Amtrak Targets Easing of New York-Philadelphia Delays by End of September

Lisa Caruso Bloomberg.com 06/24/2011 17:50

Amtrak and commuter-train riders who suffered three service delays between New York and Philadelphia this week may see hold-ups linger while the national passenger rail service finishes some power-system repairs over the next three months.

“If I were to say we won’t have any more service disruptions over the summer, I would be doing everyone an injustice,” Clifford Cole, an Amtrak spokesman based in New York, said by telephone. “What we’re doing now, we believe, will help diminish the possibility of service disruptions.”

Hundreds of thousands of passengers were stranded this week because of computer and electrical-equipment failures in a power system that was mostly built during the Great Depression. Forty of 82 electrical substations between Washington and New York will be running on new equipment by the end of September, Cole said. The $25 million project is funded by grants from President Barack Obama’s 2009 stimulus package.

Substations take power from 138,000-volt overhead electrical lines, lower it to 12,000 volts and send it to wires above the tracks to power the trains.