A major disruption on the Long Island Rail Road Wednesday morning has reignited a dispute between the MTA and Amtrak over how to carry out upcoming tunnel repairs beneath the East River.
Commuters faced widespread delays and cancellations after Amtrak temporarily shut down one of the four tunnels leading into Penn Station. The outage resulted in five train cancellations and 43 delays, prompting MTA officials to warn that plans for future tunnel closures could lead to even greater service breakdowns.
“This is what we warned people about and we’re not happy about it,” said LIRR President Rob Free. “Sixty-two a.m. peak trains in and out of here is not sustainable with one tunnel. There would have been a shutdown if line two had been out of service — and that’s what we’re trying to explain.”…