(The following article by David A. Michaels was posted on NorthJersey.com on July 3.)
BERGEN, N.J. — A 60-year-old high-voltage cable failed in January, delaying 106 trains across New Jersey at the dawn of the morning commute.
A power wire failed on two occasions in May, delaying 12 trains one day and 22 on another.
Last month, power fluctuations stalled trains three times, including last week, when a voltage change shut down a power station, stopping trains between Newark and New York for about 40 minutes.
Increasingly, power problems are affecting train service in New Jersey, where the busiest track is owned by Amtrak but heavily used by NJ Transit. The number of power-related train delays on Amtrak-owned tracks in New Jersey has increased 64 percent between 2000 and 2006, according to NJ Transit figures.
Amtrak, which has deferred maintenance on its lines for decades, told government auditors in 1996 that it needed to replace the entire Northeast Corridor electric system between Washington, D.C., and New York at a cost of $700 million.
But 10 years later, Amtrak’s electric system remains in bad condition, so old that the executive director of NJ Transit calls it “frail” and state lawmakers argue that increasing delays amount to a crisis. Amtrak warned in a five-year plan, published last year, that “the system is prone to failure.”
Former Amtrak officials, veterans of the annual battle for money with Congress, said the electric system must be upgraded for the network to remain a viable transportation option.
“None of this stuff was ever designed to last as long as it did,” said Tom Downs, a former Amtrak president and now president of the Eno Transportation Foundation in Washington. “It’s way past its replacement age.”
But it’s also an expensive problem to fix. The total bill to upgrade the electric system is $370 million, according to a five-year plan Amtrak published last year.
High on the wish list:
— The replacement of two power converters that date from 1915 — $54 million.
— Repair or replacement of 200 miles of electrified lines, called catenary wire, that run above the trains — $140 million.
— New circuit breakers, switches, transformers and relays — $93 million.
Former Amtrak President David Gunn, who was fired last year, said recent investments — such as upgrades to power lines and substations — have improved the system.
“We were chipping away at it and making progress,” Gunn said. “We were not falling behind. We were gaining.”
But many state lawmakers say it’s a problem that is growing worse.
At a hearing last week, state Senate President Richard Codey called the delays “disheartening, frustrating and, flat out, a huge annoyance.” Codey and others officials said that unpredictable train service could persuade some riders that driving is an easier way to get to work.
“If this continues, it will be a disaster,” Codey said. “If this continues, people will jump off these trains and back into their cars, adding more congestion to our roads.”
Some of the most common delays are caused by old catenary wire, which sags when the weather turns hot. Trains must slow down or the train’s pantograph, a Z-shaped arm that collects electricity from the wire, could pull down the catenary.
Stephen Nagy, a retired conductor who left NJ Transit in 2003, said catenary problems in the summer are frequent and disruptive. He said trains between Trenton and New York are often ordered to reduce their speed from 135 to 80 mph.
“It just seems like every time we had warm weather or a lot of rain, they had problems with the electric,” Nagy said.
Downs said catenary wire was a major concern during the 1990s, when it was the most pressing problem facing Amtrak’s electric system.
“You would be running trains at 45 to 60 miles per hour, when you should be running at 100 to 110 miles per hour,” he said. “The schedule falls apart because of heat.”
While the system between New York and Boston automatically regulates sagging wire, the catenary between Washington and New York lacks a feature, called constant tension, which adjusts slack in the wire. Amtrak does not have the cash to fix the problem.
“That would certainly be a nice thing for our wish list, but right now the highest priority from the perspective of electric propulsion is to pinpoint the cause of the May 25 outage and make sure it does not happen again,” said Cliff Black, an Amtrak spokesman.
That outage, the worst in 24 years, has focused new attention on Amtrak’s power woes. Passengers were trapped in coaches under the Hudson River, and some remained there for as long as five hours.
William Crosbie, Amtrak’s senior vice president of operations, has said he does not believe another systemwide outage would occur. But he acknowledged last week that Amtrak may rely too much on its largest power supply station, Richmond, located near Philadelphia. The five other stations were not able to absorb the electrical load when Richmond went off-line last month.
Testifying last week in Trenton, Crosbie said the malfunction was complicated and would require an examination of hundreds of circuit breakers. But he did not blame equipment age or federal funding.
But virtually everyone else, including Governor Corzine, blamed an aging system that has been plagued by changing priorities and funding wars.
Crosbie said Amtrak’s problems stem from Congress’s unwillingness to appropriate money for the longer term.
“If I knew I had the funds for the next five years in place … I could manage to that level, work with items that are a priority,” Crosbie said.
This year, for the first time, Congress directed all commuter railroads to pay a fee to Amtrak for their use of the Northeast Corridor. NJ Transit has invested $300 million on corridor improvements since 1996.
Amtrak has spent about $400 million a year on capital improvements, Black said.
It will spend about $28.6 million this year to repair catenary, trying to restore the corridor to a state of good repair.
But Downs said changing priorities have plagued Amtrak.
Several master plans were issued but not followed through, he said. The strategic plan of 2004 was replaced by another in 2005.
“History at Amtrak tends to be about 90 days long,” he said. “I’m stunned at the amount of stuff that people start over. It is heartbreaking.”