Passenger Trains > Amtrak has New Jersey media shilling for it again

https://www.nj.com/opinion/2020/09/amtrak-says-it-must-repair-its-crumbling-storm-ravaged-hudson-river-train-tunnel-opinion.html


Here's Amtrak, in the process of begging for more Northeast
Corridor money, dredging up "Superstorm" Sandy -- a storm so
overhyped it had to have its own invented category -- which occurred
almost eight years ago.

Amtrak had a preliminary engineering study done, but that's about
it. It's held the repair job hostage to its much grander Gateway
scheme. Meanwhile, the New York MTA, which as an organization is not
anyone's idea of well-oiled efficiency, has completed repairs to
tunnels of similar design, and did so on an accelerated schedule,
with streamlined construction methods that didn't require a total
shutdown.

Amtrak squandered eight years. It doesn't sound all that "urgent." 

Shilling? Not surprising, look at the by-line on the op-ed.

Anyway, nice that Amtrak is belatedly coming around to embracing the MTA's "L Line" solution. It seems like they found themselves behind the eight ball, politically. Cuomo was able to claim a lot of credit for delivering the L Line repairs with limited disruption.

Paul Wilson
Arlington, VA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/23/20 10:31 by Dcmcrider.

Andrew Cuomo received a lot of criticism for throwing out the official plan, and going with other experts.

I was one of those who thought it was a mistake. I was wrong.

No way Amtrak is going to end service at Newark for two or three years, however. The whole place would collapse.

Posted from Android

Amtrak concerte tunnel walls may be in worse shape than the Canarsie tunnels, and there are a lot more electricals to hang from it. It is not just 3rd rail conduits. 

Dcmcrider Wrote:
 Cuomo was able a lot of
> credit for delivering the L Line repairs with
> limited disruption.

Not deserving credit for simply kicking the can down the road for a few more years.

RRTom Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Dcmcrider Wrote:
>  Cuomo was able a lot of
> > credit for delivering the L Line repairs with
> > limited disruption.
>
> Not deserving credit for simply kicking the can
> down the road for a few more years.

I meant to write that Cuomo "claimed" credit, and not taking a position on whether he "deserved" it!

Paul Wilson
Arlington, VA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/23/20 10:32 by Dcmcrider.

I might point out that the "superstorm" label was applied by the press, not by the weather people. 

Perhaps a bad choice of branding, but not unjustified. The storm was a near direct hit by a major tropical storm, well outside the normal storm season, with an extraordinarily high storm surge (predicted correctly days in advance by those nasty government bureaucrats).  Why not call it just a tropical storm?  Because in some ways it wasn't one. Tropical storms don't typically deliver a large part of their precipitation as snow. Sandy did just that, the back side of the storm looked a lot like a wintertime nor'easter. I spent  a good part of the next week digging up ruptured fuel tanks on Long Island, standing in piles of crusty snow melt. 

And on the political side, the idiotic managers in NJ that didn't take the simple step of moving equipment inland get to hide behind the superstorm label, despite the fact that the storm surge that flooded NJT facilities was totally obvious days in advance. I'd didn't matter how much rain fell, the ocean itself did the flooding. 

Governor Christie actually came up with "Superstorm" as opposed to "Hurricane' because a little known endorsement in most building and housing insurance policies greatly increase the deductible for a named hurricane So I was told by my insurance agent some years later, one of the few good things he did for consumers. 

Politics - Politics - Politics!.  We just can't get enough of it.  We love it!.  We no longer think in terms of anything else.

There are two, 100+ year old tunnels, sitting on the bottom of the Hudson, under 40+ feet of water.
No one denies it needs repairs - and is not capable of meeting future needs.

If you're well informed - you realize there are some who say--So what?  This benefits only N.Y. City, and they have
no interest in helping this City. -- just as there are Railfans who have no interest in the NEC.

Since Amtrak wants to behave and act like it's a Northeast corporation (while ignoring the word "National") they should be faced with that very question. "Why do you not address these financial concerns and needs to the NE States?" After all these tunnels came about by the Pennsylvania Railroad in the interest of passengers to and from Chicago and St. Louis, and inter-connecting beyond.   

Sandy was a hurricane when it made landfall in New Jersey. 

That said, there were highly unusual aspects such as the snow in West Virginia. That was anticipated well before. Please see the first link below. 

Next, the 'nasty government bureaucrats' did a poor job of warning of the storm surge. Many of us had to correct those incorrect statements and impressions. Please see: 

Written 3 days before:  http://www.mikesmithenterprisesblog.com/2012/10/8am-friday-hurricane-sandy-update.html  
Read this one in particular, 2 days before:  http://www.mikesmithenterprisesblog.com/2012/10/the-consequences-of-nwss-decision-not.html 
Written Monday morning, 12 hours before:  http://www.mikesmithenterprisesblog.com/2012/10/wind-and-rain-forecasts.html  

I was associated with the government's assessment report on Sandy. It wasn't the government's finest hour by any means. 



march_hare Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I might point out that the "superstorm" label was
> applied by the press, not by the weather
> people. 
>
> Perhaps a bad choice of branding, but not
> unjustified. The storm was a near direct hit by a
> major tropical storm, well outside the normal
> storm season, with an extraordinarily high storm
> surge (predicted correctly days in advance by
> those nasty government bureaucrats).  Why not
> call it just a tropical storm?  Because in some
> ways it wasn't one. Tropical storms don't
> typically deliver a large part of their
> precipitation as snow. Sandy did just that, the
> back side of the storm looked a lot like a
> wintertime nor'easter. I spent  a good part of
> the next week digging up ruptured fuel tanks on
> Long Island, standing in piles of crusty snow
> melt.