NEW JERSEY — It isn’t often that you can get 11 Congress members from New Jersey – Democrats and Republicans alike – to agree on anything. But the recent delays and suspensions that have been jamming up train commuters in the Garden State are an exception, it seems.
A series of delays caused by “Amtrak overhead wire issues” have left thousands of commuters stranded during a brutal heat wave this week.
The travel woes have been taking place on the Northeast Corridor, which serves both Amtrak and NJ Transit, and is one of the most notorious bottlenecks in the region. Amtrak owns and maintains the corridor.
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In a scathing letter to Amtrak executives, Gov. Phil Murphy noted that NJ Transit pays the company more than $100 million to upkeep a section of the busy railway corridor, linking the fate – and performances – of both agencies. And Amtrak needs to make sure it is following through on its end of the deal, he insisted.
“As governor of New Jersey, I refuse to accept these Amtrak infrastructure challenges as an inevitable part of operating integrated mass transit systems,” Murphy continued. “We can and must do better for our customers and constituents.”
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On Tuesday, New Jersey’s 11 active members of the U.S. House of Representatives jumped on the train, sending a joint letter to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, Together, the lawmakers demanded a federal investigation into the “significant Amtrak malfunctions” that have been plaguing commuters headed to and from New York City.
According to the lawmakers’ letter, NJ Transit is “merely a tenant” on the section of the corridor that is seeing repeated breakdowns. It leaves the agency in an impossible position – unable to direct repairs on Amtrak property, yet without the ability to provide reliable service to its paying customers.
The lawmakers provided two examples of recent delays that illustrate the problem:
POWER ISSUES/BRUSH FIRE – “On Thursday, June 20, Amtrak service along the entirety of the Northeast Corridor in New Jersey, particularly between Manhattan and Philadelphia, was suspended due to power issues as a result of malfunctioning circuit breakers on Amtrak tracks, alongside a brush fire in Secaucus that led to additional issues. Since some 60 percent of NJ Transit’s nearly 700 daily trains must use the Northeast Corridor for some or all of their trips – and 80 percent of NJ Transit passenger rail trips touch the Northeast Corridor – all NJ Transit service into and out of New York Penn Station was also suspended for the afternoon. More than 130 NJ Transit trains were canceled or delayed, and thousands of New Jerseyans were stuck far from home for hours and were unable to have dinner with their families on Thursday night, as a result of these avoidable errors by Amtrak.” Read More: NJ Transit Train Service Resumes, Long Delays Expected
COMMUTING NIGHTMARE – “On the morning of Friday, June 21, NJ Transit customers were trapped in a commuting nightmare as service was suspended in and out of New York Penn Station due to Amtrak power problems. Many commuters undoubtedly gave up in disgust, either working from home, if they could, or climbing into their cars and fighting highway traffic, adding to our serious regional air pollution.” Read More: Train Delays For Amtrak, NJ Transit Leave Commuters Fuming (Again)
“Unfortunately, these are not isolated incidents,” New Jersey’s House members continued. “Not counting the chaos last Thursday and Friday, Amtrak disruptions have created serious delays for NJ Transit customers no less than 19 times over the past six weeks. These serious issues are occurring nowhere else on the 11 rail lines that NJ Transit owns and maintains – only on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor.”
“Needless to say, this situation is completely unacceptable,” the lawmakers added.
Signatories to Tuesday’s letter include Mikie Sherrill, Frank Pallone Jr., Thomas Kean Jr., Donald Norcross, Chris Smith, Robert J. Menendez, Josh Gottheimer, Andy Kim, Bill Pascrell, Jeff Van Drew and Bonnie Watson Coleman.
When asked to comment on Tuesday’s letter from New Jersey’s Congress members, a spokesperson directed Patch to a recent statement from Amtrak President Roger Harris.
“Amtrak is committed to providing a quality experience with on-time service that exceeds customer expectations,” Harris wrote. “Unfortunately, a unique combination of events recently caused major delays in the New York area, affecting travel along a significant section of the Northeast Corridor.”
“On behalf of the entire Amtrak team – I apologize to everyone who was inconvenienced,” Harris said.
He continued:
“While we are still investigating the root cause of each delay, we do know that, yesterday, a circuit breaker powering our trains experienced a catastrophic failure on one of the hottest days of the year and a serious brush fire also came close to our tracks. Additionally, we are working with our partners at NJ Transit to understand and address recent disruptions associated with NJ Transit trains operating on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor infrastructure, which appears unique to the equipment and area. We have established a joint team with NJ Transit to identify the source of this damage and implement improvements.”
“Regardless of the causes that led to these delays, you deserve better service and we are committed to providing it,” Harris concluded. “We are reviewing each incident with the goal of improving your future travel, while continuing to advance unprecedented investments that are modernizing and strengthening the [Northeast Corridor].”
Harris noted that Amtrak’s customer care team is working with customers who are affected by the delays. The team can be contacted via text at 268725 (AMTRAK), chat via Amtrak.com, by email, or via phone at 1-800-USA-RAIL (1-800-872-7245) or TTY 1-800-523-6590.
In the meanwhile, Democrats and Republicans alike in New Jersey continue to press Amtrak and NJ Transit for better service. And they plan to turn up the heat as temperatures soar this summer.
Curtis Bashaw, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in New Jersey, said it is “unacceptable” that thousands of New Jersey commuters were stuck in trains or between tracks for hours this week during a heat wave.
“New Jersey commuters should not continue to bear the cost of these continued infrastructure failures and incompetence from Amtrak and NJ Transit,” Bashaw said.
GATEWAY TUNNEL
The deteriorating condition of the Northeast Corridor – one of the busiest transit systems in the nation – has been a major factor in the push to build the long-awaited Gateway Tunnel, which will create a new passageway across the Hudson River from New Jersey to New York City.
The new tunnel is especially crucial to the region, as the existing North River Tunnel serving Penn Station is more than 110-years-old and was severely damaged during Superstorm Sandy in 2012. While the tunnel has been repaired frequently, its age and damaged condition present reliability concerns for more than 200,000 people who travel through the tunnel on more than 400 trains every weekday.
The tunnel is the centerpiece of a larger construction effort dubbed the Gateway Program. In addition to building a new train tunnel from New Jersey to New York, the plan also includes building new Portal North and South Bridges over the Hackensack River in New Jersey, as well as making several other smaller upgrades between Newark Penn Station and New York Penn Station. Learn more about the project here.
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