Gov. Murphy sends scathing letter to Amtrak after 'disaster' rush hour commute

Gov. Phil Murphy sent a scathing letter to Amtrak following the extensive disruption of rail service in the Metro New York area Wednesday evening and the warning of potential delays and cancellations during the Thursday morning commute.

"This morning I sent a letter to Amtrak regarding yesterday's incident where a complete system failure caused disaster during the rush hour commute in the NJ-NY region," Murphy posted on X, formerly Twitter. "As Governor, I refuse to accept these Amtrak infrastructure challenges as an inevitable part of operating integrated mass transit systems. Amtrak must immediately address equipment vulnerabilities and updated emergency management plans."

He continued, "Understanding that the success and reliability of Amtrak is inextricably tied to the performance of NJ TRANSIT, I am calling for our senior teams to meet within the next few days to work on next steps. We can and must do better for our customers and constituents."

Throughout the letter he details the inconvenience and disruption that customers have faced due to delays and cancellations and the frequency of disruptions with Wednesday night's incident being the third infrastructure failure from Amtrak in two days. He states that he believes Amtrak needs to make "immediate short-term and long-term investments" to fix infrastructure vulnerabilities and emergency management plans.

Gery Williams, executive vice president of service delivery and operations at Amtrak, apologized to customers and addressed Murphy's letter in a statement.

"We hold ourselves to a high standard in terms of the reliable service we provide our customers and the customers of our commuter partners, who deserve better than their travel experience yesterday evening," said Williams, who also thanked Murphy for his support and commitment. "An investigation continues into the cause of yesterday’s incident. We will implement any changes to avoid a similar incident like yesterday from happening again."

Following Wednesday night's "complete system failure," NJ Transit was warning its riders early Thursday to expect "possible delays and cancellations" during the morning commute. Amtrak had a similar message for its customers.

In a post on X Wednesday evening, NJ Transit wrote that there still may be issues "due to residual impacts resulting from crew availability and equipment that was out of position as a result of this evening's earlier service disruption caused by Amtrak's overhead wire issues."

The cause of commuter chaos last night that lingered into the morning were downed wires near Kearny, the location of the Portal Bridge and the construction of its replacement. An Amtrak spokesman Thursday morning said the wire issues had nothing to do with the bridge or the construction. "A signal wire came into contact with the catenary, causing a blowout," said Jason Abrams, a Amtrak spokesman. How the two wires came into contact is still being investigated.

NJ Transit posted just before midnight Wednesday the following service updates:

• Service on the Northeast Corridor and North Jersey Coastline had "resumed with very limited westbound service departing Penn Station New York."

• The Raritan Valley Line continues to be suspended.

• The Midtown Direct was still being diverted to Hoboken.

For more information and alternate routes, NJ Transit advises its customers to visit: http://njtransit.com/ABC

Amtrak updates

Amtrak posted on its website Thursday morning that it had "restored power on one track between New York, NY, and Newark, NJ, allowing minimal travel. Single-tracking conditions are now in place."

Wednesday's incident affected service as far south as Philadelphia and Amtrak warned travelers to "expect extensive residual delays due to speed restrictions and rail congestion."

Amtrak said it was waiving fees for changing reservations on affected lines and customers should reach out to contact its reservation center at 1-800-USA-RAIL.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ Transit, Amtrak warn of more delays during Thursday's commute