Passenger Trains > MTA: Amtrak’s Dithering Means Penn Access Won’t Be Done ‘Ti

https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2025/10/28/amtraks-dithering-delays-completion-of-penn-access-to-2030-mta-says

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/27/nyregion/metro-north-bronx-penn-access.html 
https://archive.ph/wKh44



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/28/25 03:56 by joemvcnj.

I'd say that this is unbelievable, but given that it is Amtrak, I believe it entirely.

MTA chose to go with a electric/battery-only version of Charger locos - 13 of them for several reasons:

• There are insufficient M-8 MU's to cover the service,
• Option order M-8's are long since over,
• There are no plans for an "M-10" while Siemens gave them a deal they could not refuse,
• 3rd rail installation not needed between "GATE" (western Woodside) and Harold and  one less thing MTA has to do with Amtrak.

Where MTA will get the coaches, I have no idea.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/28/25 05:24 by joemvcnj.

Good points joemvcnj .

I wonder if Amtrak management are just being jerks, or,
do they have a legitimate reason for what they're doing.

Since Amtrak maintains "Soviet Style" secrecy on everything
(thank you, John Mica),  could the following be an explanation
as to why Amtrak is being difficult?

Amtrak is adamant that figures prove (see below) the NEC trains
are profitable, so, maybe this is why they will not cooperate with
the "service outages" the MTA wants.  No company would cooperate
with "Profit Distruction".

Note: for 11 months of 2025, Amtrak says the NEC produced
"Adjusted Operating Earnings (Profit) of  $322.6 Million dollars.
(That's a lot of money)!

Amtrak's accounting system will not pass usual accounting standards, and Amtrak knows it.  

Now, please go away..........

MEKoch

Only train fans dispute Amtrak accounting system.

I accept Amtrak's figures because I have no proof 
to the contrary.



 

By the time this unnecessary service opens, the will have excess comet coaches bumped down from the Connecticut lines with the arrival of the new alstom push pull flert

Posted from Android

ronald321 Wrote:

> Only train fans dispute Amtrak accounting system.
> I accept Amtrak's figures because I have no proof to the contrary.

That's exactly what Richard Anderson used to say.

"Train fans" as you and he say authored this, who have backgrounds in economics, security valuations, and running manufacturing businesses, because I know the 3 people who wrote it. (the current echelon of Amtrak lackeys at NARP/RPA never bring up this document and wouldn't understand it anyway). 

https://www.railpassengers.org/site/assets/files/7353/amtraks_route_accounting_-_fatally_flawed.pdf

https://eddiedee.medium.com/is-amtrak-misleading-america-9e09fcd57860 

Suffice it to say, it is arbitrary mess of fixed cost allocations, categorizing operations as capital that they should not, and do not adhere to GAAP standards. 

Getting back to this project, I think Amtrak are just being imperious, entitled jerks, though MN's hostile dispatching of Amtrak up to Poughkeepsie and New Haven doesn't help. 
 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/28/25 09:07 by joemvcnj.

beebopper Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> By the time this unnecessary service opens, the
> will have excess comet coaches bumped down from
> the Connecticut lines with the arrival of the new
> alstom push pull flert

Totally unserved by rail and heavily populated East Bronx area making do with pokey #6 local subway trains and buses does not render it "uneccesary" to access jobs in Manhatan and along the New Haven line.  Specifically 500,000 Bronx residents, slash travel time by as much as 50 minutes, some trips to Connecticut by 73 minutes.

I have heard others say that the Mafersa cars are now banned south of NHV. 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/28/25 10:14 by joemvcnj.

Is this accounting system the one that allocated some snow removal costs to Miami / Hialeah?  

TO:  joemvcnj

I wouldn't doubt for one moment that AmManagement might
be acting like imperialist jerks, but---it's their property after all.
 
My advice to AmManagment is--implement "The Art of the Deal"
in dealing with MTA's request for interrupting NEC operations.

For example---tell MTA that Amtrak will agree to these "outages"--in
exchange for MTA's agreement to give Amtrak trains absolute priority
over commuter trains between New Rochelle and New Haven (maybe
even increase the speed limit)--on a permanent basis.

If Amtrak is asked to give up revenue--and inconvenience thousands of passenger--
then, they should get something back for it.

ronald321 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> TO:  joemvcnj
>
> I wouldn't doubt for one moment that AmManagement
> might
> be acting like imperialist jerks, but---it's their
> property after all.
>  
> My advice to AmManagment is--implement "The Art of
> the Deal"
> in dealing with MTA's request for interrupting NEC
> operations.
>
> For example---tell MTA that Amtrak will agree to
> these "outages"--in
> exchange for MTA's agreement to give Amtrak trains
> absolute priority
> over commuter trains between New Rochelle and New
> Haven (maybe
> even increase the speed limit)--on a permanent
> basis.
>
> If Amtrak is asked to give up revenue--and
> inconvenience thousands of passenger--
> then, they should get something back for it.

