clift criticized NJ Transit for staying out of this battle, because its trains and riders are also at risk of such a meltdown.
Clift’s question: “Why is Amtrak using 1905 technology in 2025? Materials science and civil engineering have improved over 1905 techniques. The big reveal with the L-train’s Canarsie Tunnel Project was that 99% of the benchwalls were not structurally damaged to the point that they had to be removed. Instead, in addition to the less than 1% that had to be removed and replaced, about one third of the benchwalls were clad with modern carbon fiber reinforced polymer. The result was that the work could be done nights and weekends to produce a completely rehabilitated and upgraded ‘100-year’ tunnel in less time and at a lower cost.” He also mentioned that cables are no longer encased in conduit inside tunnel benchwalls, but are now hung on the tunnel wall, where modern insulation makes them safe and easy to maintain and upgrade. He added that there would be no need to demolish the benchwalls, so the work could be done on nights and weekends, and he concluded by questioning why Amtrak is not learning from others’ experiences. He said that Amtrak can’t reasonably say that new technology is unproven.
Amtrak Responds
Nevertheless, Amtrak continues to insist that one of the tubes must be shut down throughout the processs. I sent Clift’s comments to Amtrak and requested a reply. W. Kyle Anderson, Amtrak’s Senior Public Relations Manager, began his response with this excerpt from the latest “ERT Project Update”: “The East River Runnel Rehab Project has made strong progress over the past few weeks. The project remains on schedule, and no service disruptions have occurred as a direct result of this work to date.” Anderson furnished mewith links to statements from Amtrak President Roger Harris and to letters that he wrote to Gov. Hochul, which are cited and quoted in this article.
Harris’s April 30 statement said: “Amtrak has coordinated with—and obtained approval from—MTA and NJ Transit for an East River Tunnel (ERT) rehab service plan several months ago, which balances impact to our commuter partners, as well as Amtrak and NYSDOT service to Albany. In addition, MTA has approved the construction plans, designs and supported the application for funding for this projectwhich has already been obligated by USDOT. The contractor is ready to start, as they were given Notice to Proceed a year ago and is already committed to a work schedule.” While Harris described Amtrak’s underlying desire to build the project, he did not address the specific issue of shutting down one of the tubes, rather than scheduling construction on weekday nights and weekends instead. While also not addressing Clift’s specific concerns, Amtrak did furnish us with a post on Twitter/X that distinguished the ERT Project from the L-train project and said that there are “very different projects.”
Looking Ahead
From the perspective of an engineer and planner like Clift, technical merits and cost-effectiveness of a project should be a prominent factor in deciding if a project should be built and, if so, the best way to build it so the industry and the public receive optimal results. As all of us have learned through long experience, political calculations optimize results very differently and, when it comes to transit and the railroads operated by transit providers, the riders and the taxpayers are not always the primary intended beneficiaries. Sometimes they are, though, and the L-train project from five and six years ago appears to be a case in point.
In his column in the June issue of Railway Age, Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono took a look at the New York situation, including the Congestion Pricing toll (which I have been covering extensively) and the L-train project. One character from the L-train drama is back: Andy Byford, New York’s beloved “Train Daddy.” Another might be coming back, too: Andrew Cuomo, the previously disgraced governor who is leading in the polls at this writing and could return to office, this time as New York City’s Mayor. Whatever other faults he might have had, it was Cuomo who brought the faculty members from the Cornell and Columbia engineering schools on board to suggest optimal ways of handling the L-train project. That move turned out well.
Vantuono commented: “My take is that Cuomo will probably do his best to intervene to micromanage everything, regardless of whether that falls under his purview as Mayor. That’s his style.” I won’t dispute that, but Cuomo’s performance on the L-train project deserves to be remembered. It averted a long and troubling suspension of service on a line whose ridership is growing. Clift complained that projects like this one have what Columbia Engineering Dean Mary Boyce called “non-value-added project scope” that adds to the cost of a project without making it more useful. Optimally, Amtrak and its riders, as well as the riders on Long Island and New Jersey, and especially on Amtrak’s Empire trains would be well-served if Amtrak would follow the example that Cuomo set with the L-train project.
There are two big obstacles in the way. One is that “transit railroads” are in the public sector, so everything about their decision-making is inherently political. The Congestion Pricing battle is as political as things can get, and it only concerns transit because the revenue the toll generates goes toward the capital program for New York City Transit, LIRR and Metro-North. While it might be theoretically possible to remove at least some of the politics from battles like this, that does not appear feasible in practice, especially in the current political climate. The other obstacle is that the USDOT, through Amtrak, owns the railroad, which means it has much more discretion in what it does and how it spends money, unless Congress or POTUS 47 should step in. Generally, that’s something that Amtrak and the riding public would probably fear, at least at this time.
Getting back to Clift’s question about Amtrak using modern methods and best practices concerning tunnels, it seems like that Amtrak is like most other organizations in that it has “our way of doing things” and that’s all there is to it. Still, it would be incorrect to expect Hochul and the MTA to go away quietly. When USDOT Secretary Sean Duffy ordered Hochul to terminate the Congestion Pricing toll program, the MTA and its subsidiary, the Triborough Bridge & Tunnel Authority (TBTA, which collects the tolls for the MTA) fought in court. They got an injunction, at least for now, restraining Duffy and his department from taking any action to kill the program, as I recently reported.
On June 9, the Daily News reported that LIRR trains had to be rerouted due to smoke in a tunnel connecting to its Grand Central Madison station. Could that be a harbinger of things to come? I’ll keep you informed as this “Battle of the East River Tunnels” plays out.
