Amtrak and NJ TRANSIT recently shared a progress report on their joint inspection, maintenance, and improvement program for Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor (NEC) infrastructure and NJ TRANSIT’s trains.
“While we are pleased with the progress that has improved reliability for tens of thousands of NJ TRANSIT rail customers, our joint efforts will continue,” NJ TRANSIT President and CEO Kevin S. Corbett said. “It’s essential that we sustain the same level of attention we have demonstrated over the past five months. In addition to the work we are doing to add fiberglass protectors on our pantographs to protect them from impact damage on the NEC catenary, NJ TRANSIT will continue to support Amtrak’s efforts to accelerate the work to upgrade the most vulnerable infrastructure along the NEC.”
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy convened a meeting in June to design a joint action plan to address several major service disruptions in May and June as well as several small incidents that reduced service reliability on the NEC between Trenton and New York City.
Work Amtrak and NJ TRANSIT conducted over the past five months included performing 240 track miles of catenary system inspection and making 839 hardware replacements from the defects identified from the more than 2,000 catenary structures captured from the photographs.