Why Amtrak Is to Blame for a Hellish Night for New Jersey Commuters

At 5:05 p.m. on Wednesday, just as the evening rush hour picked up steam, an overhead wire that transmits traffic signals fell and struck a cable that provides electrical power to trains on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor in Kearny, N.J., a few miles west of New York City.

That contact caused a “blowout” that halted service on Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains in both directions between Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan and Newark. With no trains moving into or out of New York across the Hudson River, the disruption rippled down the line to Philadelphia and beyond, leaving passengers stranded along the tracks and stations full of disgruntled travelers.

With delays stretching to over four hours, many commuters gave up on the railroads and paid hefty fares to Uber and other ride-hail services to get home. Service was not restored until after 10 p.m., and the residual effects carried over into Thursday morning’s commute.

Amtrak officials still had no explanation on Thursday for what had caused the wire to break. But the meltdown appeared to be unrelated to a problem on Tuesday morning with wires in a tunnel under the Hudson that led to delays of up to 60 minutes. Separately on Thursday, New Jersey Transit warned of delays as long as an hour because of signal problems at Amtrak’s Dock Bridge in Newark.

Why does this keep happening?

“This is really the consequence of decades of underinvestment in the system,” said Thomas K. Wright, chief executive of the Regional Plan Association, who was among the commuters left in the lurch on Wednesday. (Stranded in Newark on the way to Princeton, he found two strangers willing to share an Uber with him. Fare: $116. Tip: $50.)

For too long, Amtrak did not have sufficient federal funding to maintain the tracks and equipment it owns, said Mr. Wright, whose organization conducts research on transportation and infrastructure in the New York metropolitan area. In recent years, with an infusion of money from the Biden administration, Amtrak has been playing catch-up on improvements along the corridor, which narrows to just two tracks between Newark and Manhattan.

Anthony R. Coscia, the chairman of Amtrak’s board, said when he was renominated in June that “overcoming many decades of underinvestment in passenger rail will not be accomplished overnight.”

Work has begun on the early stages of a sprawling project known as Gateway that would eliminate that bottleneck and add a two-track tunnel under the Hudson. But that $30 billion project would take at least a decade to complete.

Until then, Mr. Wright said, “This system is going to continue to fail.”

Why do Amtrak’s problems affect New Jersey Transit?

New Jersey Transit operates the country’s largest statewide network of trains and buses. Its trains carry about 130,000 passengers to and from New York City each weekday, on average, according to the agency.

But the main rail line that runs down the middle of New Jersey — the Northeast Corridor — is beyond its control. Amtrak owns the tracks and its trains take priority. New Jersey Transit owns most of its other lines but is a tenant on the busiest segment, the two tracks that connect to New York City.

Still, many New Jersey commuters are at Amtrak’s mercy because they cannot get to and from Manhattan without rolling over Amtrak’s rails, across its bridges or through its tunnel.

“There are several weak links in the chain between New York and Newark,” Mr. Wright said. As an example, he cited the 114-year-old Portal Bridge, which occasionally causes delays for thousands of commuters when it swings open to let small boats pass on the Hackensack River.

If that segment of the corridor had four tracks like New York’s subway does, one or two tracks could be shut down for maintenance or emergencies without bringing all traffic to a halt, he said.

New Jersey’s governor, Philip D. Murphy, a Democrat, sent an angry letter to Mr. Coscia on Thursday, writing that he refused to accept “these Amtrak infrastructure challenges as an inevitable part of operating integrated mass transit systems.” He said New Jersey Transit pays Amtrak over $100 million as a “tenant” and expects more investment in improvements and updated emergency management plans.

In a reply, Gery Williams, an Amtrak executive vice president, apologized and said, “We will implement any changes to avoid a similar incident like yesterday from happening again.”

One saving grace for New Jersey Transit is that it has a terminal in Hoboken, N.J., which serves as a relief valve. During disruptions like the one on Wednesday, some commuters take PATH trains or New York Waterway ferries across the Hudson to Hoboken and catch trains that circumvent the bottleneck.

Those other transit systems usually cross-honor the tickets of New Jersey Transit passengers and are reimbursed later by the agency.

Is there a solution to this predicament?

Amtrak and other transportation agencies have been trying to disentangle this knot for decades with on-again, off-again support from Washington.

More than 15 years ago, New Jersey Transit began work on a second rail tunnel under the Hudson that would have led to a new station buried under 34th Street near the Macy’s flagship store. That project would have provided an alternative for commuters when things went awry on the corridor. But Chris Christie, then the Republican governor of New Jersey, canceled it in 2010 over concerns about how much it might cost his state.

The Gateway project is the long-delayed successor to that plan. It would significantly increase capacity across the Hudson and at Penn Station — if all of its components are completed.

The first phase, a $2 billion replacement of the Portal Bridge, is half-built and scheduled for completion in 2026. The broad plan includes replacing other bridges and adding tracks in northern New Jersey and at Penn Station. In between would be a new two-track tunnel under the Hudson whose cost is estimated at $16 billion.

The Gateway Development Commission, created to oversee the sprawling project, is in the final stages of applying for the federal government to cover half of that cost. New Jersey and New York have agreed to split the other half.

Once the new tunnel is completed, Amtrak would be able to take some of its outdated infrastructure, including the existing century-old Hudson tunnel, out of service for comprehensive repairs.

After struggling through the transit meltdown on Wednesday, along with thousands of other commuters, Mr. Wright said, “None of this should come as a surprise. This is why we need Gateway.”