{"id":26617,"date":"2025-11-03T11:20:28","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T11:20:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/26617\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T11:20:28","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T11:20:28","slug":"amtrak-boss-blames-mtas-wounded-pride-as-transit-agency-claims-major-penn-station-project-delays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/26617\/","title":{"rendered":"Amtrak boss blames MTA’s ‘wounded pride’ as transit agency claims major Penn Station project delays"},"content":{"rendered":"

The head of Amtrak said \u201cwounded pride\u201d is fueling the MTA\u2019s smear campaign against the federal train company after\u00a0the MTA lost the Penn Station Redesign<\/a> to Amtrak earlier this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

MTA officials started a fresh spat with Amtrak Monday when the transit agency announced the long-anticipated $2.9 billion Penn Station Access project, set to connect Bronx riders to Manhattan\u2019s Penn Station via four new Metro-North stops, is facing a possible three-year delay \u2014 and solely blamed Amtrak.<\/p>\n

Amtrak President Roger Harris, in an interview with The Post, described the ongoing drama between the two enormous train companies as a \u201cdecades-long family rivalry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of it is, how do you get past years and years of grudges?\u201d Harris said. \u201cWe want to get the job done. We don\u2019t want to be fighting all these political skirmishes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The long-anticipated $2.9 billion Penn Station Access project will connect Bronx riders to Manhattan\u2019s Penn Station via four new Metro-North stops. Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Harris claimed that both the MTA and Amtrak bear responsibility for the cluster of delays and mishaps in the projects they collaborate on, such as the East River Tunnel<\/a> and the Penn Station Access project in the Bronx.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have different responsibilities, and there\u2019s a different view of who caused which delay and which one was consequential to the other,\u201d Harris said. \u201cBut there\u2019s a lot on the table here, and I could list for you several actions or inactions by MTA that probably delayed the project just as much as something that we did right.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the Penn Station Access project, the MTA hired an independent investigator, consultant Melissa Morea of Ankura, to review the project. Morea blamed Amtrak\u2019s failure to provide sufficient track access, staff and cooperation as the main causes of the stumbling project.<\/p>\n

Her report revealed only seven out of 48 promised track outages were granted by Amtrak, and construction had to be halted when required Amtrak safety personnel did not show up to the job.<\/p>\n

Nine Democratic members of Congress from New York and Connecticut \u2014 including Reps. Alexandria O\u2019Casio Cortez and Jerry Nadler \u2014 sent a letter to Harris Thursday asking Amtrak to \u201cmake up for lost time\u201d on the Penn Station Access project citing the MTA board briefing about the report last week.<\/p>\n

But Amtrak disputes many of the report\u2019s claims. Morea never reached out to Amtrak when compiling the report, and she previously worked with MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber, Harris said.<\/p>\n

While the MTA is blaming Amtrak for construction delays, the MTA had not shared their research with Amtrak as of Thursday. Christopher Sadowski<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil what happened with the theatrics [last week], we thought we were getting along better,\u201d he told The Post. \u201cAnd yet we find out that someone who we don\u2019t even know, who happens to work for Janno in the past, looked at it for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morea previously worked on the \u201cmaster planning\u201d and coordinated\u00a0construction schedules for the World Trade Center project, according to her bio on Ankura\u2019s website. Lieber was president of World Trade Center Properties LLC from 2003 to 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would love an independent third-party to come in and look at it, but that doesn\u2019t feel like the same thing,\u201d Harris said.<\/p>\n

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John McCarthy, in charge of Policy and External Relations at the MTA, didn\u2019t see an issue with Morea\u2019s past work with the MTA head.<\/p>\n

\u201cMelissa Morea is a globally recognized scheduling expert who in addition to the WTC and Hudson Yards mega projects, consulted for the MTA on East Side Access, helping to get that project done despite Amtrak issues,\u201d McCarthy said in a statement after The Post reached out. \u201cHer findings on Amtrak\u2019s delay of Penn Access have not been questioned\u2014by Amtrak or anyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lieber snapped on Wednesday when a reporter asked if the MTA should shoulder any of the blame for the delays.<\/p>\n

MTA head Janno Lieber blamed Amtrak for the latest delays to the Penn Station Access project, but also said the two will \u201cfight it out\u201d in arbitration. Robert Miller<\/p>\n

\u201cWe shouldn\u2019t be focused on that,\u201d Lieber said. \u201cWe can fight it out with Amtrak in arbitration, that is going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

MTA heads were similarly abrasive about the East River Tunnel project<\/a> in May, fear mongering about possible delays for riders before Amtrak even started that repair work. So far those delays haven\u2019t materialized, Harris said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re about 40% of the way through that project, and so far, it\u2019s going really well. And you haven\u2019t heard them complaining much about it, because there\u2019s not much to complain about the project today,\u201d Harris said.<\/p>\n

Harris thinks the MTA\u2019s embarrassing public spiral in recent months may stem from bruised egos after the MTA lost the Penn Station Redesign contract in April.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure that there\u2019s a degree of wounded pride here,\u201d Harris said. \u201cThat\u2019s a human condition, especially around such a large marquee project as Penn Station. Also in today\u2019s incredibly politically charged environment everybody is kind of on the edge a little bit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In a social media post Bronx President Vanessa Gibson demanded the project move \u201cforward without further delay.\u201d LP Media<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Lieber vowed Wednesday to still get Bronx residents service by 2027, even if it means temporary platforms or complicated shuttle arrangements to bypass ongoing construction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese people have nothing to get to jobs and education and opportunity when you\u2019re coming from Co-op City or Morris Park,\u201d Lieber said, appearing deeply frustrated after an MTA board meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to start that service in 2027, and we need Amtrak to help us,\u201d Lieber pleaded, after claiming Amtrak\u2019s Acela trains have been \u201cflying through the Bronx for 100 years without ever stopping to serve people in the Bronx.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amtrak was established in 1971.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The head of Amtrak said \u201cwounded pride\u201d is fueling the MTA\u2019s smear campaign against the federal train company…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[6922,128,57,141,9,24,63,7968,87,129,131,130,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-26617","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-amtrak","9":"tag-bronx","10":"tag-metro","11":"tag-mta","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-penn-station","16":"tag-politics","17":"tag-the-bronx","18":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","19":"tag-the-bronx-news","20":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}