""This project has been troubled from the start, and that's predominantly due to the fact that we're working on Amtrak territory, subject to Amtrak's cooperation and oversight," said Torres-Springer. Penn Access would expand the existing Amtrak right-of-way from two tracks to four. The project began with an outrageous lack of track access for the MTA's contractor, and that has now cascaded into years of delays, Torres-Springer said."
""I don't think this is in dispute: of the 48 outages committed to on paper in an agreement between Amtrak and the MTA, only seven were provided in the first two years," he said. "[Amtrak] can quibble and say actually it was seven and a half or eight, but, we did not get the outages in the first two years, and that set the project spiraling off in the wrong direction.""
"In addition to declining to give the MTA the service outages that were promised, 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."
Penn Access aims to build four new Metro-North stations in the East and South Bronx to speed tens of thousands of commuters to Penn Station. The project requires expanding Amtrak's right-of-way from two tracks to four and significant track access. Amtrak failed to provide promised service outages—only seven of 48 occurred in the first two years—and missed supplying a required supervisor almost 200 times after outages. These failures prevented installation of the Leggett Interlocking and caused contractors to be idle on site. As a result, the project is delayed until 2030 at the earliest, according to MTA officials.
Read at Streetsblog
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