BILL NUMBER:  S6421

 TITLE OF BILL :

An act in relation to authorizing the Metropolitan Transportation
Authority and the Long Island Rail Road Company to discontinue
payments to Amtrak

 PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF THE BILL :

To ensure that impacted commuters are fully compensated due to
unscheduled delays and cancellations caused by inadequate maintenance
of the Penn Station Complex and tunnels, for the period commencing
March 24th, 2017 and not exceeding December 31st, 2017.

 SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS :

Section 1 - The bill directs the Metropolitan Transportation Authority
and the Long Island Rail Road Company shall discontinue any and all
payments to Amtrak, as needed, to ensure that impacted commuters are
fully compensated due to unscheduled delays and cancellations caused
by inadequate maintenance of the Penn Station Complex and tunnels, for
the period commencing March 24th, 2017 and not exceeding December
31st, 2017, unless service is restored to ninety-five percent on-time
performance for trains arriving and departing at Penn Station, for a
period of no less than one month. Any and all payments withheld shall
              

be refunded to impacted commuters in the form of free rail tickets.

 JUSTIFICATION :

The Long Island Rail Road's operations are based at New York Penn
Station. The LIRR, the busiest commuter railroad is nation, carries
about 350,000 daily passenger and is the largest user of Penn Station.
While Amtrak owns and maintains Penn Station, usage of the facility is
shared among Amtrak, the LIRR, and New Jersey Transit.  Penn Station
has experienced a number of major service disruptions in recent weeks,
including derailments in late March and early April that have been
attributed to Amtrak's failure to maintain and improve the station's
infrastructure to an adequate level. Amtrak has acknowledged that
improvements are needed, coming forward with a proposed renewal
program that will require track outages and additional train
cancellation at Penn Station while this work is performed over the
coming months.

LIRR customers using Penn Station have been adversely impacted by
these actions. Many commuters have faced considerable delays and train
cancellations, unable to get either to work or to home within a
reasonable time, due to Amtrak's insufficient maintenance of the Penn
Station infrastructure. Although lost time and missed family events
cannot be recreated, the MTA should ensure that LIRR customers are
reimbursed for problems caused by Amtrak.

This legislation will authorize the MTA and the LIRR to withhold
payments to Amtrak, including lease payments and capital contributions
for Penn Station and related infrastructure, for incidents at Penn
Station, its connecting tunnels, and its related infrastructure caused
by Amtrak and that led to significant LIRR service disruptions. Amtrak
should also be responsible for compensating LIRR users during service
disruptions necessitated to accommodate necessary Amtrak
infrastructure improvements at Penn Stations.

 PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :

None.

 FISCAL IMPLICATION :
To be determined

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
This act will take effect immediately.