NY: Amtrak sues MTA over train movement restrictions amid ongoing rail feud

Amtrak, the federal passenger railway, is suing the MTA, alleging the latter’s Metro-North Railroad is keeping Amtrak from being able to move non-passenger trains on tracks the MTA controls.

According to the suit, filed this week in Manhattan Federal Court, the MTA has denied Amtrak’s requests to move work trains and out-of-service passenger trains and conduct test runs of equipment on the Hudson and New Haven lines since mid-March.

“Since March 18, 2026, Metro-North has begun to deny non-revenue services on both lines, including moves of the Nextgen Acela trainsets to prepare them for [passenger] service, track geometry car runs, and equipment repositioning,” Christopher Jagodzinski, Amtrak’s vice president of commissioning and corridor optimization, testified in a court filing.

“Metro-North previously approved Amtrak’s requests for such movements without objection,” the suit reads.

The suit seeks a preliminary injunction while the railroads undergo a contractually mandated arbitration.

The New Haven Line — which connects Gotham to the eponymous Connecticut city — is a key component of the Northeast Corridor rail connecting between Washington, D.C., and Boston, and sees regular Amtrak service.

The Hudson Line, which extends to just north of Metro-North’s Poughkeepsie terminal, is a key component of Amtrak’s Empire Service to Albany and upstate New York.

In court filings, Amtrak officials say they are reliant on Metro-North permission to run “non-revenue” service — train-speak for moves that don’t carry passengers — on the Hudson Line in order to move newly built trains from the factory in Hornell, N.Y., to the rest of the Amtrak network.

Amtrak also requires permission to run non-revenue service on the New Haven Line in order to run track-geometry cars — which measure and analyze train track conditions — and ensure compliance with federal regulations for high-speed Acela service.

“For Amtrak to maintain its current speeds under federal regulations, track geometry cars must operate every two weeks to assess the track’s safety parameters,” Jagodzinski wrote.

In recent weeks, the railroad has been attaching the cars — which use a suite of cameras, lasers and other measuring equipment to ensure the rails are straight enough for high-speed use — to late-night passenger trains, a practice Jagodzinski testified delays those passengers and costs Amtrak overtime.

In the suit, Amtrak officials accuse the MTA of denying permission for non-revenue in connection with a January incident, in which an in-service Acela train damaged the overhead power lines along the New Haven Line during rush hour.

“Whatever the merits of that separate dispute,” attorneys for Amtrak wrote, “Metro-North is not entitled under [its agreement with Amtrak] to deny Amtrak’s contractual right to operate trains.”

In recent years, the federal passenger railway has had a contentious working relationship with the MTA, whose Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road service both share significant trackage with Amtrak

Asked to respond to the suit, John McCarthy, MTA’s chief of policy and external relations, painted the suit as a distraction from another long-standing beef between the two railroads — namely, delays to the Penn Access project to bring Metro-North service to the Bronx along Amtrak’s Hell Gate Line.

“It’s not clear who in the federal government is directing Amtrak’s lawyers to create distractions from the real issue — getting Bronxites the service they deserve,” McCarthy said in a statement. “The people of the Bronx have been waiting generations watching trains blow by without stopping.”

MTA officials have long groused that Amtrak has repeatedly dropped the ball on the Penn Access project and failed to stop trains from running long enough for MTA crews to do the work. In October, the MTA said such scheduling issues had pushed the project back until 2030.

MTA officials have also criticized Amtrak’s plan to shut down 25% of the East River Tunnel — a major crossing owned by Amtrak but used by Amtrak, LIRR and New Jersey Transit — for more than a year, in order to rebuild the tunnel’s century-old infrastructure.

That project is currently more than one-third complete.

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