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  • Penn Station Emergency Repairs: Trackwork, etc.

  • Discussion related to Amtrak also known as the National Railroad Passenger Corp.
Discussion related to Amtrak also known as the National Railroad Passenger Corp.

Moderators: GirlOnTheTrain, mtuandrew, Tadman

 #1500357  by electricron
 
we are 44 pages into this thread, is anyone keeping count on which tracks have been refurbished?
Per Amtrak's web site
https://www.amtrak.com/nyprenewal" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

2018 Summer Renewal (May 26-Sept. 4):
– Empire Connection – Amtrak will be replacing track in the Empire
Tunnel, as well as replacing cross ties, grade crossings and 80,000 feet of continuous rail, including the track between the tunnel and the Spuyten Duyvil Bridge.
– Spuyten Duyvil Bridge – Amtrak will be updating the bridge’s mechanical and electrical equipment.
– Track 19 at New York Penn Station – Amtrak will replace three turnouts and conduct total ballasted track and wood tie track replacement.
2018 Winter Renewal (Jan. 5-May 28)
From January 5th through May 28th, work tasks to be completed in New York Penn Station include: (Numbers correspond with locations where work occurred at track level. See map on next page.)
1. Replace Track 15 block tie and ballasted track 2. Rehabilitate Track 18 direct fixation track
3. Replace three (3) turnouts in “C” Interlocking
2017 Summer Renewal ( )
Already null and void at Amtrak's web site, from not even two years ago.
From others they rebuilt Track 10 and worked on many turnouts in A Interlocking, but that information is second hand, not from the source we should be using - and what amtrak directs us to.

If we just look at what Amtrak publicly reports on its web site, in two years they have repaired Tracks 15, 18, and 19.

So out of a total of 21 tracks with platforms, they have finished 3 or 4. At the pace they're proceeding, its going to take 10 years to finish repairing their busiest station, where approximately 33% of all riders nationally visit. WOW!
 #1501841  by EuroStar
 
While I am not sure if it is part of the repairs or just the work related to Moynihan Station, track 1E has brand new shiny copper catenary, so presumably it will be back in service in a few weeks. I could not determine if track 2E was also already wired or not.
 #1517159  by EuroStar
 
I am sad to report that the purpose of all the construction in the space occupied by track 5A of yard A has become apparent: to support a building or whatever the developer is putting on top above the deck that covered most of the opening next to 9th Avenue. While the track saw relatively little use in the most recent years before its demise it is not clear to me that giving it up was the smartest thing to do without completed Gateway tunnels. The track appears to have been too short to fit most of the current NJT consists (some of the shortest ones might have fit, I am not sure), but probably could have worked as a future lay-up track for Metro-North consists which are generally shorter.

While track 5A was not essential, I still hate to see the removal of scarce transportation infrastructure at Penn for the benefit of private developers before there is any certainty that any of the real transportation improvements at Penn are going to happen. In exchange for giving up the track Amtrak should have at least gotten the developers to fund the connection of tracks 1A/2A/3A under 10th Avenue to the existing tunnel box beyond 10th Avenue giving them the option of using the tunnel box as a yard until the Gateway tunnels happen (or if they never happen).
 #1582260  by Gilbert B Norman
 
Today's Wall Street Journal includes "a blast":

https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-york-p ... 1633722305

Fair Use:
During the darkest days of the pandemic, the new Moynihan Train Hall seemed like a gift from the gods. The addition to Penn Station, converted from the old James A. Farley Post Office building across Eighth Avenue, opened in January. It is a cavernous hall with light streaming in from the high vaulted glass ceiling—a stark contrast to the dank, subterranean warrens of old. The critics raved. “It’s not traditional or modern but both,” Ian Volner noted in The New Yorker, “combining early-20th-century grandeur with early-21st-century sophistication.”

Moynihan is certainly a striking piece of public architecture, but I wonder how many who are hailing it have tried boarding a train there. As an occasional Long Island Rail Road rider, I have found the new hall something between frustrating and irrelevant—the latest of the city’s architectural showpieces that seem designed more to impress outsiders than to serve New Yorkers who actually use it.
Great architecture; but what's that to an LIRR passenger, who shows uo five minutes before his train and just wants to get home.

Or how about the NJT passenger, for whom it's "off limits"?
 #1582266  by andegold
 
The LIRR rider can continue to use the old stairways and escalators if they choose. How a big open hall with clearly marked escalators and elevators can be frustrating is beyond me. Irrelevant? Just don't use it. If you come by foot from the east or from the 1/2/3 yes, it's irrelevant. If you come from the west or from the A/C/E it is very relevant and easy to navigate.

It is not "off limits" to NJT passengers. There are no NJT departure boards because too many NJT trains depart from tracks 1 - 4 which do not have direct access to Moynihan. You would have to go down to track 5, back up to the old arrivals concourse (mezzanine) and then down to your track - that would be truly frustrating and confusing.

Knowledgeable NJT riders will have departurevision (is that still a thing?) or whatever the current version of an NJT app is on their phones and know how to navigate the above. Others will just stay in the old concourses where they will have much more room than before with the absence of Amtrak & LIRR riders.
 #1582430  by alewifebp
 
Well, Moynihan was more for Amtrak anyway, so I don't see the complaints from LIRR riders being too credible. Especially since you would have much better subway access from the old, dingy Penn than you would from the new shiny Moynihan.

On a recent trip on the Cardinal, I needed to transfer to an NJT train after arriving at NYP. Instead of walking towards Moynihan, walked towards Penn instead, and actually had a pretty tight connection made quickly. Departurevision is built in to the NJT app, which is more widely used these days since you can pay for fares "contactless".
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