(The following article by Larry Higgs was posted on the Asbury Park Press website on September 14.)
NEWARK, N.J. — A state takeover of Amtrak’s busy Northeast Corridor rail line might be worth pursuing, Gov. Corzine said Wednesday.
“It’s an idea worthy of exploration,” the governor said. “Amtrak can never do enough when they want to because of a lack of resources. Not enough money is put into Amtrak.”
Corzine said he would leave the details and research up to George Warrington, NJ Transit’s executive director who is a former head of Amtrak, along with other experts.
NJ Transit leases space on the Northeast Corridor from Amtrak for use by about 400 commuter trains a day, including North Jersey Coast Line trains.
Officials are still awaiting an Amtrak report about the cause of a May 25 power outage, which halted commuter and intercity trains between Boston and Washington. That was blamed on the failure of an electrical substation outside Philadelphia and the inability of other substations on the line to pick up the load. Four trains were stuck in Hudson River tunnels, and others were stopped on the corridor.
“Amtrak is under siege, and there is a need to step up and protect our interests,” Warrington said. “The governor is interested in exploring models, and we’ve been thinking about those opportunities.”
Amtrak and NJ Transit split the cost of infrastructure improvements on the railroad, parts of which date back to the 1930s.
NJ Transit’s board approved a six-year agreement with Amtrak on Wednesday to continue leasing the tracks and to partner with it on capital repairs, such as replacing 1932 vintage wiring, which powers trains.
Under the new agreement, the cost of the lease is frozen for the first three years, and the last three will be negotiated as NJ Transit increases service in the future, Warrington said.
The new pact is longer than the traditional five-year agreement and also renews the Joint Benefit Capital Program agreement for six years. That agreement calls for NJ Transit and Amtrak to each contribute $260 million toward major replacement or upgrade projects on the corridor in New Jersey.
A 10-year service plan (to 2016) for the corridor also will be drafted along with a plan for capital projects, design and construction. It will be written by the two agencies jointly and will specify Amtrak resources needed to support NJ Transit capital projects.
Next year’s capital program will focus on upgrades to electric power substations, replacing wire and finishing life-safety projects in tunnels to and from Penn Station in New York, said D.C. Agrawal, assistant executive director of corporate strategies, policy and contracts for NJ Transit, who negotiated the new agreement.
The agreement also calls for NJ Transit and Amtrak to jointly design and build a new control center at Penn Station to replace an older outdated facility.
That center controls train traffic on the corridor from Portal Bridge in the Hackensack Meadowlands to just north of Philadelphia. Amtrak officials had proposed moving it to its national operations system in Wilmington, Del., Warrington said.
“That was an unacceptable outcome,” he said. “We wanted the center close, so our dispatchers could control day-to-day movement. We wanted it closer to our management.”
NJ Transit and Amtrak officials plan to design the control center together, which should begin in the next six to 12 months. Construction is likely to start in the next several years, Warrington said.
Corzine and Warrington both said a major hurdle is the unstable federal funding of Amtrak and efforts to reform it or break it up. One idea floated is to have individual states run parts of Amtrak.
“The governor has a deep appreciation for some of the frustrations we have for the condition of the Northeast Corridor and the paralysis in Washington on effective funding,” Warrington said.