Long Island Railroad (LIRR) Considering Lawsuit Against Amtrak

Governor Chris Christie has heavily criticized Amtrak for it’s inability to have the train tracks working properly around Penn Station. The decision was made to threaten to suspend payments to Amtrak until it had fixed all the problems. Governor Christie has requested that Amtrak gets an independent body to inspect all of their infrastructure and recommending what repairs and track replacement had to be done.

Christie has instructed that Long Island Transportation cease paying anything to Amtrak whilst the tracks in the area, particularly in and around the Penn Station. If the work is not done quick!y then he argued that legal action be taken to ensure that Amtrak sort out problems to get the network working as it should be. Amtrak could do more to deal with the ageing tracks, stations, and other facilities. According to Christie the problem is that Amtrak are doing too little and too late to improve the network. Yet that failure to improve things is something that has to addressed sooner rather than later. Without urgent action then the railways to and from Long Island will become increasinglyunsafe.

It is the state of the track around Penn Station, which has concerned both Christie and commuters. With two derailments in the space of ten days that concern will intensify if Amtrak does not a improvethe aged infrastructure quickly. These derailments have led to Amtrak carrying out repairs sooner than planned. Christie urged the suspension of payments to galvanize Amtrak into action. The threat of legal action was mentioned to make sure the company does not slacken the pace of repair work once Penn Station reopens.

Amtrak would prefer to avoid legal action as it has struggled to raise enough funds todo repair work sooner. Yet NJ Transport and commuters are frustrated with the slow rate of repairs.

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