NYC NOW - August 2, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: August 2, 2024

A group of mostly New Jersey residents are annoyed about why bicyclists and pedestrians can't access the George Washington Bridge between midnight and 6am. Also, New Jersey Transit continues to struggle with train delays and cancellations. What will it take for riders to see improvements? WNYC's Michael Hill speaks with Larry Penner, a transportation advocate and former director of The Federal Transit Administrations New York's Office of Operations and Program Management.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Friday, August 2nd. Here's the midday news from Alec Hamilton. A group of mostly New Jersey residents is having trouble bridging the contradictory explanations for why bicyclists and pedestrians cannot access the George Washington Bridge between midnight and 6 a.m. Casey Knight lives in Fort Lee. he's petitioning to keep the bike path open. There are a lot of people who just simply can't afford to drive a vehicle

or to take an Uber into the city to work. And a lot of these people start at 5 o'clock in the morning because they're in essential roles in the city. The Port Authority has several explanations for why the path closes for six hours every night. They range from bridge restoration to, quote, cleaning and maintenance. The agency says the path might open up

after workers finish a restoration project in 2030. Shows and thunderstorms likely this afternoon, mainly after 5 p.m., partly sunny with a high near 90. Heat index values as high as 98, though. It's hot, so be careful out there. Stay close. There's more after the break. On WNYCA, Michael Hill. As New Jersey Transit continues to struggle through a summer of train delays and cancellations, riders on the commuter line have been feeling. the heat. Here's a story from one of our listeners. Maplewood resident Janine Collier. Recently, when the weather was more than 100 degrees for weeks at a time, I had two days in a row

where I spent more than five hours commuting each day. And that's just not the kind of life I want to live. So what will it take for riders to see benefits on the Garden State's commuter rail? Joining us now is Larry Penner, a transportation advocate, and former director of the Federal Transit Administration's New York Office of Operations and Program Management. Mr. Penner, the inner workings of NJ. Transit are pretty opaque to most people. They're not engineers. They just see the long waits for trains. Would you explain what structural things contribute to the current problems with the trains? Sure. Every transportation agency has a capital asset maintenance plan, and in this case, between SACACUS, transfer on the portal tunnel entrance to Hudson River Tunnel, you have antiquated track, power, catenary signals, and communication systems, which need to be upgraded to a state of good repair.

New Jersey transits have a disadvantage because they're the tenant, and Amtrak is the actual owner, and they have a long-term capital plan to bring all these assets up to a state of good repair. The challenge we face is that Amtrak and New Jersey Transit have never made public a detailed schedule outlining the budget and schedule for bringing all these assets up to a state of good repair. So unfortunately, New Jersey transit riders are probably going to continue to suffer even more delays and cancellations until all these assets are brought up to a state of good repair. And then layered on top of that, New Jersey Transit, unlike Metro North and Long Island Railroad, seems to have insufficient engineers to run their trains, which always puzzles me as a transit

advocate. Amtrak in New Jersey Transit often pointing to each other. as the cause of delays on the Northeast Corraline where both operate the blame game. Does the blame lie anywhere in particular, or is it more complicated than that? I would say the blame lies with both entities. They've known about this issue for decades. You know how ancient some of the systems are. Some of them are pre-World War II.

So they've known in advance that all these assets between Secaucus transfer and the portal tunnel entrance to the Hudson River tunnels, have to be brought up to a state of good repair. and unfortunately Amtrak resources are spread very thin on a northeast corridor between Washington and Boston, whether it's people who do track maintenance or signal maintainers. And they clearly have not made this a priority to bring this part of the northeast corridor up to a state of good repair. And as a result, riders and commuters continue to suffer. State and federal officials have their eyes trained on a fix.

The Gateway Tunnel Project would build a second train tunnel under the Hudson and make some repairs to existing infrastructure. How likely is that to leave any of the pressure we're talking about? Well, there's a fatal flaw there that talks about, and that you can do the work between Sikarkas transfer and the portal tunnel entrance in the coming years, but they've made it clear to Great Way Development Commission that they will not get to begin work on the 114-year-old Hudson River tunnels

as of 2024 until 2036, which means those tunnels are going to continue to deteriorate, and they will be 126 years old in 2036. And layered on top of that, we have no idea whether the Gateway Tunnel Project will proceed on schedule, on budget. We have to wait to all the contracts are awarded and are integrated, what's known as a master project schedule, which includes the critical path. The more contracts you have in a Gateway Tunnel project, you increase the likelihood that will be delays. If Contractor A is six months late in finishing their work, then Contract B cannot get access to their work site. So in my professional experience, we will not know until 2030, which is six of the 12 years of the midpoint of the promise commitment to finish the two new tunnels by 2036, based on where they stand on the budget and schedule, whether or not they'll even meet that commitment to 2036 when they can move the existing service over to the two new tunnels and begin work on the old two tunnels. So stay tuned.

So, Mr. Penn, are you saying that the 2035 a year that we've been given, you're saying that don't count on it? Well, there's no guarantee because all the contracts for construction have not been awarded, and the more contracts you have, the greater likelihood that it'll be delays because contractor A, slip six months, and contractor B can't get access to the work site. I point to an example that they broke up the tunnel contract into four contracts. So in my professional experience, until all the contracts are awarded, and you have a master contract schedule, which integrates all the different contractors work, and you have to wait a few years to see how they work together in unison, and usually the midpoint,

which will be 2030, will give you a good idea of whether they'll meet the 2036 commitment. It's like reading a book or a novel. This is just the first chapter of what I call a 30-chapter novel, so we have to stay tuned. There's no guarantee that they'll finish by 2036. Larry Penner, a transportation advocate, and former director of the Federal Transit Administration's New York Office of Operations and program management. Thanks for listening. This is NYC Now from WNYC.

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