Amtrak ready to close NYC tunnel despite fears of possible delays, chaos from Hochul, MTA

Amtrak is moving full speed ahead with tunnel closures in the city on Friday — despite pleas from Gov.Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams who fear the three-year project could cause transit chaos.Amtrak leadership had a “productive” meeting with Hochul and leaders of the Metropolitan Transit Agency Thursday, but Amtrak will still close one of two westbound train tracks in the East River Tunnel, according to Amtrak spokesperson Jason Abrams.“Amtrak reassured the Governor and MTA of our commitment to minimizing impacts to passengers throughout the project,” Abrams said.The transit giant’s much-maligned plan earned the ire of Long Islanders and top city and state officials over worries the closure could affect MTA trains from Queens into Penn Station.

Any unforeseen construction problems may mean all access in the tunnel has to be closed off, potentially disrupting train traffic on a major regional scale, critics have argued.But Amtrak said to try to avoid delays it will provide around-the-clock engineering coverage during the outage, conduct more frequent inspections of the remaining westbound track — and strategically position rescue equipment so delays can be swiftly resolved.Hochul said Amtrak also agreed to allow third-party consultants to examine the project to determine if the second tunnel needs to be fully closed when that construction begins in the fall of 2026 and runs for 13 months.The construction on the first tunnel starting Friday will also take about 13 months, Amtrak engineers said.Hochul asked Amtrak to suspend dynamic pricing on affected train trips during the shutdown.

Abrams said Amtrak is assessing the feasibility with the New York State Department of Transportation.Mayor Eric Adams jumped into the tunnel tug-of-war May 6, sending a fiery letter to US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy — blasting Amtrak’s East River shutdown plan and demanding feds step in before commuters are left stranded and steaming.City Hall sources said Ad...