Chris Christie, who killed a new rail tunnel under the Hudson, blames Amtrak for NJ commuting woes

[marmar]

Under Penn Station, there's a door that opens onto a hot, dark passageway. It leads to a cavernous electrical substation filled with what looks like giant metal filing cabinets. Those cabinets are actually 12,000 volt circuit breakers.

Amtrak President Joe Boardman took reporters on a tour of this substation Friday to show them first-hand why trans-Hudson commuters have spent the week in rail misery. On two mornings this week, something went wrong with the nearly four-mile-long cables that power the tunnel. The cables originate in Hackensack, New Jersey, go through the so-called North River tunnels, and wind up in Penn Station. And when they fail, it's not always easy for electricians track down where along those four miles the problems are. On Friday evening, in fact, they were still trying to chase down the source from that morning's malfunction.

At 80 years old, the cables were already senior citizens when Sandy struck. During that storm, when the 100-plus year-old tunnels flooded, the cables — along with everything else — were submerged. And that's just the start. "It's the track, it's the ballast, it's the signal system, it's the catenary," said Boardman. "It's all the things that need to be done."

.....(snip).....

Friday's delays were the last straw for NJ Transit. Officials there sent a formal "letter of dissatisfaction" to Amtrak, requesting a meeting and an action plan. Governor Chris Christie also piled on, saying he blamed Amtrak's "indifference to New Jersey commuters."

(Earlier Friday, Christie said if he were elected president, he'd build new trans-Hudson tunnels — despite killing a similar project back in 2010.)

Boardman disputed that Amtrak didn't care about New Jersey commuters. ...............(more)

http://www.wnyc.org/story/amtrak-we-can-fix-problem-if-we-have-money/

[lonestarnot]

1. PigliCONs always blame other people for their own stupidity. Polishing turds is a full-time job

with their leaders. In this case, personal shit shine is the only thing that can be done, and has become his area of expertise that and eating all the pies.

[CanonRay]

2. Classic Republican; nothing is ever their fault

If you are in charge and make a decision, even a bad one, at least have the gumption to stick by it, or admit you were wrong. Christie is a typical bully; a coward at heart.

[gratuitous]

3. We can't be fixing railroads, we have to keep funding the F-35

Priorities, people.

[Historic NY]

4. And now suddenly he wants to restart the tunnel he killed...

in 2009, not so easy since NY went a different way. So now he'll try to blame Cuomo.