The issue is not NEC schedule outages, which has already been accomplished, but Amtrak officials chronically not showing up to work so that MNR can themselves do the work, which they cannot do with Amtrak supervisors absent. 

Focus on this part in the first article:
"Amtrak failed to provide a required supervisor almost 200 times after an agreed-upon service outage — and as a result the MTA's contractor was sending workers to a job site just to stand around. The lack of track access in 2022 and 2023 meant that the MTA couldn't finish installing a key track switch called the Leggett Interlocking that allows work to be done without disrupting Amtrak service.

So by Amtrak's prolonging this project by several years, their train schedule changes remain in effect, such as on the overnight train, and single tracking over some segments, Amtrak has once again shot themselves in the posterior. 



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/28/25 09:57 by joemvcnj.

To: joemvcnj

I feel you're simply accepting MTA's allegation against Amtrak
as automatically true.

God knows! I have a low opinion of AmManagement--but, even
they have their side of the story to tell.  What are they gaining by
not cooperating with MTA?

So, don't be to quick to take sides because, as Abe Lincoln famously said---
"Every position sounds right--until you hear the other side"  I've always liked this saying.

ronald321 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> To: joemvcnj
>
> I feel you're simply accepting MTA's allegation
> against Amtrak
> as automatically true.
>
> God knows! I have a low opinion of
> AmManagement--but, even
> they have their side of the story to tell.  What
> are they gaining by
> not cooperating with MTA?
>
> So, don't be to quick to take sides because, as
> Abe Lincoln famously said---
> "Every position sounds right--until you hear the
> other side"  I've always liked this saying.

As stated in the press articles, plural, which are not MTA press releases is that the people at MTA responsible for this got LIRR 3rd track Main Line done on time and on budget, and also the last several years East Side Access. Amtrak had not much of substance to say.  So much for their side of it.

I have no idea what Amtrak is gaining, not a mind reader, but Amtrak's unacceptable absentee record from this project indicates nothing but obstruction.  



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/28/25 13:53 by joemvcnj.

To: joemvcnj

You're a train fan who has declared AmManagement Guilty---
That's OK with me--I don't care for them, either.

For myself--I'll wait a while. This kind of "Dust-Up" usually get
settled somehow.  If  not---then expensive lawsuits is the answer.

The Miami Herald articles about Amtrak and the Miami Airport Intermodal Center echo in this discussion.

Amtrak didn't respond to many requests for information on train length, expected future increases in train frequency, etc. So, FDOT filled in the blanks. Amtrak objected, FDOT built a new road for them, and they still would not move to their new facility.

Amtrak differs with this account.

Posted from Android

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The Miami Herald articles about Amtrak and the
> Miami Airport Intermodal Center echo in this
> discussion.
>
> Amtrak didn't respond to many requests for
> information on train length, expected future
> increases in train frequency, etc. So, FDOT filled
> in the blanks. Amtrak objected, FDOT built a new
> road for them, and they still would not move to
> their new facility.
>
> Amtrak differs with this account.

And who do we have taking Amtrak's side with this thing ? Can't think of anyone, even though BL is falling financially on hard times. 

When redesigning Denver Union Station, as well as the temporary depot, Amtrak became very space and consist limited because they slept as stakeholder through the design meetings, perhaps so that they can play victim at the end of the day. 

So here, they'll blame MTA for their NEC schedule constraints and changes until the cows come home.  

The pattern of behavior of this 54 year old troubled pupil is self evident. 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/28/25 16:16 by joemvcnj.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The Miami Herald articles about Amtrak and the
> Miami Airport Intermodal Center echo in this
> discussion.
>
> Amtrak didn't respond to many requests for
> information on train length, expected future
> increases in train frequency, etc. So, FDOT filled
> in the blanks. Amtrak objected, FDOT built a new
> road for them, and they still would not move to
> their new facility.

Amtrak has had a station design guideline available online for at least two decades which would have told them exactly what to do.  Apparently it was too much trouble to use this document.

Some of the difficulties on this job stem from strange planning decisions made over a decade ago, such as building the local tracks in the middle of the right of way and the express tracks on the outside.  This means that the passenger stations cannot start construction until existing Track 2 is replaced since the stations are on top of Track 2.  If the stations were side platforms, they could have started construction much sooner.