Amtrak partially restores some service in Northeast; but no trains to or from New York

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.