Railroads

New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D) is praising Amtrak for reopening a rail tunnel that connects his state and New York City.

Lautenberg, who is a member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said the national passenger rail service has reopened its "north tube," which carries Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains into New York City under the Hudson River.

The tunnel had been closed since sustaining damage during Superstorm Sandy.

Lautenberg said it was "good news" the tunnel has been reopened, but he said there was still work to do in the Sandy recovery effort.

“It’s good news for New Jersey that the tunnel is reopening, but damage remains and we won’t stop working until full service is restored for rail passengers,” Lautenberg said in a statement released by his office. 

President Obama's reelection is likely to ensure efforts to privatize Amtrak service and cut transportation funding will be unsuccessful. 

Unsuccessful Republican nominee Mitt Romney had repeatedly pledged to eliminate government funding for Amtrak, and GOP vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) budget would have limited transportation funding to revenues generated by the federal gas tax.

"I think Amtrak is safe and surface transportation levels are safe," Joshua Schank, president of the nonpartisan Eno Center for Transportation, said in an assessment of the election. 

"I'd be very surprised to see the president and a Democratic Senate accept a cut" to transportation funding, Schank continued. 

New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has restored partial bus service in the densely populated city that was hit hard by Hurricane Sandy.

Several New York City subway stations remain deluged with water dumped on train tracks and platforms by the storm, but the MTA said it began running buses on a Sunday schedule on Tuesday evening.

The agency has said it is not charging fares for the rides, and it hopes to resume a nearly full weekday schedule by Wednesday.

“Our transportation system has never faced a disaster as devastating as Hurricane Sandy, which has caused an unparalleled level of damage,” MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota said in a statement.  “The challenge that we face now is one of assessment, inspection, repair, and restoration. This will not be a short process, but it will be one that puts safety as its major focus.”

Amtrak service in Northeastern states that were deluged by Hurricane Sandy remained canceled Tuesday, but the company said it was considering a “limited restoration” for Wednesday.

“Amtrak crews are currently inspecting tunnels, tracks, equipment and stations to assess the damage from Hurricane Sandy and are beginning to make the necessary repairs along Amtrak-owned sections of railroad in the Northeast, including the Northeast Corridor,” the company said in a statement.

“In addition, Amtrak is working closely with host railroads on whose tracks Amtrak trains operate to determine when passenger train service can resume operations on their railroads,” the Amtrak statement continued. “Necessary repairs include the removal of trees and other debris from the tracks and the overhead electrical power system, as well as track and signal repairs.”

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) warned residents of his state on Tuesday that its commuter railways were severely damaged by Hurricane Sandy.

"There is major damage on each and every one of New Jersey's rail lines,” Christie said in a news conference Tuesday morning. “Large sections of track were washed out."

Christie cited flooding damage to stations on New Jersey’s Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) railway in Newark and Hoboken. 

On his Twitter account Tuesday, Christie added that "[T]he [storm] surge was so strong we have rail cars on the Jersey Turnpike this morning. #Sandy."

He told reporters that transportation officials in New Jersey were able to open the statewide Garden State Parkway, but he encouraged employers in the state to allow workers to stay home.

President Obama warned Monday that transportation systems along the East Coast are going to be “tied up for a long time” during and after Hurricane Sandy.

Public transportation systems in cities like New York and Washington, D.C., were shut down Monday in anticipation of the hurricane, which is predicted to make landfall in New Jersey between Monday night and Tuesday morning.

Airlines have canceled flights to Northeastern airports, and Amtrak, along with commuter railways and intercity buses, have shut down in preparation for the storm.

Obama warned Monday that it could take days after hurricane passes for those systems to get back to running at full speed.

“Transportation is going to be tied up for a long time,” Obama said in a White House press briefing. “And probably the most significant impact for a lot of people, in addition to flooding, is going to be getting power back on.

Voters in Florida’s critical swing Interstate 4 corridor favored the construction of a high-speed railway between Tampa and Orlando that was killed by Florida’s Gov. Rick Scott.

Early into his first year in office in 2011, Scott (R) turned down $2.4 billion for a high-speed rail line that had been one of the centerpieces of President Obama’s vision for a nationwide rail network.

Scott said at the time that the train would not generate enough ridership to sustain its operations after it was built. But a new poll from the Tampa Bay Times shows that 51 percent of voters in the corridor wish he would have taken the money.

Amtrak is considering eliminating its route from Kansas City to Albuquerque, according to a report from The Santa Fe New Mexican.

The line, the Southwest Chief, runs from Chicago to Los Angeles. But the report said that Amtrak has told transportation officials in New Mexico, Colorado and Kansas that it needs $100 million over the next decade to maintain the parts of the line in those states. The states have thus far said they do not have the money to spare, according the report.

The back-and-forth comes as Republicans in the House have focused on ending subsidies to Amtrak and privatizing the railway's most profitable routes in the Northeast U.S. Amtrak has received an approximately $1 billion subsidy since it was created by Congress in 1971.

General Electric (GE) Co.'s transportation department is praising Amtrak for testing running trains at 110 miles per hour this week, saying that the increased speeds were made possible by its technology.

Amtrak ran a test train on a section of its tracks between Joliet and Normal, Ill., with Transportation Ray LaHood, Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph Szabo and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn (D) among the passengers.

GE Transportation said the higher speeds on the Amtrak line, which will eventually run from Chicago to St. Louis, were made possible by its Incremental Train Control System (ITCS).

"We are proud to help introduce the new 110 mph high-speed rail service in Illinois,’’ GE Transportation President Lorenzo Simonelli said in a statement. “GE has had a long and productive partnership with Amtrak, IDOT and FRA and we look forward to deploying this technology in other states to ensure safe, reliable, high-speed service. We are committed to providing the latest technology and products to high-speed rail programs worldwide as an essential part of sustainable infrastructure growth."

The conservative Heritage Foundation is highlighting losses from food and drink sales by Amtrak that were the subject of several congressional hearings this year in a new report about federal spending.

The Washington, D.C.-based think tank cited losses of $84 million last year and $833 million over the past 10 years on concessions sold on its trains as an example of government spending that it said was threatening economic growth.

Amtrak has received an approximately $1 billion subsidy from the federal government since it was created by Congress in 1971. But the Heritage Foundation pointed out in its spending report that Amtrak has "never broken even" on food and beverage sales.