Amtrak sued the MTA on Wednesday, claiming the New York transit agency has for more than a month refused to let the national railroad test its fancy new Acela trains on tracks owned by the Metro-North Railroad.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit, which was filed in Manhattan federal court, states the MTA \u201cbegan systematically denying Amtrak\u2019s requests for non-revenue train movements on both the New Haven Line and the Hudson Line\u201d on March 18 in order to test its \u201cNextGen\u201d trains, which rolled out last year.<\/p>\n
Amtrak in the lawsuit alleges the denials came after equipment on one of the new trains damaged Metro-North\u2019s overhead power cables. Amtrak asked a judge to immediately force the MTA to give it access because the standoff is \u201cescalating harm to Amtrak\u2019s operations and to the traveling public,\u201d and is \u201ccrippling its efforts\u201d to run faster service on the Northeast Corridor.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit is the latest escalation in a long-simmering war between the two railroads. Last year, MTA leaders blamed Amtrak for delays to the MTA’s Penn Access project<\/a>, which aims to bring Metro-North trains to Penn Station via four new stations in the Bronx. The transit agency said its crews were repeatedly denied access to the Hell Gate Bridge, which is owned by Amtrak and serves as a crucial link in the Penn Access plan.<\/p>\n The two railroads have also fought over Amtrak\u2019s plan to close its East River tunnels<\/a>, which are also used by the MTA\u2019s Long Island Rail Road, in order to repair damage from Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Amtrak earlier this year also killed the MTA\u2019s plan to run Metro-North service to Albany<\/a> out of Grand Central Terminal, which would have offered cheaper tickets than the national railroad.<\/p>\n