Penn Station Emergency Repairs: Trackwork, etc.

Don't worry: the plane will have no food to throw up in and your elbow will be wedged too tight to bang.

But it is a very 1st world phenomenon--not 3rd world-- that air service is so cheap, frequent, and reliable (and safe) that it has smothered rail options on a trip as long as NYC-CHI.

SwingMan wrote:Lets get the facts straight:

Tracks 5-17 have access to East River Tunnel Line 1-4 and access to the North River Tunnels
Tracks 18-21 have access to East River Tunnels Line 3-4 only.
Tracks 1-19 have access to the North River Tunnels.

The East River Tunnels are to the EAST of Penn Station; the North River Tunnels are to the west of Penn Station.

Track 18 is predominantly only for LIRR trains. Track 15 will get all three railroads.

Let's get the facts really straight.

Tracks 5-13 have access to Line 1 and Line 2 in the East River Tunnels.
Tracks 14-17 have access to Line 1, Line 2, Line 3 and Line 4 in the East River Tunnels.
Tracks 18-21 have access to Line 3 and Line 4 in the East River Tunnels.

blockline4180 wrote:This really is a Damn shame... I wanted to take the train from NY/NJ to Chicago this summer and now the only options I have is the extremely long Cardinal(only 3 days a week) or taking a shuttle to Albany to get the LSL.. Par the course tho. Mine as well just drive since we have a 3rd world country intercity rail system in this country anyway.

Take a side trip to Boston (the tourists love Boston. While there, try the MBTA's new amusement ride, a derailing-rerailing subway car!), then take the LSL from BOS.

Lets get the facts straight (as has been said several times in this thread) - It is the streetcars in Boston that derail not the subway trains

Or you could take 190/490 to Springfield and catch 449 there. Visit the NBA Hall of Fame to kill time between trains.

The FINAL goal of this is a totally rebuilt Penn Station track and interlocking wise,all switches replaced,and routing options added for the Empire Service
trains to the platforms. A little reworking of the trackage near where the Gateway tunnels enter Penn might be done as well.

I find the goal of additional platforms for Empire Service interesting since in my experience, it's not the Empire service that really needs them.

I'm guessing it's more "if we can give Empire service more options, it means we can use tracks more flexibly for NJTransit and the like.

In any case, it seems like a good idea to me.

Still weird though entering the Empire connection tunnel and never seeing daylight again since they built over the well.

Backshophoss wrote: ... and routing options added for the Empire Service trains to the platforms. A little reworking of the trackage near where the Gateway tunnels enter Penn might be done as well.

Is there any public information on those two items? What exactly is to be done in terms of track/switch reconfiguration?

Maybe related or maybe unrelated observations:
1.There are two towers in the area of the former track 5A now. One of them looks like a ladder tower for access, but the other one is wrapped in green fabric so I am unable to identify its purpose. There is also a bunch of construction garbage stored in that area, some of it in the big bags ready to be loaded on trucks or flatbed cars.
2. Some time ago, at least 3-4 months, maybe more foundations of some sort were placed between track 7E and 1D. The iron rebar is clearly visible above ground.
3. Sometimes the two emergency rescue engines (electric plus diesel) which usually sit on 6D are not there, but on track 3A. That would be consistent with work being done in the area of 6D.

I thought that getting the Empire Service access to more tracks as well as getting the Gateway Tunnels access to the higher numbered tracks required relocation of some of the columns supporting the street above. Is that work already in progress?

Pretty sure there's no major Gateway work going on yet. They have no funds to build any of it within Penn yet. They are cutting through to add escalators for the new Moynihan Station which might explain the installation of columns, etc, to support the structure above.

JamesRR, that is NOT it. Everything I described is west of 9th Avenue and is not under the Old Post Office which is located between 8th and 9th Avenues. I am sure the escalator work that you expect will eventually take place, but that will be in the far west ends of the long platforms and east of 9th Avenue, not where the former yard track 5A used to be.

Track 15 was restored to service yesterday afternoon.

This weekend is an odd ball one due to LIRR testing in HAROLD Interlocking. Only Lines 2 and 4 are in service for through moves. Line 1 can be used to Sunnyside only. The Boston trains are being put on the high side...150 was on 18.

That must have been interesting since you cant access Track 18 from the Amtrak/NJT concourses directly without going down to LIRR level first.

The two towers in the former track 5A are for debris removal. One tower houses a hoist to the surface while the other is a set of stairs for the workers. The rest of the space of the former track is used for storage of those big white plastic construction bag for debris removal. I am surprised that they are doing this instead of removal via work trains at night.

Penn Station work will likely keep going on for awhile. Even the work expected to be completed by summer is not going to be enough. Our rail imfrastructure was neglected for a long time. It is an improvement over what we had previously.

Penn Station is most widely used and has the most overall work needed of all individual stations in the Amtrak System. We have come a long ways from the previous issues plaguing Amtrak and coming into or leaving Penn Station seems to be getting better over time. NY Governor Cuomo would not have been my pick for Governor but I will say he has done more for rail than Spitzer and Patterson combined as long term projects have gotten underway and projects completed in the state. Pataki did have high speed rail visions but nothing much really came of it.

It is now 3/6/2018 and Amtrak is working on Turnout #641 set to be finished on 3/19 at Penn Station whch is the next mileston. You can follow along below:

https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/proj ... 030118.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

At least things aren't going backwards anymore ... Stasis = death.

They are moving forward and progress against these goals will enable other things.

Are there any pictures of the ongoing work?