We thank Governor Hochul and the MTA for the opportunity today to discuss our comprehensive plan for full rehabilitation of the East River Tunnel, including our robust preparation efforts to ensure we can provide reliable service and reduce impacts for Amtrak, LIRR, and NJ TRANSIT passengers when the construction outage begins tomorrow night (Friday, May 23).
During this productive meeting, Amtrak reassured the Governor and MTA of our commitment to minimizing impacts to passengers throughout the project. This includes our detailed plan to provide around-the-clock engineering coverage during the outage, more frequent inspections as track access time permits, strategically positioned rescue equipment, and more. With LIRR and NJ TRANSIT, we will closely monitor service during construction and make modifications to the plan, if needed, to ensure reliability of passenger service while fixing this critical infrastructure.
It is important to all of us this project is a success so that all passengers, including Long Island and upstate New York residents and travelers, continue to have strong, reliable, on-time service now and in the future. Amtrak is committed to delivering for today’s riders while making the long-overdue investments needed to protect service for future generations. We are working to ensure a reliable commute now – and a resilient system for tomorrow.