Amtrak and NJ TRANSIT presented a new progress report that highlighted infrastructure and equipment improvements. Since November, as outlined in the latest report, Amtrak and NJ TRANSIT have made or are scheduling the following improvements to execute on their joint plan:
- Fiscal investments: After completing more than $12 million worth of work across this territory in federal fiscal year 24, Amtrak is planning to invest more than $40 million in this territory in fiscal year 25.
- Infrastructure Improvements: Since June 2024, Amtrak has completed more than 9,500 hardware replacements between Trenton and New York Penn Station and has completed improvements at three substations to date, with work at eight others planned throughout the year. In addition, Amtrak is performing track, signal, and other work along the Northeast Corridor in New Jersey, as well as rebuilding heavily utilized interlockings in New York Penn Station.
- Increased Inspections: NJ TRANSIT and Amtrak increased visual pantograph inspections and continued training for engineers on inspection and handling, including a second, more comprehensive round of helicopter inspections of the catenary and other electric signal systems.
- Outage Collaboration: Current and upcoming work focused on asset condition and usage, corresponding with key “hot spots” from summer 2024, will require schedule changes and outages to complete the work. Both Amtrak and NJ TRANSIT have agreed to service outages over the 12 weeks leading up to summer 2025 to minimize impacts to passengers and maximize the impact of the investments, including recent adjustments to Raritan Valley Line schedules.
- NJ TRANSIT Equipment Upgrades: NJ TRANSIT has invested more than $1 billion in 174 new Multilevel III rail cars currently on order, which will be equipped with Automatic Drop Devices (ADDs), similar to those on Amtrak trains, which will proactively drop a pantograph if it becomes damaged. This helps identify the section of track where the failure has occurred and will reduce the severity of an incident involving the overhead wires. An additional $1 billion investment in an additional 200 new Multilevel III cars is planned for later this year. NJ TRANSIT has also installed new chip protectors on its entire fleet prior to summer to better protect against catenary defects and impacts and enhance equipment resiliency. NJ TRANSIT is exploring engineering solutions with the rail car manufacturer to retrofit some of the existing fleet with ADDs.
- Response Plans: Enhanced NJ TRANSIT and Amtrak contingency response plans in the event of heat situations include strategic placement of protect crews and heat-forecast triggered catenary inspections. In addition, Amtrak’s new summer readiness preparation protocols call for preemptive activities to be completed before May 31, incorporating data, Amtrak past practices, and international best practices to mitigate against common heat failures.
- Customer Service: NJ TRANSIT will continue investment in customer service, including improved real-time station and app announcements as well as deployment of customer care teams at Penn Station New York and Newark Penn Station on weekdays during the morning and evening peak periods.
- Dispatching Enhancements: NJ TRANSIT senior management personnel located in New York Penn Station Control Center will support coordination in dispatching and priorities during complex events and in support of on-time performance.
- Other Actions: Amtrak and NJ TRANSIT have retained Rutgers University/Applied Testing for joint testing of pantographs, which is currently underway with the participation of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).
In addition, Amtrak and NJ TRANSIT continue to work with the U.S. Department of Transportation and the FRA on the review of the $112 million in Federal-State Partnership for the NEC grants that were awarded last year to Amtrak for three critical electric traction and signal projects in New Jersey with the financial support of NJ TRANSIT.
“These repairs aren’t a luxury, they’re a necessity,” said Kris Kolluri, NJ TRANSIT president and CEO. “Amtrak is doing it because it’s the right thing to do.”
“This is as far from a blame game as you can imagine right now,” said Gov. Phil Murphy during a summit with NJ TRANSIT and Amtrak. “Facts are facts, but this is the spirit of coming up with a better customer and commuter experience.”
