Responses to Oct. 17 charges pull no punches, rejects breach allegations and poor coordination
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A sharp disagreement over the causes of delays on the Penn Station Access project escalated Nov. 12 as Amtrak issued a formal response letter rejecting the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s claims that the railroad is primarily responsible for a three-year schedule slip on the $2.9-billion Metro-North expansion into New York Penn Station.
The letter responds to an Oct. 27 notice from MTA Construction & Development President Jamie Torres-Springer, who told the agency’s Capital Program Committee that the project—now about 39% complete—is projected for substantial completion in the second quarter of 2030 versus the original March 2027 target.
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He attributed that delay “predominantly” to Amtrak, citing missed outage windows and inadequate force-account staffing on the Metro North’s Hell Gate Line. ENR reported those assertions Oct. 28, including the MTA’s warning that delay damages may exceed the $50-million cap in the shared-use agreement.
Amtrak: «It Exceeded Access and Staffing Obligations»
In the Nov. 12 letter and in a Nov. 4 interview with ENR, Amtrak Executive Vice President for Capital Delivery Laura Mason acknowledges early access and staffing challenges in 2022–23 but says the railroad has since “more than met” its obligations under the 2021 Design-Build Phase and Cost-Share Agreement.
“We struggled in the first year, year and a half… and we own that,” she said. “But since then and starting in 2024, we have been meeting our contract commitments on force account and meeting or exceeding the track access.”
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According to Amtrak, the railroad has granted two extended long-term outages—totaling 127 days and still ongoing—beyond the weekend closures envisioned in the project’s outage guidelines, providing the Halmar International/RailWorks joint venture “greater productivity and additional durations” than weekend work allows. Amtrak says it now “consistently exceeds” required staffing levels.
Mason argues those efforts have been overshadowed by delays the MTA did not highlight publicly. She cites repeated contractor design and installation deficiencies, safety incidents, early delays tied to CSX freight operations and a seven-month slip caused by the MTA’s Eastbound Reroute project.
The combination, she said, creates overlapping delays that cannot reasonably be attributed solely to Amtrak.
MTA Says, Amtrak Says
The MTA’s Oct. 27 committee materials maintain the project’s $2.867-billion budget but say the baseline is “at risk” until both agencies agree on a re-baseline. They outline a plan to begin limited Metro-North service to new East Bronx stations in 2027—if Amtrak accepts more aggressive outage patterns—while full four-track operations would move to 2030.
Laura Mason, Amtrak’s executive vice president for capital delivery, says the railroad has exceeded staffing and outage commitments on the Penn Station Access project and disputes the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s claims that Amtrak is responsible for the project’s three-year delay.
Photo courtesy of Amtrak
The materials recount missed weekend outages and absent Amtrak crews in the project’s early phase and assert that “decisive action” from Amtrak is needed to restore schedule integrity.
The MTA, in a statement to ENR, said it stands by those assessments.
“New Yorkers want Amtrak to be accountable for their shortcomings. We’re glad they will work with us to deliver Metro-North service for East Bronx residents in 2027,” said MTA Construction & Development President Jamie Torres-Springer. “Bronxites have waited too long while Amtrak trains roared through their neighborhoods without stopping, and it must end in 2027. LIRR will not reduce service to Penn because of Amtrak’s shortcomings.”
“At the same time,” he added, “we’re disappointed Amtrak did not agree with a single one of the requests we made to get the permanent project back on track in their response.”
The agency also noted that its October 2025 Capital Program Committee report included findings from an independent evaluator. “Amtrak acknowledged the main drivers of delay in their response,” the MTA said, “including severely limited outages, lack of support staff and inconsistent rules governing how work gets done.”
Political pressure followed. On Oct. 30, U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Ritchie Torres (D-NY), joined by other New York and Connecticut Democrats, sent a letter to Amtrak President Roger Harris calling Penn Station Access “a critical transportation project for the entire New York region” and urging cooperation to preserve a 2027 service launch.
The group requested a response by Nov. 12—the deadline that triggered Amtrak’s letter. Amtrak’s Oct. 28 public statement also sought to frame the project as a shared responsibility, noting more than $140 million in investments and “significant staff resources.”
In its response, Amtrak says the MTA has not provided key documentation related to claims submitted by the Halmar-RailWorks joint venture, including executed contract amendments, schedule files and payment applications.
Amtrak writes that both agencies had previously planned to jointly defend claims but now worries the MTA “does not want to hold HRJV accountable at all.”
The letter disputes the allegation that Amtrak slowed design reviews, saying many submissions were incomplete or out of compliance and that the contractor did not follow agreed packaging and timing protocols. It notes that 22 site-specific safe work plans remain with the MTA or contractor for correction—some dating back months.
Amtrak also raises concerns about what it describes as a “toxic work culture,” accusing the MTA of a “cycle of conflict and retribution, including public attacks on Amtrak,” and citing Section 30 of the cost-share agreement, which requires mutual consent before public statements about the project. The railroad demands the MTA retract statements “specifically [Chairman] Lieber’s comments that we are in breach of contract.”
Despite the tensions, both agencies agree on the need for a revised project baseline. Amtrak says it has been calling for updated outage guidelines and a new substantial-completion date since fall 2023.
But the prospective re-baseline schedule submitted Aug. 29 by the contractor includes assumptions—such as expanded double-track outages and eliminating the one-week buffer between closures—that Amtrak says exceed its commitments.
Amtrak’s letter leaves open the possibility of service beginning in 2027 but outlines several conditions: a new Northeast Corridor Access Agreement, a jointly approved service schedule with the MTA and the Connecticut Department of Transportation and a reduction in Long Island Rail Road service into Penn Station so additional Metro-North trains do not displace Amtrak or NJ Transit capacity.
Amtrak also pushes back on the MTA’s demand that it share in additional delay costs, saying the request is premature without full documentation of all delay sources, including those tied to CSX, contractor performance and MTA-managed work. It cites Section 8(e) of the agreement, which assigns cost increases caused solely by MTA C&D to the agency.
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Federal funding is also at stake. Amtrak notes that its contribution—and the Federal-State Partnership grant supporting the project—depend on including state-of-good-repair work on the Northeast Corridor. Significant scope reductions, it warns, could jeopardize federal compliance and shift additional cost to the MTA. Both agencies describe Penn Station Access as a transformative project that will bring four ADA-accessible East Bronx stations, 19 miles of upgraded track, power and signaling improvements and new connectivity between Metro-North’s New Haven Line and New York Penn Station.
But when those benefits arrive hinges on how quickly the MTA and Amtrak align on outages, staffing, risk allocation and re-baselining assumptions.
Mason says the larger issue is not the back-and-forth between agencies but what the public is being told.
“The public deserves better, she says. «They deserve the whole story, not just cherry-picked data. People in the Bronx need leaders willing to be transparent about what’s really happening and what can be done about it.»
