By D.C. Agrawal and Martin E. Robins

The aftermath of the recent derailments at Penn Station New York has been marked by finger-pointing, threats to withhold payments and demands for Congressional investigations.

Transportation experts recognize that the facility's divided usage and split management responsibilities leads to poor accountability and inefficiency. This institutional dysfunction has been recognized for years. It can and ought to be corrected, but this requires sound, strong-willed leadership to make the necessary changes.

In 1910 the Pennsylvania Railroad built Penn Station to meet its then passenger rail service requirements. It was designed, constructed, owned, managed and operated by the railroad to conduct its long distance, regional and short-haul train operations.

Much has changed since then in Northeast railroading.

Today's Penn Station is owned, managed and operated by Amtrak, the national long-distance rail carrier. It is decidedly the minority user of the station. Two of the nation's two largest commuter railroads - Long Island RR and NJ Transit - are tenants of Amtrak but dominate the facility's usage. In fact of the 1,084 daily trains, only 134, or less than 13 percent, serve Amtrak passengers with 584 serving LIRR and 366 serving NJ Transit passengers.

The recent events highlight the need to re-examine Penn Station governance and management issues which are critical to reliably operate this vital rail station.

Perhaps we need to go "back to the future" to retrieve some simple and straightforward options.

In fact, in 2001, staff of the three railroad users did examine many governance and management options. What was their recommendation? Similar to the old Pennsylvania Railroad, it was that we need a single entity - "One Penn Station" - to manage and operate Penn Station.

While recently Govs. Chris Christie and Andrew Cuomo have joined forces to establish the Gateway Project Development Corporation to advance the design and construction of the additional two-track tunnel and expanded Penn Station tracks, Gateway's charter unfortunately ignores the important over-hanging issue: How will this entire facility be managed and operated to meet the diverse needs of the three different rail operators using this facility - with a minimum of contentiousness and a maximum of cooperation?

There are significant accountability issues under the current arrangement with Amtrak, a minority Penn Station user, being responsible for the functioning of the facility. Amtrak management's interest is to first ensure that its long distance trains using Penn Station operate safely and reliably. Given its limited resources, LIRR and NJTransit daily and long-term service needs get a somewhat lower priority. On the NJ Transit side, Amtrak's control of train dispatching creates friction.

Under a "One Penn Station" concept all train dispatching in the region could be managed under accepted and agreed to railroad protocols.

One limitation under Amtrak's current management is its labor contracts, which allow its employees to work anywhere on the Northeast Corridor based on their seniority. This results in significant employee turnover and limits staffing of critical functions. "One Penn Station" would create for a cohesive, knowledgeable workforce dedicated to this facility supervised by a management responsible for all Penn Station functions.

One Penn Station will also allow management to improve customer and passenger services and experience at Penn Station. Riders of all three railroads can use common customer service personnel to answer questions, purchase tickets and use common facilities.

Lastly, "One Penn Station" will ensure that one entity could comprehensively review the design of the Gateway project's infrastructure. Now there is a risk the hard issues of access and operations will remain unresolved as the design proceeds and not be resolved until after construction - too late for corrective action.

A singular Penn Station would result in a change in perspective on the part of Amtrak, LIRR and NJTransit with respect to their individual train services. Possibly through the Gateway Program Development Corporation, One Penn Station would allow for the facility to be viewed as shared by all but working as one.

D.C. Agrawal is a retired NJ Transit assistant executive director for corporate policy, strategy and contracts.

Martin E. Robins is director emeritus of the Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers University.

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