Amtrak announced ear­li­er today that it has begun to par­tial­ly restore some ser­vice in the mid-Atlantic states, but it won’t be pos­si­ble to trav­el to or from New York City by rail for at least sev­er­al days due to bad­ly flood­ed tunnels.

Here’s the advi­so­ry Amtrak released not long ago:

Amtrak will pro­vide mod­i­fied North­east Region­al ser­vice between Newark, N.J., and points south, on Wednes­day, Octo­ber 31, includ­ing restor­ing Vir­ginia ser­vice to Lynch­burg, Rich­mond and New­port News. Amtrak will also oper­ate Key­stone Ser­vice trains between Har­ris­burg, Penn., and Philadel­phia, and mod­i­fied Downeast­er ser­vice trains between Boston and Port­land, Maine, along with some overnight ser­vices to and from the Northeast.

How­ev­er, as in the case of oth­er tun­nel own­ers and oper­a­tors in New York City, Amtrak is remov­ing water and mak­ing repairs to track, sig­nal and pow­er sys­tems with­in its tun­nels under the Hud­son and East rivers. The amount of water intru­sion into the tun­nels is unprece­dent­ed – as was the storm itself – so a date for restora­tion of Amtrak ser­vice direct­ly to/from New York Penn Sta­tion from either the north or south is not avail­able at this time.

There­fore, there will be no North­east Region­al ser­vice between Newark and Boston and no Acela Express ser­vice for the length of the North­east Cor­ri­dor on Wednes­day, Octo­ber 31. Also, at Newark Penn Sta­tion, there will be no con­nect­ing ser­vice to New York City and no ele­va­tor or esca­la­tor ser­vice.  Ser­vice to the Newark Lib­er­ty Air­port rail sta­tion is sus­pend­ed due to a lack of con­nect­ing services.

Also can­celed on Wednes­day, Octo­ber 31, is the Empire Ser­vice between New York City and Buffalo/Niagara Falls, the Adiron­dack to and from Mon­tre­al, Québec, Cana­da, and the Ethan Allen Express to and from Rut­land, Vt., due to track dam­age south of Albany-Rens­se­laer, N.Y.

All of the MTA’s com­muter trains are also out of oper­a­tion. They won’t run tomor­row and they aren’t like­ly to run Thurs­day or Fri­day, either. With­in New York City, only bus­es are run­ning — no sub­way ser­vice is available.

Air trav­el remains dis­rupt­ed, as well. John F. Kennedy Inter­na­tion­al Air­port (JFK) and Newark Lib­er­ty Inter­na­tion­al Air­port (EWR) are both set to reopen tomor­row with lim­it­ed ser­vice, but LaGuardia (LGA) is still closed due to seri­ous flooding.

Grey­hound has resumed ser­vice between major cities in Mary­land and Vir­ginia, but is not serv­ing New York, Atlantic City, or Mt. Lau­rel. There is also no ser­vice to Ocean City in Mary­land. Peter Pan is resum­ing most of its ser­vice tomor­row, but there are some can­cel­la­tions.

The Mass­a­chu­setts Bay Trans­porta­tion Author­i­ty is oper­at­ing its com­muter trains, so rail trav­el into Rhode Island is avail­able as far south as the Prov­i­dence area.

New Jer­sey Tran­sit remains almost com­plete­ly shut down. Lim­it­ed bus ser­vice in Cam­den Coun­ty is resum­ing, but that’s it.

About the author

Andrew Villeneuve is the founder and executive director of the Northwest Progressive Institute, as well as the founder of NPI's sibling, the Northwest Progressive Foundation. He has worked to advance progressive causes for over two decades as a strategist, speaker, author, and organizer. Andrew is also a cybersecurity expert, a veteran facilitator, a delegate to the Washington State Democratic Central Committee, and a member of the Climate Reality Leadership Corps.

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One reply on “Amtrak partially restores some service in Northeast; but no trains to or from New York”

  1. I adore Amtrak. Love and care is key to the sus­tain­abil­i­ty of train ser­vice in Amer­i­ca. Hope rid­er­ship returns once the trains start run­ning again. 

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