NEW YORK — Work will resume on the project to bring Metro-North commuter rail service to New York’s Penn Station, a project which had been paused over funding uncertainty and because of the COVID-19 pandemic. New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Thursday that the resumption of the process will see selection of a firm to build four new Metro-North stations in the Bronx and make track upgrades, and that the federal government has given the Metropolitan Transportation Authority approval to publish the project’s draft Environmental Assessment for public comment.
“Connecting Metro-North to Penn Station has long been an important next step not just for New York City’s economic growth and development, but for protecting our environment and providing more equitable access to transit in our communities,” Cuomo said in a press release. “This restarted selection process … will expand access to transit in the Bronx and help to create a new corridor between Manhattan and the Mid-Hudson region.”
The project will see construction of new stations at Hunts Point, Parkchester, Morris Park, and Co-Op City on an extension of the New Haven Line, using the right-of-way currently used by Amtrak Northeast Corridor trains. It will bring that route local service for the first time, and cut the commute time from Co-Op City to Penn Station from the current 75 minutes to 24 minutes. It comes after the opening of the Moynihan Train Hall adjacent to Penn Station in December 2020, and as New York considers option to rebuild Penn Station [see “New York governor, MTA unveil proposal …,” Trains News Wire, April 22, 2021].
Three construction groups were identified as being qualified to bid on the project in February 2020, but the process was subsequently put on hold because of the effects of the pandemic.
“The most cost-effective capital projects are those that squeeze more mass transit service out of existing infrastructure, rather than always building something new from scratch,” said Janno Lieber, President of MTA Construction & Development. “By rebuilding this under-utilized Amtrak rail line to accommodate new Metro-North service, this project will give East Bronx residents better access to jobs, education and a full range of opportunities.”
More on the project is available at the MTA’s Penn Station Access website.
There is no third rail issue as all New Haven Line MU trains use the overhead catanary wire. They have third rail shoes for getting into GCT.
Mr. Salters is correct. There was also service via the New York, Westchester and Boston. The old stations are still there to some extent.
“How they gonna connect the Hudson and Harlem lines to the Amtrak line?” They’re not, this is strictly for the NH line. There’s been on-and-off talk about routing some Hudson line trains into NYPenn after the LIRR East Side Access to Grand Central is is service, using Amtrak’s West Side line. I’m not sure how much of a problem the third rail will be: Penn Station uses the LIRR over-running third rail (shoe on top), while MetroNorth uses an under-running shoe.
The text says that these 4 new stations will bring local rail service to that line for “the first time”. But wasn’t there local service on this line many years ago ? (NH RR – 1920s, 1930s)
Just a minor detail, never mentioned in the glossy “diversity, equity” BS website:
How they gonna connect the Hudson and Harlem lines to the Amtrak line?
All the years I have been traveling over this section of railroad (including sitting behind the engineer in the TurboTrain dome – see note below), I have witnessed the battle of the Urban Jungle. The constant battle of vandalism, dumping of everything and anything including cars and refrigerators, the constant fight to replace, repair and strengthen the steel fencing. The frustrating challenge of keeping people out of the right of way. It has been a difficult never-ending war.
Now they are simply going to open up the whole thing to the surrounding neighborhoods by installing accessible new stations. I don’t expect this to end well for Amtrak.
Note – On that Turbo Train trip from NYP to BOS, the engineer had to get out of the train and remove a 55 gallon drum that someone placed on the tracks probably in an effort to derail us.
I don’t know how much – if anything – Robert Moses had to do with Co-Op City. That I know of, Moses had nothing to do with the development, but he may as well have, given the lack of transit options. Co-Op City has been there about 50 to 55 years. It’s about time it gets a fixed-rail transit station.
In contrast the Glen in Glenview Illinois, a massive residential development on the site of the former naval air station, has a well-patronized Metra stop.