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[CNJRoss]

Politico, 8/3/24

 

‘Incredibly frustrating’: Northeast rail snags highlight infrastructure needs

 

Summer struggles threaten to derail Amtrak’s post-Covid rebound as record heat exposes longstanding problems that will take years to address.

 

Commuters and other travelers along America’s busiest stretch of passenger railway have faced a nightmare summer of heat-related delays and cancellations that are complicating the transit legacy of a president nicknamed “Amtrak Joe.”

 

Record heat has exposed long-standing physical problems along the Northeast Corridor between Boston and Virginia that highlight the need for planned improvements that would get a big boost from the bipartisan infrastructure law while leaving officials without immediate answers for outraged constituents.

 

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“Amtrak needs to be held accountable,” Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-N.J.) said in an interview. “This hurts people’s time with family, and it hurts property values for too many of my constituents. The response so far has been absolutely unacceptable.”

 

 

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[CNJRoss]

Politico, 8/20/24

 

Officials still don’t know what broke America’s busiest rail corridor

 

Amtrak and New Jersey Transit leaders say it’s a combination of decrepit equipment, years of not enough money and heat — but that there’s no precise cause.

 

NEW YORK — Commuters into New York City got pummeled by train delays and cancellations this summer, and nobody knows how to stop it from happening again. Even if they did, resuscitating the vital rail arterial into Manhattan could take years and untold amounts of money.

 

Regulators and elected officials — spurred on by furious constituents — are ramping up pressure on Amtrak and New Jersey Transit, which operate the trains, to figure out what ails the busiest stretch of passenger railway in the country.

 

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