NYC "summer of hell"New Yorkers, NYC commuters and summer travelers, listen up: The “summer of hell for commuters,” as governor Andrew Cuomo put it, has begun.

Today marks the start of an eight-week, $40 million Amtrak construction project at New York’s Penn Station, the country’s busiest train station. Three to five of the station’s 21 tracks will be shut down for the duration of the project, which will curtail/alter Amtrak, NJ Transit and LIRR service. About 20% of the LIRR’s tracks will be offline during peak hours, and so MTA is offering a 25% discount on these routes.

As USA Today reports, “New Jersey Transit is diverting to the Hoboken train terminal the bulk of its Morris & Essex Midtown Direct line trains and most of the 23,000 people they carry into New York each day. As a result, the station could see more than double the number rail commuters daily, almost 40,000 people.”

Amtrak service will see the following changes through September 1, per USA Today:

  • “Six Empire service trains are being diverted to Grand Central Station, about a mile north of Penn Station in New York City.
  • Three round-trip trains between New York and Washington have been canceled.
  • Three other Keystone round-trip trains will end in Philadelphia and one other will end in Newark, N.J.
  • The Crescent, which usually operates between New Orleans and New York, instead will terminate in Washington, D.C.”

If you’ll be commuting or traveling to New York between now and September 1, you may need to consider these specific service changes. You’ll also need to prepare for congestion that may result near Penn Station, other hubs that may see spillover effects, and roads—as some commuters may choose to drive until the project’s completion.

For more information, official updates and more, see the affected train lines’ sites:

 

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