Community Corner
Phase One Of Penn Station Track Repairs Complete, Amtrak Says
Major track repairs at Penn Station are running on schedule, according to Amtrak Chief Engineer Gery Williams.
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NEW YORK CITY, NY – The “Summer of Hell” has lived up to its name for subway riders so far, but as for the project that gave rise to the epithet, major work at Penn Station is going well.
That’s according to Amtrak Chief Engineer Gery Williams, who on Friday said phase one of the repairs is complete.
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“We remain on schedule and have now transitioned into phase two,” he told reporters in a conference call. “We completed phase one midweek.”
That stage included demolishing and removing track switches, replacing wooden rail ties and installing new third rails. Members of the 360-strong crew repairing Penn Station also tested out the new tracks.
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While recent weeks have seen some delays on NJ Transit and LIRR lines, they do not appear to be linked to the ongoing work.
Williams said Thursday saw “signal issues” at Penn Station, but “because we had the right resources in place, we addressed them very quickly.”
Looking ahead, he said phase two will be more complicated.
That work will includes replacing a diamond scissor crossing, which Newsday described as “a particularly complex junction where parallel rails cross over each other, creating a diamond shape.”
Still, Williams voiced confidence Amtrak will meet its goal of replacing long stretches of Penn Station's tracks, among other work, by its Sept. 1 deadline.
“The way everything is running now and what we’ve experienced, we don’t think there’s going to be an issue,” he said.
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Image of "an open cavity prior to the installation of a switch" via Amtrak.
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