Two unrelated events occurred almost simultaneously at New York’s Penn Station on Wednesday, August 27, although both were rail-related. One was the inaugural of the new Next Gen Acela equipment that Amtrak is now running between Boston and Washington, D.C., and the other was a news conference that featured Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Andy Byford, New York City’s beloved “Train Daddy” who has returned to the city as a Special Advisory to Amtrak’s Board of Directors for the purpose of supervising renovations and new development in and around Penn Station.
Byford had some good news for many rider-advocates in the area, including members of the Lackawanna Coalition. He paused development of Penn South, an expansion of the station with new stub-end tracks south of the existing tracks. They would be located in the block between 30th and 31st Streets. Byford called for efficient station improvements, rather than rushing into station expansion. One of the changes that Byford will consider is through-running between New Jersey and Long Island for local trains on NJ Transit and the Long Island Rail Road, and potentially for future service to the Bronx on Metro-North. Many advocates have called for such an operation as constituting better and more-efficient use of the existing Penn Station infrastructure.
For his part, Duffy also called for improvements at Penn Station, but he also mentioned one of his pet peeves: the congestion pricing toll for vehicles entering Manhattan south of 60th Street. He had objected to the toll since he took office and ordered that it be terminated. Although he acknowledged that it is the subject of ongoing litigation and is still being collected, Duffy said: “We don’t think that elites are the only ones who can afford to drive in the city” and “Roads should be free.” He did not suggest that transit should be free, nor did he mention that motorists can take the subway or a bus within the City for one-third of the $9.00 congestion toll, even when the fare increases to the proposed $3.00.
The other occasion was the inaugural run of the new equipment, built by Alstom for Amtrak’s Acela trains; a premium-fare service that runs somewhat faster than the conventional trains on the Northeast Corridor (NEC). The trains are sleek, sporting a blue livery with a white stripe at window level and red accents. The motor units at each end have the long noses associated with high-speed rail equipment. The trains will not reach that standard, although they will reach 160 mph on a few segments of the line. People who rode the inaugural train had mixed impressions about the equipment, including the level of comfort. Seats are essentially fixed, and half of them always face backwards. Food service cars have a sales counter, but no tables or counter for seating, as the older trains have.
The author is a Contributing Editor at Railway Age. For more-detailed coverage of both events, see his stories posted at www.railwayage.com: August 28 for the Acela story and August 29 for the story on Byford and Duffy.
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