Video: The Oddly Cathartic Experience Of Sped-Up Train Repairs

NEW YORK CITY, NY – Enraged by how slow your commute has been? Then kick back and watch these new videos showing work on Penn Station – sped up so it looks like the repairs are happening at light speed.

Maybe you were one of the subway passengers stranded by the track fire earlier this summer. Or perhaps you’re a long-suffering rail commuter. Whatever your situation, you might take some satisfaction in the illusion of train workers – so often criticized for how slow the system functions – seeming to sprint up and down tracks and using heavy machinery at an infernal pace.

This video shows the start of demolition work, though it’s unfortunately hard to see anything being destroyed:

And this one shows a cartoonishly gigantic vacuum at work:

Amtrak on Friday said it is on track to finish the repairs by its Sept. 1 deadline. The focus now is on new concrete and rail at track 10, among other work.

The company unfortunately did not provide a score to the new videos. So how about the Mozart overture Hollywood producers love to use for frantic scenes?

Lead image by Shant Shahrigian/Patch