New York Commuters Face 44 Days of Amtrak Service Cuts in July and August
Amtrak is anticipating as many as 44 days of limited service this summer for repairs at Pennsylvania Station in a preliminary plan that appears to favor the national passenger railroad’s needs over those of a half-million daily New York City commuters.
https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-05-02/amtrak-s-44-day-service-cut-plan-would-put-burden-on-commuters
Maybe some good will come out of this and Amtrak will be removed as station operator.
runnerdude48Maybe some good will come out of this and Amtrak will be removed as station operator. Add Quote to
Be careful what you ask for, you may not find the alternative as beneficial as you expect.
Considering that Amtrak is shoving 50 LBs of passengers into a 20 LB bag every day with a plant thats 107 years old, I don't think they are doing that bad. Especially when they have a Congress that wants them to fail.
runnerdude48Maybe some good will come out of this and Amtrak will be removed as station operator.
Those that don't have to do the actual work always think they can easily do it better and cheaper than those that are actually doing it.
It's complicated, who knew?
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Electroliner 1935 runnerdude48 Maybe some good will come out of this and Amtrak will be removed as station operator. Add Quote to Be careful what you ask for, you may not find the alternative as beneficial as you expect. Considering that Amtrak is shoving 50 LBs of passengers into a 20 LB bag every day with a plant thats 107 years old, I don't think they are doing that bad. Especially when they have a Congress that wants them to fail.
runnerdude48 Maybe some good will come out of this and Amtrak will be removed as station operator. Add Quote to
runnerdude48 Maybe some good will come out of this and Amtrak will be removed as station operator.
It wouldn't be NJT taking over, because then they would have to pay the full cost of maintaining that part of the corridor, instead of just paying Amtrak a token rent.
Scott Naparstek My name is Scot Naparstek, and I am the Chief Operating Officer of Amtrak.I am responsible to Wick Moorman and to the Amtrak Board of Directors for the operation of the 21,000 mile Amtrak system and the maintenance of our equipment and infrastructure. I am therefore responsible for the operation and maintenance of New York Penn Station. Dating from 1910, the station now hosts more than 1300 trains on every weekday–which, as you heard, is twice as many as it carried in 1976. The number of station tracks were never expanded to support this volume of traffic, and more trains have been added onto an aging and constrained system that was already operating beyond capacity, stressing the 149 switches and more than a thousand track components that keep trains moving every day. Additionally, the station has signaling and electrification systems dating from the 1930s and any electrical and mechanical components, including HVAC systems, fire and life safety systems, and the structure itself, which must all be maintained and renewed aggressively to support the tremendous demands placed on them at the nation’s busiest transportation facility. As Wick said, the xtraordinary use of the station today illustrates a larger theme. This facility is simply over-capacity and has not received all of the systematic renewal and maintenance it badly needs. We have a 108 year old station that is completely full, doing things it was never designed to do; with no margin for error. As we have just witnessed, under these conditions,relatively small or isolated incidents that might have minimal impacts elsewhere on our system can swell suddenly into major service disruptions here.
My name is Scot Naparstek, and I am the Chief Operating Officer of Amtrak.I am responsible to Wick Moorman and to the Amtrak Board of Directors for the operation of the 21,000 mile Amtrak system and the maintenance of our equipment and infrastructure. I am therefore responsible for the operation and maintenance of New York Penn Station. Dating from 1910, the station now hosts more than 1300 trains on every weekday–which, as you heard, is twice as many as it carried in 1976. The number of station tracks were never expanded to support this volume of traffic, and more trains have been added onto an aging and constrained system that was already operating beyond capacity, stressing the 149 switches and more than a thousand track components that keep trains moving every day. Additionally, the station has signaling and electrification systems dating from the 1930s and any electrical and mechanical components, including HVAC systems, fire and life safety systems, and the structure itself, which must all be maintained and renewed aggressively to support the tremendous demands placed on them at the nation’s busiest transportation facility. As Wick said, the xtraordinary use of the station today illustrates a larger theme. This facility is simply over-capacity and has not received all of the systematic renewal and maintenance it badly needs. We have a 108 year old station that is completely full, doing things it was never designed to do; with no margin for error. As we have just witnessed, under these conditions,relatively small or isolated incidents that might have minimal impacts elsewhere on our system can swell suddenly into major service disruptions here.
Operating facilities that are routinely running over their designed capacity is not for the weak of heart or for rookies.
Mr. Naparstek,
Thanks for your authoritative comments. It is always refreshing to hear from someone in a senior position who really knows what is going on. I hope you will come back from time to time and participate in our forum.
Rio Grande Valley, CFI,CFII
JPS1 Mr. Naparstek, Thanks for your authoritative comments. It is always refreshing to hear from someone in a senior position who really knows what is going on. I hope you will come back from time to time and participate in our forum.
That was his opening statement to the 'authorities' investigating the issues of Penn Station.
Thank you, Balt, for posting the abstract from Mr. Naperstak's address. It makes the whole matter clearer.
Incidentally, I was affeccted by the second derailment as I was on my way to Boston that day--a long wait in Newark with several SB trains going by, and then an unscheduled stop with wait at Secaucus Transfer (I had never before noticed that place). I was happy that my trip back to D.C. the next day was not so afflicted. I did enjoy both trips in 1st class Acela.
Johnny
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