Bill Text: NJ SR125 | 2016-2017 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Urges Congress to examine operations of Amtrak at New York Pennsylvania Station.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2017-06-01 - Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Transportation Committee [SR125 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2016-SR125-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Senator SAMUEL D. THOMPSON
District 12 (Burlington, Middlesex, Monmouth and Ocean)
SYNOPSIS
Urges Congress to examine operations of Amtrak at New York Pennsylvania Station.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
A Senate Resolution urging Congress to examine the operations of Amtrak at New York Pennsylvania Station.
Whereas, The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, commonly known as Amtrak, serves as the nation's passenger railroad operator, operating more than 21,000 route miles of railroad in 46 states, the District of Columbia, and three Canadian provinces; and
Whereas, Amtrak provides state-supported corridor service in 15 states, including the Northeast Corridor, and for four commuter rail agencies, including the commuter rail operations of the New Jersey Transit Corporation (New Jersey Transit) and the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR); and
Whereas, New Jersey Transit and the LIRR provide commuter rail service to the New York Pennsylvania Station (Penn Station) in Manhattan, which is owned and operated by Amtrak and is the busiest train station in America with a ridership of over 10 million passengers in 2016; and
Whereas, According to Amtrak, between Penn Station's three train operators - Amtrak, New Jersey Transit, and the LIRR - Penn Station accommodates more than 1,300 train movements per week on infrastructure that was not designed to accommodate today's levels of train traffic; and
Whereas, According to Amtrak, Penn Station saw an average of 661 train movements per week in 1976, which was historic for the time period but was taxing on the station's infrastructure as the station was not intended to carry that volume of traffic; and
Whereas, Since 1976, the total number of train movements at Penn Station has doubled, with Amtrak increasing its regional operations by 72 percent and the commuter operations of New Jersey Transit increasing by more than 200 percent; and
Whereas, As cities have grown and highway congestion has increased, the Northeast Corridor and Penn Station have become critical in the connection of commuter rail systems, such as New Jersey Transit and LIRR, to the central business districts that impact the nation's economy; and
Whereas, The challenges that come with maintaining Penn Station, which is operating beyond capacity, are compounded by the station's age and the lack of investment in the station at the federal level; and
Whereas, The various commuter railroads, including New Jersey Transit, that use Amtrak infrastructure, such as Penn Station, pay Amtrak for the portion of operating and capital costs attributable to their use of Amtrak's infrastructure, yet Amtrak has failed to make the necessary capital investments and the federal government has failed to provide the necessary funds to make up for shortfalls in the costs to maintain that infrastructure; and
Whereas, Although Penn Station is owned by Amtrak, commuter train traffic accounts for over 1,000 of the 1,300 train movements, which makes up the majority of train movements that Penn Station accommodates, and there is little transparency regarding how often the commuter rail systems operated by New Jersey Transit and LIRR are consulted in decision-making processes concerning Penn Station; and
Whereas, Years of under-investment in Penn Station's infrastructure by Amtrak and steady traffic growth at Penn Station have led to issues in the reliability of service for commuter train riders at the station, with the long term consequences of those failures resulting in the derailment of Amtrak train on March 24, 2017 and the derailment of a New Jersey Transit train on April 3, 2017; and
Whereas, The relatively minor derailments impacted an estimated 70,000 passengers as well as travel in and out of Penn Station and throughout the Northeast Corridor for days, resulting in suspensions and cancellations of service, delays, and significant schedule disruptions to Amtrak, New Jersey Transit, and LIRR service; and
Whereas, Recently, Amtrak has announced that it will conduct a series of major track repairs and switch renewal projects at Penn Station, in an effort to prevent derailments, however, the projects may cause significant delays as they require Amtrak to close several tracks at Penn Station for days or weeks at a time; and
Whereas, The announcement of the repairs has also led to New Jersey Transit anticipating minimum delays of 15 minutes on weekdays and 30 minutes on weekends to New Jersey Transit rail service for an indefinite period of time, which may result in longer commutes for many rail passengers in New Jersey; and
Whereas, Amtrak's decision to close tracks at Penn Station and reduce capacity is one that should have attempted to cause as little inconvenience as possible to the commuter rail systems that conduct a majority of the train movements at the station and should have included New Jersey Transit and the LIRR as the operators of those commuter rail systems in the decision-making processes concerning the station; and
Whereas, With the impact that Penn Station and the Northeast Corridor have on New Jersey and the region, it is in the best interest of rail passengers in New Jersey and the region for this House to urge Congress to examine the operations of Amtrak at Penn Station, including Amtrak's inclusion of the commuter rail systems that use Penn Station in the decision-making processes concerning the station; now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of New Jersey:
1. This House respectfully urges the United States Congress to examine the operations of the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, commonly known as Amtrak, at New York Pennsylvania Station, including determining the advisability of requiring that the commuter rail systems that use New York Pennsylvania Station be involved in the decision-making processes concerning the station.
2. Copies of this resolution, as filed with the Secretary of State, shall be transmitted by the Secretary of the Senate to the Majority and Minority Leaders of the United States Senate, the Speaker and the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives, every member of Congress elected from the State of New Jersey, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Amtrak, and the Executive Director of the New Jersey Transit Corporation.
STATEMENT
This resolution respectfully urges the United States Congress to examine the operations of the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, commonly known as Amtrak, at New York Pennsylvania Station (Penn Station), including determining the advisability of requiring that the commuter rail systems that use Penn Station be involved in the decision-making processes concerning the station.
Amtrak serves as the nation's passenger railroad operator, providing state-supported corridor service to states, including the Northeast Corridor, and commuter rail agencies, including the New Jersey Transit Corporation (New Jersey Transit) and the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), which provide service to Penn Station, which is the busiest train station in America.
The challenges that come with maintaining Penn Station, which is operating beyond capacity, are compounded by the station's age and the lack of investment in the station at the federal level. The commuter railroads that use Amtrak infrastructure pay Amtrak for the portion of operating and capital costs attributable to their use of Amtrak's infrastructure, yet Amtrak has failed to make the necessary capital investments and the federal government has failed to provide the necessary funds to make up for shortfalls in the costs to maintain the infrastructure. Further, commuter train traffic makes up the majority of train movements that Penn Station accommodates, yet there is little transparency regarding how often the commuter rail systems operated by New Jersey Transit and LIRR are consulted in decision-making processes concerning Penn Station.
Years of under-investment and steady traffic growth at Penn Station have contributed to recent derailments at Penn Station. The relatively minor derailments impacted thousands of passengers as well as travel in and out of Penn Station and throughout the Northeast Corridor for days, resulting in significant schedule disruptions to Amtrak, New Jersey Transit, and LIRR service.
Recently, Amtrak has announced that it will conduct a series of major repairs at Penn Station, in an effort to prevent derailments. However, the repair projects may cause significant delays as they require Amtrak to close several tracks at Penn Station for days or weeks at a time. The announcement of the repairs has also led to New Jersey Transit anticipating minimum delays of 15 minutes on weekdays and 30 minutes on weekends to New Jersey Transit rail service, resulting in longer commutes for many New Jersey rail passengers. Amtrak's decision to close tracks at Penn Station and reduce capacity is one that should have attempted to cause as little inconvenience as possible to the commuter rail systems and should have included New Jersey Transit and the LIRR in the decision-making processes concerning the station.
With the impact that Penn Station and Northeast Corridor have on New Jersey and the region, it is in the best interest of the rail passengers in New Jersey and the region for Congress to examine the operations of Amtrak at Penn Station, including Amtrak's inclusion of the commuter rail systems that use Penn Station in the decision-making processes concerning the station.
