MTA: LIRR should maintain Penn's tracks

The Amtrak train derailment causing commuter headaches through Wednesday is further evidence that the Long Island Rail Road should take over maintenance and repairs of the tracks in and out of Penn Station, frustrated MTA board members said Monday.

The Sunday derailment was the third Amtrak incident -- and second derailment -- since February that has had a major impact on LIRR customers.

Amtrak owns and maintains Penn Station and its tunnels, despite running about a third the number of trains that the LIRR moves into and out of the Manhattan terminal each weekday.

Following an April 18 incident in which emergency Amtrak rail repairs caused major disruptions on the LIRR, some Metropolitan Transportation Authority board members called for a renegotiated contract between Amtrak and the MTA, under which the LIRR would take over maintenance of the Manhattan infrastructure it uses. Board member Mitchell Pally, of Stony Brook, said Sunday's derailment adds urgency to that call.

"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Long Island Rail Road commuters are at the whim of a federal agency that really does not have their best interests at heart," said Pally, who blamed Sunday's derailment and lengthy recovery time on "the status quo" in the relationship between the LIRR and Amtrak.

"In this case, the people who are paying for it mainly are the Long Island Rail Road commuters," he said. "That is unfortunate, unfair and unacceptable."

Amtrak spokesman Cliff Cole would not comment on suggestions that the LIRR should take over maintenance at Penn Station and the tunnels, other than to say Amtrak is "comfortable with the process as it stands now."

He disputed the assertion that Amtrak does not care about LIRR customers, saying, "I think we're obviously sympathetic to the plight of the thousands of commuters that are impacted."

MTA board member Ira Greenberg, who represents the LIRR Commuter Council, said that while it may be premature this time to blame Amtrak's maintenance procedures, the LIRR is better equipped to handle the heavy maintenance and repairs of the system it uses.

"From riders' perspectives, this is becoming unacceptable, if it hasn't already," he said.