The summer's accelerated repair work will close some of the station's 21 tracks and require a 20 percent reduction in the number of commuter trains coming in from New Jersey and Long Island
, photo: AP/Julie Jacobson
07 of July 2017 15:48:56
NEW YORK – A massive two-month repair project will launch Monday at the country's busiest train station, temporarily exacerbating the daily commuting struggle during what New York's governor has predicted will be a "summer of hell."But it's only a stopgap measure against a root problem it won't solve: that one of the world's great cities increasingly seems unable to effectively transport its workforce.At Penn Station, crowds of commuters fuming at frequent afternoon delays already wedge into narrow stairways down to the tracks, all for the privilege of standing in the aisles of packed trains for a 45-minute ride home. In the mornings, it can take 10 minutes just to climb a flight of stairs to the concourse.
The summer's accelerated repair work, prompted by two derailments this spring, will close some of the station's 21 tracks and require a roughly 20 percent reduction in the number of commuter trains coming in from New Jersey and Long Island. Amtrak also is reducing the number of trains it runs between New York and Washington and diverting some trains from Albany across town to Grand Central Terminal."We're all dreading it," said Maura McGloin, who commutes daily from Woodbridge, New Jersey, about 25 miles away. "I'd rather have my teeth pulled out."Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, said in May that "it will be a summer of hell for commuters." Around the same time, he wrote a letter to President Donald Trump asking for federal help and appealing to Trump's New York roots.After another Penn Station derailment, New York commuters head out on final commute before "summer of hell." STORY: https://t.co/aRuKMZ6o1r' pic.twitter.com/MjhGy49bSC
— AP Eastern U.S. (@APEastRegion) 7 de julio de 2017
Penn Station is just one symptom of a larger illness. With an aging subway system subject to a recent state-of-emergency order by Cuomo, and a 67-year-old bus terminal called "appalling" and "functionally obsolete" by officials of the agency that runs it, the New York area's transportation systems embody the U.S.' inability, or unwillingness, to address its aging infrastructure.While Trump has talked of a $1 trillion infrastructure investment plan, it's short on details . Meanwhile, the Republican's budget proposes a change that could jeopardize federal funding for a project to build a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey, seen as critical to the region's economic vitality.Penn Station is a destination in itself, but it is also a hub for transfers, greeting about 600,000 passengers a day with low ceilings and dim lighting in what is essentially the basement of Madison Square Garden.Commuter rail lines snake in from New Jersey to the west and Long Island to the east. Busy subway lines run through it, and it's the city's only Amtrak stop. Delays are common, and commuters often tweet photos with captions that can't be repeated here.[caption id="attachment_66070" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]It’s time for an aggressive plan to combat the long-term crisis at Penn Station. pic.twitter.com/G27CP4xtyN
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) 23 de mayo de 2017
While not a final solution, this summer's Penn Station work should give commuters a measure of reliability."What commuters have every right to expect and should expect is that as we go through the next period of months, that we gradually take away some of the problems that have been causing delays in the station over the past number of years," Amtrak CEO Wick Moorman said this week.Marybeth Tregarthen, 52, has commuted from Bay Shore, on Long Island, for about four years, and has found her own antidote to being stuck regularly at Penn Station."Sometimes I just jump on any train heading out of the city, even if it's not my branch," she said, "just to escape from New York."View renderings of Penn Station & Farley Post Office transformation into a world-class hub: https://t.co/hHSxtz7Fso pic.twitter.com/5yyfAENHYO
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) 6 de enero de 2016
DAVID PORTER