As First Week Ends, ‘Summer of Hell’ Yet to Wreak Havoc for Amtrak, LIRR, NJ Transit

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NEW YORK CITY, NY – One week down, nine to go. As the first week of major track repair work at Penn Station wound down, most train passengers were shocked at how well the Long Island Rail Road and NJ Transit have run.

In fact, more than 90 percent of trains have run on time this week at Penn Station, Amtrak COO Scot Naparstek told reporters on Friday.

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"We are seeing very few issues in terms of trains coming and going on time," he said. "Some of that is, knock on wood, due to the fact we have had no major disruptions at other parts of the infrastructure."

Naparstek said repair work is slightly ahead of schedule, with all rail removed from track 10 and workers set to begin installing new rail.

The repairs began after chronic delays and a series of train derailments that had prompted Gov. Andrew Cuomo to declare a state of emergency for the MTA. He warned that the Penn Station work would cause a “Summer of Hell” for commuters.

But at Hunterspoint Terminal in Queens on Friday morning, most LIRR passengers said their commutes have gone well this week. Like Amtrak and NJ Transit, LIRR reduced the number of trains running to Penn Station by about 20 percent. LIRR had some routes stop at Hunterspoint or the Atlantic Terminal instead.

“Coming in has actually been better than normal. I like coming in to Hunterspoint, it’s a lot faster, a lot less crowded,” said Amy Singh, 25.

As at Penn Station, the MTA deployed extra staff at Hunterspoint to give directions to new commuters like Singh, who came from Valley Spring via the Rockaway line.

“Coming in... there were signs everywhere, there were people directing you. It was really easy to get through,” she said.

However, Singh described her return trips as a pain. She said she can’t make it back to Hunterspoint in time to catch the last evening train there, so she has been going to Penn Station – where the LIRR is still running evening trips along the Far Rockaway line, but fewer of them than usual.

“Coming home, it’s been crazy,” she said. “People are too angry. Someone’s going to get hurt really soon. The platforms are too crowded, the trains are too crowded and I feel really unsafe going home.”

The rest of the train system mostly got positive reviews throughout the week, notwithstanding occasional problems like a brief period of 20-minute delays for NJ Transit trains on Friday morning.

“If it’s anything like today, I would be fine,” NJ Transit commuter Prachi Puranik, 40, said of the “Summer of Hell” earlier this week at Penn Station.

Still, a few factors indicate the worst might be yet to come.

For one thing, it’s not yet clear how ridership levels this week compared to average summer commutes.

MTA chief Joe Lhota said Monday’s LIRR ridership to Penn Station saw 8 percent fewer passengers than for the average 24-hour period. The MTA said on Friday that figures for the rest of the week were not yet available.

NJ Transit said its ridership numbers for major routes to Penn Station like the Northeast Corridor and New Jersey Coast lines wouldn’t be available until next week.

If some commuters avoided trains this week – as scattered social media posts have indicated – an increase in ridership next week could overburden Penn Station and the rest of the system.

Also, the CEO of Amtrak, which is conducting the repairs for Penn Station’s 21 tracks and other equipment, recently mentioned a plan for work to continue if the fixes aren’t done by the Sept. 1 deadline.

Wick Moorman said on Wednesday he is confident the job will be complete on time. But if not, work will continue during service outages on weekends in the fall.

In other words, the "Summer of Hell" isn’t over yet.

Update: On Friday afternoon, MTA boss Joe Lhota said LIRR ridership was down by about 8 percent in the morning and down about 1 percent in the evening for Monday through Thursday. He added that the evening peak hour of 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. saw fewer passengers than usual, with riders opting to board their trains either a little before or after that timeframe.

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Lead image of NJ Transit passengers waiting at Penn Station on Monday night by Shant Shahrigian.