Don’t hold your breath for better NJ Transit commutes at Penn Station

This column originally appeared in On The Way, a weekly newsletter covering everything you need to know about NYC-area transportation.

Sign up to get the full version, which includes answers to reader questions, trivia, service changes and more, in your inbox every Thursday.

NJ Transit and Amtrak riders who have faced hellish delays in and out of Penn Station in recent weeks were promised the agencies would do a better job working together going forward. But we have bad news: A real fix is unlikely to come until the late 2030s.

That’s because officials in New York and New Jersey expect it will take at least 11 years to construct a new rail tunnel beneath the Hudson River. Once that’s done, they’ll fix the 114-year-old tubes, which are becoming increasingly unreliable. The project overseen by the bistate Gateway Development Commission is on the verge of receiving a huge $6.88 billion federal grant, which is the largest ever given to a transit construction project. That’s not even half the project’s $16 billion total price tag.

But as Gateway officials tout the latest milestone, train service is deteriorating.

Late last month, NJ Transit attributed meltdowns at Penn Station that affected tens of thousands of commuters late to problems with overhead electrical wires in the mile-long tunnel, which is owned by Amtrak.

Amtrak, for its part, said many of the issues were caused by faulty equipment atop NJ Transit’s aging fleet of trains.

Officials from both agencies last week agreed to perform more inspections to prevent the issues from further disrupting commutes. But that work is just a band-aid in the tunnel, which was damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The Regional Plan Association has warned it’s at risk of failing.

The Gateway Development Commission has said it can’t repair the existing tunnel (which has two tubes), until the new one is built.

That’s despite a 2020 consultant report published by the agency that found the old tunnel could be repaired on nights and weekends without fully shutting it down — similar to how the MTA fixed the L train tunnel.

That led critics — including the Daily News editorial board — to allege Gateway officials were putting off the fixes to justify the historic federal funding for the project, which is the most expensive public works project in the country.

Gateway spokesperson Steve Sigmund said the commission disagrees with that assessment — and that he couldn’t “answer the hypothetical of what happens if the existing tubes need to be shut down prior to the new tunnel opening.”

In the meantime, commuters will have to rely on the two transit agencies making good on their pledge to work together to keep the tunnel in working order, until there’s a new one.

Have a question for us? Curious Commuter questions are exclusive for On The Way newsletter subscribers. Sign up for free here and check Thursday’s newsletter for a link to submit your questions!

Question from Anya in Brooklyn

Why won’t the MTA implement free out-of-station street transfers from the G train to nearby lines?

Answer

MTA spokesperson Mike Cortez said customers do get a free out-of-system transfer between the G at Broadway to the J, M and Z lines at the Hewes Street and Lorimer Street stations. Despite the “summer of pain” on the G train, transferring between the Fulton Street station and the nine subway lines that run through Atlantic Terminal will still cost money. The On The Way team suggested he could “be a hero” and offer riders a free transfer, but he declined to take us up on the suggestion.