Amtrak Completes 'Summer Of Hell' Work Ahead Of Schedule

NEW YORK CITY, N.Y. - Amtrak on Thursday announced the end of major repair work at Penn Station – a day ahead of schedule.

"This accelerated work was an enormous undertaking. We did it on time, on budget and, most importantly, safely," Amtrak Co-CEO Wick Moorman said in a statement. "This summer's work and support from our partners will result in greater reliability in the future."

During the two months of work, Amtrak demolished and replaced a long stretch of track 10 and did intensive repairs on the complicated junction where rails cross known as A Interlocking.

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The work caused a 20-percent reduction in the number of Amtrak, NJ Transit and Long Island Rail Road trains running to Penn Station which commuters dreaded would create a "Summer of Hell." With the end of construction, weekday service is scheduled to go back to normal next week.

At a Thursday press conference, Moorman was quoted as saying Amtrak will make more improvements over the coming months.

“We have more work planned throughout the fall, winter and into next year to improve other areas of track within New York Penn Station,’’ Moorman said, according to Newsday. ‘‘Most of this work will be handled during our normal weekend maintenance periods and should not have major impacts to service levels.”

Before the major work began, Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned commuters to brace for a "Summer of Hell." But in many cases, service proved to be better than usual, with LIRR reporting its best on-time performance of the year in July.

Here's how the repair work went by the numbers, according to Amtrak:

• 360 skilled employees

• 1,296 hours of work

• six football fields' worth of track installed

• 897 new track ties

• 176 yards of concrete poured

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Lead image of track 10 work on Aug. 2 by Shant Shahrigian/Patch.