Mass Transit Leaders Discuss Rail Infrastructure Improvements

On Apr 15, 2025

Amtrak and NJ TRANSIT joined Gov. Phil Murphy today in Newark for a working summit to present a new progress report on the joint inspection, maintenance, and improvement program for Amtrak’s infrastructure and NJ TRANSIT’s trains.

According to the report, targeted work between the two agencies over the past year has produced upgrades that are expected to mitigate major service disruptions and address incidents that customers experienced in May and June of 2024.

“Over the past year, we have been working diligently to address many of the issues that riders endured during the summer of 2024,” said Murphy. “In partnership with Amtrak, we have embarked on an ambitious effort to increase inspections, accelerate repairs, and expand funding for capital investments.”

Murphy added that Amtrak has agreed to welcome a senior-level staff member with NJ TRANSIT into their New York Penn Station control center which will help the two agencies engage in continuous collaboration.

“Amtrak and NJ TRANSIT customers should feel confident in their travel this summer,” said Amtrak President Roger Harris. “But the job isn’t done, as we have more improvements underway, and we are encouraged by the results so far that will lead to more upgrades and better service.”

“NJ TRANSIT understands how vital dependable rail service is for the tens of thousands of customers who rely on the Northeast Corridor every day,” said NJ TRANSIT President & CEO Kris Kolluri. “Since last June, substantial progress has been made on infrastructure and equipment upgrades that should significantly lower the risk of experiencing a repeat of last summer’s service issues.”

Kolluri said NJ TRANSIT is committed to making necessary schedule adjustments to support Amtrak’s ongoing upgrades to overhead wires ahead of the summer — work that he said strengthens the future of this corridor.

“Service reliability remains our top priority, and we deeply value our continued collaboration with Amtrak to deliver a better, more reliable travel experience for all our customers,” he added.

The execution of Amtrak and NJ TRANSIT’s joint action plan followed several major service disruptions in May and June 2024, together with a variety of smaller incidents that reduced service reliability on the Northeast Corridor (NEC) between Trenton and New York City.

Following last June’s public meeting with Gov. Murphy, Amtrak and NJ TRANSIT outlined immediate actions, investigations, inspections, and repairs that both companies undertook together to address these issues and provided updates on these measures in August and November. These comprehensive actions have contributed to a noticeable decline in similar occurrences over the past several months, as NJ TRANSIT’s on-time performance has returned to over 90%.

After completing more than $12 million worth of work across this territory in Federal Fiscal Year 24, Amtrak is planning to invest more than $40 million in this territory in Fiscal Year 25. Since November, as outlined in the latest report, Amtrak and NJ TRANSIT made or are scheduling the following improvements to execute on their joint plan:

• Infrastructure Improvements: Since June 2024, Amtrak has completed more than 9,500 hardware replacements between Trenton and New York Penn Station and has completed improvements at three substations to date, with work at eight others planned throughout the year. In addition, Amtrak is performing track, signal, and other work along the NEC in New Jersey, as well as rebuilding heavily utilized interlockings in New York Penn Station.
• Increased Inspections: NJ TRANSIT and Amtrak increased visual pantograph inspections and continued training for engineers on inspection and handling, including a second, more comprehensive round of helicopter inspections of the catenary and other electric signal systems.
• Outage Collaboration: Current and upcoming work focused on asset condition and usage, corresponding with key “hot spots” from summer 2024, will require schedule changes and outages to complete the work. Both Amtrak and NJ TRANSIT have agreed to service outages over the 12 weeks leading up to summer 2025 to minimize impacts to passengers and maximize the impact of the investments, including recent adjustments to Raritan Valley Line schedules.
• NJ TRANSIT Equipment Upgrades: NJ TRANSIT has invested more than $1 billion dollars in 174 new Multilevel III rail cars currently on order, which will be equipped with Automatic Drop Devices (ADDs), similar to those on Amtrak trains, which will proactively drop a pantograph if it becomes damaged. This helps identify the section of track where the failure has occurred and will reduce the severity of an incident involving the overhead wires. An additional $1 billion investment in an additional 200 new Multilevel III cars is planned for later this year. NJ TRANSIT has also installed new chip protectors on its entire fleet prior to summer to better protect against catenary defects and impacts and enhance equipment resiliency. NJ TRANSIT is exploring engineering solutions with the rail car manufacturer to retrofit some of the existing fleet with ADDs.
• Response Plans: Enhanced NJ TRANSIT and Amtrak contingency response plans in the event of heat situations include strategic placement of protect crews and heat-forecast triggered catenary inspections. In addition, Amtrak’s new summer readiness preparation protocols call for pre-emptive activities to be complete before May 31, incorporating data, Amtrak past practices, and international best practices to mitigate against common heat failures.
• Customer Service: NJ TRANSIT will continue investment in customer service, including improved real-time station and app announcements as well as deployment of customer care teams at Penn Station New York and Newark Penn Station on weekdays during the morning and evening peak periods.
• Dispatching Enhancements: NJ TRANSIT senior management personnel located in New York Penn Station Control Center will support coordination in dispatching and priorities during complex events and in support of on-time performance.
• Other Actions: Amtrak and NJ TRANSIT have retained Rutgers University/Applied Testing for joint testing of pantographs, which is currently underway with the participation of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).

In addition, Amtrak and NJ TRANSIT continue to work with the U.S. Department of Transportation and the FRA on the review of the $112 million in Federal-State Partnership for the NEC grants that were awarded last year to Amtrak for three critical electric traction and signal projects in New Jersey with the financial support of NJ TRANSIT.

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