NJ Transit says New York Penn Station rail service–disrupted since a minor derailment on Monday–will resume full service on Friday, April 7, 2017. Maybe.
It hinges on Amtrak completing track repairs by 4 am as promised.
Meanwhile, Gov. Christie has vowed to withhold NJ Transit payments (about $62 million last year) to Amtrak until an independent inspection verifies the safety of the Northeast Corridor.
And lawmakers in Trenton this week grilled the state treasurer about the Christie administration’s funding of NJ Transit.
Commuters have complained of huge delays and poor communications by NJ Transit following Monday morning’s incident, which involved an NJ Transit train from Trenton. It was the second derailment in two weeks at Penn Station, which Amtrak owns.
“We now know that deficiencies in Amtrak’s infrastructure at Penn Station New York caused an extremely difficult and challenging week for our customers,” NJ Transit Executive Director Steven H. Santoro said in a statement.
“We appreciate and value all of our customers and thank them for their patience. I want to assure our riders that NJ TRANSIT is doing everything possible to ensure Amtrak sets the bar higher on maintaining their infrastructure to prevent these types of incidents,” Santoro said.
Here’s the latest from NJ Transit:
NJ TRANSIT TO RESTORE FULL SERVICE TO/FROM NEW YORK PENDING
GO-AHEAD FROM AMTRAK
Full Weekday Service Set To Resume Friday A.M.; Cross-Honoring Continues For Customer Convenience
NEWARK, NJ — NJ TRANSIT will resume full weekday service into and out of Penn Station New York (PSNY) for Friday morning, pending completion of track repairs by Amtrak. Amtrak has committed to reopening the closed section of track near PSNY by
4 a.m.
Northeast Corridor (NEC) and North Jersey Coast Line (NJCL) schedules will return to full regular weekday service. MidTOWN Direct trains will resume service to and from PSNY. Raritan Valley Line (RVL) mid-day trains will resume direct service to and from PSNY.
“We now know that deficiencies in Amtrak’s infrastructure at Penn Station New York caused an extremely difficult and challenging week for our customers,” said Executive Director Steven H. Santoro.
“We appreciate and value all of our customers and thank them for their patience. I want to assure our riders that NJ TRANSIT is doing everything possible to ensure Amtrak sets the bar higher on maintaining their infrastructure to prevent these types of incidents.”
As customers return to regular weekday schedules, cross honoring will remain in effect with NJ TRANSIT bus, light rail, private carrier bus, NY Waterway ferry, and PATH at Newark, Hoboken and 33rd Street.
Note: The special New York Waterway ferry from Hoboken Terminal will not operate.
For the latest travel information, customers should visit njtransit.com, access NJ TRANSIT’s Twitter feed at @NJTRANSIT or listen to broadcast traffic reports.
Additionally, NJ TRANSIT will provide the most current service information via the My Transit alert system (www.njtransit.com/mytransit), which delivers travel advisories to your smartphone. Service information is also available by calling (973) 275-5555.
For background
At approximately 9 a.m. Monday morning, NJ TRANSIT’s Northeast Corridor line train #3926 experienced a slow-speed derailment while pulling in to Track 9 at New York’s Penn Station. Three cars in the middle of the ten car train derailed. These were cars 5, 6, and 7.
Amtrak, which owns and maintains the tracks near Penn Station New York, has determined that a track problem was the cause of the derailment.
About NJ TRANSIT
NJ TRANSIT is the nation’s largest statewide public transportation system providing more than 944,000 weekday trips on 255 bus routes, three light rail lines, 12 commuter rail lines and through Access Link paratransit service. It is the third largest transit system in the country with 166 rail stations, 62 light rail stations and more than 18,000 bus stops linking major points in New Jersey, New York and Philadelphia.
This can’t all be blamed on Amtrak. The communication to customers by NJ transit has been unacceptable. Commutes have taken between 3-5 hours because of lack of information about when trains were leaving. Websites nor the app were accurate. And nJ transit website gives so little information and tells passengers to go to nj transit… when you are on the nj transit site.