Amtrak, NJ Transit making progress on NEC service reliability

Service reliability on the Northeast Corridor (NEC) has improved during the last several months due to a joint effort by Amtrak and New Jersey Transit (NJ Transit). After issuing a report in August, which included details of joint efforts and progress to date, Amtrak and NJ Transit released a new progress report on Nov. 20 and discussed the recently-awarded grants for nearly $300 million in federal funding to modernize critical rail infrastructure in New Jersey.  

“This summer, I brought Amtrak and NJ Transit together to address unacceptably long, disruptive rail delays on NJ Transit that were a consistent problem in the spring and early summer,” said New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy. “With today’s meeting, we are proud to announce that Amtrak has now completed its inspection of all 240 miles of catenary overhead wire systems between Trenton and New York City and while the fundamental challenge facing our mass transit system continues to be aging infrastructure, we believe that these completed repairs, and the infrastructure investments to come, will make sure New Jerseyans have an easier time getting where they need to go when they need to get there.” 

“Our partnership with NJ Transit and joint commitment to Gov. Murphy to ensure that our collective customers have safe and reliable train service is achieving results,” said Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner. “Amtrak and NJ Transit will continue to conduct inspections, make short-term repairs and seek more funding to fully modernize all aspects of our infrastructure over the long term, including our electric traction system, catenary, signals, switches and more.”  

The execution of the joint action plan followed several major service disruptions in May and June, together with a variety of smaller incidents that reduced service reliability on the NEC between Trenton and New York City. Following June’s public meeting with Gov. Murphy, Amtrak and NJ Transit outlined immediate actions, investigations, inspections and repairs that both companies undertook together to address these issues. NJ Transit notes the comprehensive actions taken since June have greatly contributed to a noticeable decline in similar occurrences over the past several months and service quality has returned to typical levels.  

During the course of the past five months, Amtrak and NJ Transit made the following improvements executing on their joint plan: 

• Amtrak performed 240 track miles of catenary system inspection on the NEC between Trenton and New York City and renewed approximately 2,000 hardware components within the area. 
• Amtrak conducted helicopter inspections of the entire NEC overhead catenary system between Trenton and the North River Tunnel, right outside New York Penn Station, and made 839 hardware replacements from the defects identified from the 2,000-plus catenary structures captured from the photographs taken during the inspections. 
• Amtrak performed photo inspections via special hi-rail vehicle of tunnels and tracks within New York Penn Station. 
• Amtrak identified and remediated electric traction components and replaced overhead wire to ensure reliability. 
• NJ Transit and Amtrak increased equipment inspections and used high-definition video on top of locomotives to document the interaction of NJ Transit equipment with Amtrak wires. 
• NJ Transit also completed visual and hands-on inspections of approximately 82 route miles of overhead catenary system on its territory. 

 In addition to these improvements, Amtrak recently received nearly $300 million in grants, applied for with NJ Transit support and matching funds, from the Federal Railroad Administration for several projects that will modernize the area’s infrastructure. The $300 million includes funding to advance further planning, development or construction activities as follows: 

• The Amtrak Sawtooth Bridges Replacement Project obtained $187.5 million for final design and preconstruction services, which includes updated track, signals, catenary and other infrastructure in the 2.5-mile territory for the replacement of the 115-year-old NEC bridges in Kearny, N.J. 
• The Amtrak Substation 41 Renewal Project, which will replace and protect from the potential of flooding, a key point on Amtrak’s NEC electric traction system and protect it from the potential of flooding, received $80.2 million to construct a new substation in Kearny. 
• Amtrak signal system upgrades between New Brunswick and Elizabeth, N.J., received $18.6 million for project development and design of modernizing the existing signal system along 26 miles of the NEC for increased train throughput and improved speeds. 
• Amtrak NEC catenary upgrades from New Brunswick to Newark, N.J., secured $13.4 million to fund the completion of the design and the environmental review of the project, which will result in the replacement of the almost 90-year-old catenary structures along 23 miles.