MTA officials spent months last year warning that an Amtrak construction plan would spark service meltdowns at Penn Station.<\/p>\n
That prediction proved true Thursday after a fire in an East River train tunnel sparked widespread service disruptions<\/a> that continued into Saturday morning.<\/p>\n Amtrak owns four East River tunnels that are also used by Long Island Rail Road and NJ Transit trains. Two of them suffered flood damage in 2012 from Hurricane Sandy, and Amtrak last year started a job that would fully close each tunnel one at a time for repairs.<\/p>\n The project has since reduced the number of tunnels connecting trains between Penn Station and Queens from four to three. And before it began, MTA officials begged them to instead do the work on nights and weekends<\/a>, similar to how repairs were made on the L train\u2019s East River subway tunnel in 2019.<\/p>\n A 24\/7 East River tunnel closure \u201cleaves little to no room for error,\u201d LIRR President Rob Free said during a news conference in April 2025, before the work began. \u201cThe slightest deviation could have significant impacts to our operations, reliability, including possible shutdowns of service depending on the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n Amtrak officials on Thursday said a track fire damaged equipment in two of its tunnels, forcing both of them to close. With one more shut for repairs, that left just one river crossing to carry trains through North America’s busiest rail interlockings.<\/p>\n During a news conference on Friday, Free all but said \u201cI told you so\u201d to Amtrak.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is one of the things we warned about, with one of the East River tunnels out long term this is one of the risks that we were taking,\u201d Free said.<\/p>\n Amtrak officials said the cause of the fire is still under investigation. But the service problems persisted into Friday evening\u2019s rush, when most LIRR trains \u2014 the primary users of the East River tunnels \u2014 were redirected from Penn Station to Grand Central Madison and Atlantic Terminal.<\/p>\n Amtrak did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n