ALBANY — Amtrak is suing the Metropolitan Transportation Authority over repeatedly denying Amtrak the use of its Metro-North tracks in New York and Connecticut to move and test its new high-speed Acela trains before they go into service up and down the East Coast.
The MTA owns the train tracks that Amtrak uses on the Metro-North lines between Poughkeepsie and New York City, as well as Metro-North lines between New Rochelle and New Haven, Conn. Amtrak leases much of its track network from other railroads, and Amtrak and the MTA have argued over Metro-North service being extended from Poughkeepsie to Albany.
“Their (MTA’s) actions are violating agreements we’ve had in place for more than 35 years, causing escalating harm to Amtrak’s operations, undermining safety‑critical rail activity, disrupting service needed by millions of passengers, and putting the reliability of intercity rail service at risk,” Amtrak spokesman Jason Abrams told the Times Union in a statement…