‘Train Daddy’ Takes Over Penn Station Project But Amtrak Still Has Major Issues

Remember the last time we thought "Train Daddy" was going to fix everything?

Amtrak appointed its top high-speed rail executive Andy Byford to oversee Penn Station’s reconstruction plan late last week, the first major announcement since the U.S. Department of Transportation took control of the train station’s overhaul last month.

Rail advocates largely hailed the news as a welcome turn in the saga of the long-awaited modernization of the Western hemisphere’s busiest train station. But even good news was met with caution.

“He has a very clear understanding of what technical problems need to be solved with this project and how to solve them, but the political superstructure is likely to blunt his best qualities,” said Sean Jeans-Gail, the vice president of government affairs and policy for Rail Passengers Association. “It’s like hiring the world’s strongest man and then tasking him with rolling a boulder up a hill.”

The British railway maestro, who joined Amtrak in 2023, is well-known to New Yorkers thanks to his two-year stint running the subways and buses, until he clashed with then-Gov. (and possibly future mayor) Andrew Cuomo over the costs of upgrades and over his rehabilitation plan for the L train that Cuomo micromanaged.

Now the White House has sent Byford back to manage the complex redesign of a transportation project that has bedeviled governors, the heads of transit agencies, architects, engineers, and commercial real estate developers. 

Fortunately he has plenty of familiarity with the railroad hub. During the Biden administration, Byford opposed Amtrak’s initial proposal to acquire and demolish a Midtown block in order to expand the capacity of the railroad station as New York, New Jersey, and the railroad work to build two rail tunnels under the Hudson River. He also supports through-running commuter trains between the New Jersey and Long Island suburbs so that trains – an idea that has mixed criticism from transit experts.

Any redesign of Penn Station must accommodate the increased volume of trains that the $16-billion Gateway Program creates, argued Tom Wright, executive director of the Regional Plan Association.

“We need all that capacity and then some,” Wright said. “The railroads disagree about lots of different things, but the one thing they do all agree on is that through-running does not achieve the full capacity of Gateway.”

'Train Daddy' to the rescue?

With Byford atop Penn Station, Amtrak may breathe easier, but it has plenty of other problems. Railroad officials eliminated 450 positions earlier this month that would save the railroad $100 million annually as DOGE downsizes federal agencies.

Amtrak President Roger Harris said the railroad company made “difficult but necessary” staffing reductions in order to protect the delivery of its future infrastructure projects.

“The assertion that Amtrak is abandoning its mission ignores our need for strategic prioritization so that we can ensure major initiatives move forward with quality and accountability,” Harris wrote in Railway Age on May 16. “Suggesting that we are only prioritizing profitability misunderstands our broader goal — our responsibility to use our limited funds wisely and ensure that we deliver critical projects and quality service."

Transit advocates worry that Amtrak’s dreams of high-speed rail on several lines and its ability to provide frequent service across the country could be imperiled.

“It’s hard to imagine how any cuts to staff in any department will be helpful,” said Rick Harnish, executive director of the High Speed Rail Association. “We’re already having challenges keeping projects moving and getting trains out the door. It’s part of the ongoing efforts to reduce the capabilities of the federal government.”

The cuts appear to be across the board in different regions throughout the country, according to advocates monitoring the railroad. Amtrak spokesperson Marc Magliari said there are no changes planned to rail service.

But some long-distance train routes have already been threatened. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called on the Federal Railroad Administration to review the California High-Speed Rail Authority's $4 billion high-speed rail plan in the state’s Central Valley, which could eventually be integrated into Amtrak’s existing network. Last month, Duffy announced that the Railway Administration canceled a $64-million grant to Amtrak to develop a passenger rail line between Dallas and Houston.

But Amtrak’s biggest risk is its aging fleet of railcars. Some of the railroad’s Superliner cars are 40 to 50 years old and can substantially disrupt service on long-distance routes if they suffer a mechanical failure.

Harnish’s biggest fear is that Amtrak won’t move fast enough to procure new rail cars for its long-distance service outside the northeast.

“Every time there’s a crash, the size of their fleet goes down,” he said. “They’re carrying a lot less people than they could because they don’t have enough capacity to carry the people who ride the trains. You can’t run a train that doesn’t exist.”

The U.S. Department of Transportation did not respond to a request for comment.