Amtrak officials have applied for $299.7 million in federal grants to replace trouble-prone overhead wiring that powers trains, and has been blamed for delays and service suspensions this summer.
Amtrak applied for four Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements Federal Railroad Administration grants, including $13.4 million to replace overhead electric catenary wires between North Brunswick to Newark, with an award announcement expected in the fall, said Jason Abrams, an Amtrak spokesman.
Amtrak officials also applied for an $18.6 million grant to upgrade signal systems between New Brunswick and Elizabeth, $80.277 million to replace electrical substation 41 in Kearny and $187.5 million to replace the Sawtooth Bridges in Kearny.
The two-track Sawtooth Bridges would be replaced with new structures carrying four Northeast Corridor through tracks over NJ Transit’s Morris & Essex lines and PATH tracks. Those bridges were built in 1907 and are deteriorating.
“This funding would enable Amtrak to modernize essential infrastructure along a 23-mile stretch of Amtrak track in northern New Jersey over the coming years,” Abrams said.
Grant funding is split with 80% of the total project cost from the federal government and a 20% local match, meaning NJ Transit would pay 10% and Amtrak 10%.
A letter from the state congressional delegation late last week pressed Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to support the grants and allocate additional funding for Amtrak State of Good Repair work.
NEC infrastructure has been scrutinized during the past three months, when wire and signal problems, and rail equipment breakdowns, led to delays and crippling service suspensions as the region withered under intense heat waves.
U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, D-6th Dist., said he talked to FRA Administrator Amit Bose and Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner about the grants and stressed the need to expedite that work after approval.
“That has to be approved,” Pallone said about the grants in an interview with NJ Advance Media. “They’re giving the impression they (FRA) could approve it in early fall and start work by the end of year.”
A similar $300 million project to replace overhead wire, signals and other infrastructure between North Brunswick and Trenton in the previous decade took about 6 years to have that section of track upgraded.
“I said we need to reduce that from 6 years to 2 to 3 years,” Pallone said.
All NJ Transit trains rent Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor line to and from New York. Morris & Essex line trains leave the Corridor in Kearny and continue on NJ Transit-owned track to Essex and Morris counties. New Jersey Coast Line trains branch off the Corridor line in Rahway, using NJ Transit-owned track to Monmouth and Ocean counties.
On June 27, Gov. Phil Murphy announced a joint partnership between Amtrak and NJ Transit in the wake of Northeast Corridor service disruptions in New Jersey and New York Penn Station that occurred in May and June, delaying and displacing thousands of NJ Transit and Amtrak passengers.
The joint plan called for fixing some of the short-term issues with aging Amtrak infrastructure and equipment on NJ Transit trains, including stepped up maintenance of catenary wire and inspection of the overhead wire and equipment on NJ Transit trains that collects power from wires.
It also called for longer-term solutions to replace the wires, some of which date to the Roosevelt administration.
In the wake of that, Pallone has demanded and received weekly updates from top Amtrak officials.
Amtrak has spent $1.3 million on inspecting and maintenance of the catenary alone since the June event, Abrams said.
A major concerns is how Amtrak will keep the existing power and signal system operating while it is being replaced when the grants are awarded, Pallone said.
“To me that is the biggest thing,” he said. “They said they are prioritizing spending from $6 billion in State of Good Repair funds, doing work at night and improving maintenance (so) the wires don’t go bad.”
To that end, Gery Williams, Amtrak service delivery and operations executive vice president, FRA Administrator Bose, FRA Regional Administrator Michael Culotta and NJ Transit officials toured Amtrak’s substation in Morrisville, Pennsylvania. The group rode it’s catenary inspection and repair car in Trenton and visited an NJ Transit rail maintenance facility on Monday.
Amtrak and NJ Transit continue investigating whether its overhead wires, NJ Transit’s trains, or a combination are causing the catenary wire to fail.
That includes Amtrak running wire inspection trains, similar to the ones FRA officials rode on, to using high definition cameras to inspect equipment on NJ Transit’s trains called pantographs that contact the wire and transmit electricity to motors.
“There is no smoking gun so far as they can say what the cause is,” Pallone said.
Amtrak officials have questioned the compatibility between NJ Transit trains and Amtrak wires. When Amtrak runs its trains, there isn’t a problem. But when NJ Transit runs its trains, there is, Pallone said Amtrak officials told him.
NJ Transit officials said their trains aren’t damaging wires on the electrified Coast Line or Morris & Essex lines that the agency owns. It replaced those overhead wires in the mid-1980s with modern “constant tension” wires that adjust for extreme heat or cold weather.
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Larry Higgs may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X @CommutingLarry.
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