Amtrak President Roger Harris Writes to Gov. Hochul, ERT Project Delayed to May 23rd
Written by Jennifer McLawhorn, Managing Editor
Marc Glucksman/River Rail Photo
NEW YORK CITY - After N.Y. Governor Hochul wrote to Amtrak urging it to shift to a repair-in-place method for its East River Tunnel Rehab project, Amtrak President Roger Harris responded with an update on the project.
On April 30th, RT&S reported that New York Governor Hochul wrote a letter to Anthony Coscia and Roger Harris from Amtrak to reevaluate its plans to shut down the East River Tunnels for its rehabilitation project. Instead, Gov. Hochul asked to shift to a ‘repair-in-place’ method. In that letter, Gov. Hochul wrote, “While I continue to be supportive of the efforts to rehabilitate the East River Tunnels, the decision to maintain service cuts amidst this latest delay – and backtracking on public commitments to increase capacity during the shutdown – shows a disregard for Empire Service passengers. . . Enough is enough. It’s far past time for Amtrak to put its passengers first, take a hard look at its construction plans and ensure access to reliable train travel throughout this key corridor.”
On May 1st, RT&S reported that Amtrak had issued a statement on the project where it says it coordinated with and received approval from both the MTA and NJ TRANSIT for the project several months ago. As such, Amtrak President Harris says this “balances impact to our commuter partners, as well as Amtrak and NYSDOT service to Albany.”
Now, Amtrak President Harris has written a letter to Governor Hochul with an update on the project. The letter begins with a recap of May 2, 2025 where the MTA and LIRR “informed Amtrak that their East-Bound Reroute (EBRR) project, which was already six months late, is once again experiencing delays and will not be completed on schedule.” Because of this, the planned closure of the ERT first tube on May 9th will need to be delayed by at least one week. Harris says Amtrak is working with MTA and NJ TRANSIT to move the beginning of construction to May 23rd.
Because of this, it is asking Governor Hochul to meet with Amtrak, LIRR, and Metro-North Railroad to discuss other solutions to reduce the impact on Empire Service and “further protect LIRR service reliability, such as leveraging commuter rolling stock and/or service to Grand Central Terminal as you suggested in your letter.” Harris goes on to explain that this meeting is not intended to “revisit the dialogue around our approach to the rehabilitation of the ERT” because he says this was already “thoroughly vetted and agreed upon by MTA, NJ TRANSIT, Amtrak, and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).” Harris states the currently-selected method of a total singular tube shutdown is the most responsible method because other methods would be costly to passengers and taxpayers and would only serve as a “short-term band-aid” solution.
By utilizing the singular tube shutdown, Harris says this will allow them to identify “any potential blind spots that may have been overlooked by our combined operations teams while developing the service plan over the past 10 months.” The letter ends with a re-commitment to working with Governor Hochul and presenting a “united front to the traveling public” by demonstrating their aligned interest in rehabilitating infrastructure.
The letter can be read in its entirety here.
