(The following story by Tom Feeney appeared on the Star-Ledger website on March 13.)
NEWARK, N.J. — NJ Transit’s most frequently delayed commuter rail line could be in for even more delays because of concrete railroad ties that are failing four decades earlier than they were supposed to.
On May 11, Amtrak will begin replacing cracked ties along 14 miles of the Northeast Corridor between the Jersey Avenue Station, just south of New Brunswick, and the Trenton Station.
The corridor will be reduced from four tracks to three while the work is being done.
That will mean longer trip times into and out of Manhattan, new boarding procedures at busy stations like Princeton Junction and Hamilton and the likelihood of frequent delays.
“The Northeast Corridor operates at capacity already,” NJ Transit Executive Director Richard Sarles said yesterday. “One hiccup today and it affects a lot of trains. If you take out a track, it only gets worse.”
Amtrak installed 3.4 million concrete ties between Washington, D.C., and Boston in the mid-1990s, spokesman Cliff Cole said.
The useful life was thought to be 50 years, but they’ve begun to crack already, forcing Amtrak to replace them.
“There is no danger to passengers right now,” Cole said. “We’re acting in a proactive way, fixing it before it becomes a bigger problem.”
There have been speed restrictions on the Northeast Corridor since the cracks were discovered, Sarles said.
It remains unclear how much Amtrak will pay to replace the faulty ties. Cole said the agency is still negotiating with the manufacturer, Rocla Concrete Tie Inc., which makes the ties inside an Amtrak maintenance yard in Bear, Del. Amtrak’s budget request to Congress this year includes $23.5 million for replacing ties this year alone.
Amtrak owns and maintains the Northeast Corridor, which runs from Washington to Boston.
NJ Transit pays the agency $65 million a year to operate its own trains on the tracks between Trenton and Manhattan. It’s the busiest of NJ Transit’s seven commuter rail lines, providing 285,000 passenger trips on an average weekday.
It’s also the one most often dogged by delays.
Last month, 20.2 percent of peak-hour trains on the line arrived at their destinations more than six minutes behind schedule, according to NJ Transit’s data. That compares to 11.1 percent across all of the agency’s commuter rail lines.
Sarles said the tie replacement in New Jersey will eventually cover 26 miles of the Northeast Corridor. The 14-mile stretch from New Brunswick to Trenton is the first phase. Sarles expects the work to continue into next year.
A new timetable reflecting longer trip times will go into effect May 11, the day the work starts, officials said. The timetable will be revised every eight to 10 weeks as the work progresses.
NJ Transit plans to distribute notices about the tie replacement work to Northeast Corridor passengers today.
“I know this is difficult news for our customers, but we have to do this,” Sarles said. “Amtrak is doing the right thing. We’ll do everything we can do to minimize inconvenience.”