Amtrak CEO Wick Moorman (the only real railroad man at the helm in many years), announced last week they were accelerating the schedule for repair or replacement of critical turnouts in the interlocking leading from the North River tunnels into NY Penn's platform tracks. Due to several recent incidents of trackwork failures and admitted deferred maintenance.
A result of this work program will be an extended period of daily delays over the summer, which I imagine as unavoidable due to the high volume of traffic in & out of NY Penn.
Now, the local politicians scream bloody murder about the proposed delays, after they screamed bloody murder over the recent derailments and delays. In obvious moves to appear sympathetic to the commuters (read voters).
NY Penn is the busiest terminal in the country, with an very complex interlocking plant. Now that Moorman has pledged to fix the problem, one would think a tempered wait-and-see attitude would prevail. Not so.
I do not envy the task these railroad men face.
