Another round of delays at New York’s Pennsylvania Station on Wednesday night had commuters recalling the meltdown two weeks ago, when downed power lines in New Jersey forced Amtrak to suspend train service throughout the Northeast Corridor between New York and Washington for most of the night. .
The wait times this time were not as severe. Trains leaving Penn Station for New Jersey faced 45-minute delays starting at 5:16 p.m. due to an inspection of Amtrak-owned tracks in Secaucus, New Jersey, according to an Amtrak spokesperson.
Large crowds gathered inside the station after 6 p.m., as at least 10 New Jersey Transit trains were unable to depart on time. Only one Amtrak train was delayed 33 minutes, said Amtrak spokesman Jason Abrams. The track inspection was completed by 6:25 p.m., Abrams said, and service began to return to normal.
Delays are a “constant problem,” said Antonio Shaw, 33, who arrived at Penn Station at 5:45 p.m. to catch a train to Rahway, New Jersey. “It’s frustrating for a traveler,” he said.
The Northeast Corridor is the busiest section of passenger rail in the United States. The section between Newark, New Jersey, and New York includes some of the oldest rail infrastructure in the country, including rail yards in Kearny, New Jersey, and a pair of tunnels under the Hudson River, which were built to serve Pennsylvania Station. original in New York. which opened its doors in 1910.
Parts of the line are failing. In 2014, Amtrak said it would be forced to close at least one of the tunnels by 2034 due to damage caused by age and chemicals left by flooding from Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
At least in part because of that aging infrastructure, travelers who rely most on train lines that use the Northeast Corridor face the most frequent delays. New Jersey Transit lines that do not use the corridor, including the Main-Bergen and Pascack Valley lines, arrive at their destinations on time more than 95 percent of the time, according to the agency.
The New Jersey Transit line from New York to Trenton, New Jersey, follows the Northeast Corridor throughout its entire length. It has the agency’s second-worst performance, with 86.6 percent of its trains arriving on time.
At Penn Station Wednesday night, commuters said they were getting tired of trains running late.
“The last six weeks have been crazy,” said Annika McTamaney, 23, a New Jersey resident who canceled an appointment Wednesday because of delays.
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