(The following story by Peter Mucha appeared on the Philadelphia Inquirer website on January 16.)
PHILADELPHIA — If Amtrak workers strike on Jan. 30, six of SEPTA’s regional lines would also shut down.
Amtrak is trying to hammer out a new contract with its 16,500 union workers, but if negotiations fail – and the federal government doesn’t intervene – hundreds of thousands of rail travelers would have to find alternatives.
Even many who don’t ride Amtrak.
That’s because many local lines use rails owned and powered by Amtrak.
In the Philadelphia area, six of SEPTA’s 13 regional rail lines would be unable to operate, disrupting service not only in the suburbs but to Delaware and Trenton, spokesman Felipe Suarez said this morning.
Those lines are the R1 airport line; the R2 Wilmington Newark line; the R5 Paoli Thorndale line; the R6 Cynwyd line; the R7 Trenton line; and the R8 Chestnut Hill West line.
“It is conceivable that if there is an Amtrak strike, there will be no service on those routes,” Suarez said.
About 54,000 of SEPTA’s 121,000 daily rail commuters would be affected, Suarez said.
SEPTA is working on contingency plans, which could be announced next week, if the labor dispute continues, he said. Those plans would be available on SEPTA’s Web site, www.septa.org, he said.
Amtrak’s own trains take riders from Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station to many cities, including Wilmington, Baltimore and Washington to the south; Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Chicago to the west, and Trenton, New York and Boston to the north.
About 71,000 people in 46 states ride Amtrak each day, with most of the riders in the Northeast Corridor.
With about 3.5 million passengers a year, Philadelphia is Amtrak’s third busiest station, after New York and Washington.
The impact of a strike would be greatest in the New York City area, where New Jersey Transit and Long Island Rail Road would be disrupted.
More than 200,000 riders a day travel on N.J. Transit trains that use Amtrak tracks.
Amtrak is hopeful that ongoing negotiations will produce a settlement soon, said Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black.
“We have a certain amount of optimism that we will avoid a service disruption,” he said. “There doesn’t seem to be any stomach for a strike by either side of this issue.”
A federal board supported the union side on the key issue of back pay, which, for some workers, might mean additional compensation for time worked since the end of 1999.
“It’s a matter of details, and finding ways to align the potential agreements with the recommendations of the Presidential Emergency Board,” Black said.