'Summer Of Hell' Could Stretch Into Fall If Work Overruns, Amtrak CEO Says

NEW YORK CITY, NY – If Amtrak doesn’t finish major repair work at Penn Station before its Sept. 1 goal, the the "Summer of Hell" will stretch into fall weekends.

The company's CEO Wick Moorman said Wednesday he’s “very confident” rail fixes will be done on time. But he added that, if not, workers will finish the job on weekends.

“If things start to, for some reason, look like they’re running behind towards the end, we have the ability to step in at the end and button things up and then finish out whatever we don’t get to in subsequent weekend outages,” he said in remarks at the National Press Club.

On Monday, Amtrak began work on Penn Station’s 40-year-old tracks, faulty switches and other equipment, prompting sweeping service changes for Amtrak, the Long Island Railroad and NJ Transit.

But, compared to recent weeks that saw frequent delays and even derailments, Penn Station commuters mostly have reported smooth commutes so far.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo had warned passengers to expect the Penn Station work to create a “Summer of Hell” for the entire transit system.

On Monday night, he called for a private company to take over operation of Penn Station from Amtrak.

Moorman on Wednesday rejected the idea, without referring to Cuomo by name.

“When people talk about bringing private companies in to run passenger trains – and, ‘Gee, wouldn’t that be a lot better?’ – history has already told us they couldn’t do it,” he said, explaining that Amtrak took over struggling private rail lines decades ago.

Echoing recent comments from MTA chief Joe Lhota, Moorman said commuters have handled the disruption well.

“This summer, while there are disruptions, they’ve known about it a month in advance,” Moorman said.

“And - knock on wood, right? - we’re two days in, but by and large, the commuters have figured it out. People figure it out if they know what's going on."

Lead image by Associated Press/Mark Lennihan