Amtrak’s Northeast Regional service will cut three round-trip daily trains between New York City and Washington, DC, from July 10 to Sept. 1, according to new details about the agency’s plans for summer repairs at Penn Station.
Some Keystone service trains also will start and end in Philadelphia, while others will begin and conclude in Newark, NJ.
Amtrak’s Crescent service usually runs between New York City and New Orleans but will now only only go between the Big Easy and Washington DC, officals said.
There will be no changes to the Acela Express service that runs between Boston and DC, the company said.
Amtrak still has not said how its Empire service, which runs between New York City and Niagara Falls, will be affected.
Amtrak officials have said they are considering running that line to Grand Central Terminal instead of Penn station if they can work that out.
Amtrak still hasn’t release exact train schedules, and officials couldn’t immediately say when that will happen.
The company is making repairs this summer to ancient infrastructure at Penn Station that has been chronically breaking and causing cancellations and delays not only for its trains but also for its “tenants” — the Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit.
“While we regret that this work requires some reduction in train service and disruption to passengers over the summer months, we believe it will ultimately be worth the investment in terms of increased reliability of passenger rail travel,” said Amtrak CEO Wick Moorman in a statement.
NJ Transit has also released some details of its service changes but has not yet divulged the exact schedules.
The biggest changes will be that some Midtown Direct trains will be diverted to Hoboken, NJ, so riders will have to change to get on the PATH to get to Manhattan.
The MTA, which runs LIRR, still has not released its schedule.
Amtrak officials said Tuesday that the company is taking on the brunt of the service changes.
“While Amtrak’s own service at Penn Station will face the largest impact of the three railroads in terms of proportional reductions in train service during the work period, we will use all the tools we can, such as lengthening trains, to continue to provide capacity for our intercity travelers going to or from New York,” Moorman said.