Amtrak service between New York City and Croton-on-Hudson in Westchester County is expected to be partially restored by Thursday morning and possibly fully restored by Friday night, the rail company said Tuesday — a welcome relief for commuters who rely on the service to get to and from Albany.
Trains have not been running between Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station and the Croton-Harmon station since Sunday, after a parking garage in Hell’s Kitchen that sits above the railroad tracks was deemed structurally unsafe. Amtrak has been directing passengers to take Metro-North at Grand Central Terminal and Croton-Harmon as an alternative, and Metro-North is honoring their Amtrak tickets.
An engineer for the owner of the parking garage, located on W. 51st Street between 10th and 11th avenues, called 911 last Friday to report the issues there. NYC Department of Buildings and Amtrak engineers later found two holes in the garage’s ramps and cracks and deterioration in steel beams, leading Amtrak to suspend service on the affected portion of the Empire Line but without a timeline for restoration. One of the holes looked directly down onto the tracks, pictures shared with Gothamist by the DOB showed.
The department had issued a vacate order at the garage on Friday, and engineers had begun installing “overhead protection” above the tracks while the garage owners started repairs above the train tunnel’s roof, according to a DOB spokesperson. The additional issues, including the cracked beams, were discovered Sunday morning, and officials awaited a repair plan from the property owner, Lineage Properties. (A person at the company who identified themselves as “management” declined to comment on Monday.)
On Tuesday, the DOB spokesperson said the department had received shoring and repair plans from the property owner’s engineers on Monday afternoon and approved them that evening. The work then started at the site on Tuesday morning, he said.
According to the DOB, enough of…
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