Results tagged “amtrak”

Insanity! Yesterday, Governor Paterson's office announced that "months of intensive negotiations have resulted in a general agreement and mutual understanding on the basic terms and conditions that will lead to the redevelopment of New York City’s historic Farley Post Office Building into a new intercity passenger train station and center for most of Amtrak’s New York City service." The NY Times says, "The deal, whose specifics have yet to be finalized or released, would clear one of the biggest hurdles facing Moynihan Station, which was first proposed more than 15 years ago and has struggled ever since." Last year, after various plans for revamping the gorgeous Farley building into the station had been presented, Madison Square Garden pulled out of the project to simply renovate its own building, leaving many to think the project was dead. Though NJ Transit has already agreed to use space in Moynihan Station, now Amtrak is apparently committed, with the government agreeing to give a bigger share of retail revenue. Guess Paterson really wants to be the the sheriff of Moynihan Station.

Our Amtrak-loving vice president was his usual chatty, off-the-cuff self when speaking on the Today Show. Politico reports, "Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday that he would not recommend taking any commercial flight or riding in a subway car 'at this point' because swine flu virus can spread 'in confined places.' A little more than one hour later, Biden rushed out a statement backing off his stern warning a bit."

NJ Transit commuters have been dealing with the brunt of delays after some wires "came down near Metropark in Iselin Monday night," the AP reports. First, NJ Transit trains were delayed by an hour in both directions on the popular Northeast Corridor route (some trains were even canceled), but now the delays are about 15-30 minutes because three of four tracks are now open. Amtrak customers were facing delays of about 20 minutes. It's unclear what caused the wires to be damaged, but we're betting some of those trains were getting a little tense with St. Patrick's Day revelers.

Hoping to talk some sense into the State Legislature, the MTA Board is headed to Albany—via Amtrak— to support the Ravitch Commission's recommendations, which include an 8% fare hike, tolls on East River bridges, and a "mobility" (or payroll) tax. So, if you're at Penn Station around 7:30 a.m. tomorrow and see a gaggle of media surrounding some folks, it'll probably be MTA Chairman Dale Hemmerdiner and other board members. And the Straphangers' Campaign is also heading up to Albany tomorrow.

Governor Paterson has reignited plans on the construction of Moynihan Station, the long-delayed new home of Penn Station in the post office across the street from the current one. Paterson really threw his hat into the ring attempting to stir up excitement and confidence for the new chapter in the saga of the station saying, "We're going to respond to this challenge - and do you know why we're going to respond? There's a new sheriff in town."

Damn teenagers. For years now, Astoria residents have been living in fear of rock-throwing punks who climb onto Amtrak’s railbed along the Hell Gate trestle and toss projectiles at their houses, cars and yards. Locals like Loretta Csikortos place the blame squarely at the foot of Amtrak, who she thinks should pay for repairs to her son’s Ford Mustang, which has a shattered windshield and dented trunk. Residents are calling on Amtrak to beef up security to stop the miscreants from sneaking onto the tracks, but Csikortos isn't holding her breath: “They’ll do something when somebody gets killed,” she tells the Queens Courier. Yet maybe help is on the way? Council Member Peter F. Vallone Jr has written another letter imploring Amtrak to install security cameras.

An Astoria man is suing Amtrak because they "should have known that people trespassed" in the area of a Boston station where he was severely electrocuted two years ago. After a night of drinking in July 2006, 25-year-old Brian Hopkins went down to Boston's South Station at 2 a.m. after telling friends that he "wanted to get back to New York." There he tried to force his way inside an Acela and climbed on top of a parked train car when he was jolted by 27,500 volts from arcing overhead wires. He suffered third-degree burns over 85 percent of his body, and doctors have since amputated his left hand and leg. In the suit, his family claims that Amtrak should have taken more precautions to keep trespassers out of the potentially dangerous area.

The NY Sun has a status report on the proposed rocket train. Good news for rail riders, "the House passed legislation [The Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act] requiring the federal government to solicit proposals for its financing and development." The plan has Bloomberg's full support, and would make the NYC to D.C. trip under two hours...but it will cost a pretty penny.

New York was in full support calls for $14.4 billion in rail investment in the next five years. Some of those funds could go toward the development of the high-speed passenger train, as well as other local projects, such as a renovated Pennsylvania Station to be named after Senator Moynihan.

In the 1960s, New York Central Railroad invested in high speed rail and jet powered train testing, referred to as the M-497 tests. A U.S. rail-speed record of 183.85 miles per hour, which stands to this day, was set back then -- but eventually the train was scrapped for parts.

According to WNBC's Jonathan Dienst, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly wrote a letter to the MTA, MSG, Amtrak, and Vornado Realty expressing his dismay over the lack of Penn Station security. Three years after funding had been secured for the construction of a legitimately effective security barrier to protect Penn Station from a truck bomb attack, Kelly says little has been done to implement any plans.

At West End Avenue and West 59th Street, a water main broke, flooding the Amtrak tracks. The FDNY is pumping out the water and a number of other city agencies, including the Office of Emergency Management and Department of Environmental Protection are on the scene. According to other reports, a new building (an expansion of John Jay Collage) at the intersection is also flooded.

Hundreds of thousands of commuters can breathe a sigh of relief today as a threatened strike by Amtrak workers has been avoided. A strike would have shut down Penn Station, diverting travelers on the Long Island Rail Road, Amtrak lines, and New Jersey Transit to subways and the PATH system. The city was already preparing contingency plans to have LIRR riders disembark in Brooklyn, and Jamaica Station and Woodside in Queens to take the subway. NJ Transit riders would be shunted to Hoboken, where they could board PATH trains to Manhattan. The chairman of a LIRR commuters group said "It is going to be worse than a nightmare - it will be a complete horror show."

Eight separate unions representing Amtrak workers are threatening to go on strike as early as January 30th if they are not presented with new contracts, which they've worked without for years. A strike would hurt more than people taking the Acela between Washington D.C. and Boston. If Amtrak workers strike, it would close Penn Station and hundreds off thousands of daily commuters on the Long Island Rail Road, NJ Transit, and Amtrak would be seriously inconvenienced.

Yesterday afternoon, downed wires in a train tunnel caused hours of delays for trains in the Northeast Corridor yesterday. The downed wires stopped a passenger train from entering the tunnels, and then the domino effect: Amtrak trains from Boston were backed up on their way to NYC, while trains from Philadelphia to NYC only made it to Newark. The outage occurred around 8:30AM and service was restored around 2:30PM, after affecting at least 50,000 riders...