Amtrak boss blames MTA’s ‘wounded pride’ as transit agency claims major Penn Station project delays

The head of Amtrak said “wounded pride” is fueling the MTA’s smear campaign against the federal train company after the MTA lost the Penn Station Redesign to Amtrak earlier this year. 

MTA officials started a fresh spat with Amtrak Monday when the transit agency announced the long-anticipated $2.9 billion Penn Station Access project, set to connect Bronx riders to Manhattan’s Penn Station via four new Metro-North stops, is facing a possible three-year delay — and solely blamed Amtrak.

Amtrak President Roger Harris, in an interview with The Post, described the ongoing drama between the two enormous train companies as a “decades-long family rivalry.”

“Part of it is, how do you get past years and years of grudges?” Harris said. “We want to get the job done. We don’t want to be fighting all these political skirmishes.”

Harris claimed that both the MTA and Amtrak bear responsibility for the cluster of delays and mishaps in the projects they collaborate on, such as the East River Tunnel and the Penn Station Access project in the Bronx.

“We have different responsibilities, and there’s a different view of who caused which delay and which one was consequential to the other,” Harris said. “But there’s a lot on the table here, and I could list for you several actions or inactions by MTA that probably delayed the project just as much as something that we did right.”

For the Penn Station Access project, the MTA hired an independent investigator, consultant Melissa Morea of Ankura, to review the project. Morea blamed Amtrak’s failure to provide sufficient track access, staff and cooperation as the main causes of the stumbling project.

Her report revealed only seven out of 48 promised track outages were granted by Amtrak, and construction had to be halted when required Amtrak safety personnel did not show up to the job.

Nine Democratic members of Congress from New York and Connecticut — including Reps. Alexandria O’Casio Cortez and Jerry Nadler — sent a letter to Harris Thursday asking Amtrak to “make up for lost time” on the Penn Station Access project citing the MTA board briefing about the report last week.

But Amtrak disputes many of the report’s claims. Morea never reached out to Amtrak when compiling the report, and she previously worked with MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber, Harris said.

“Until what happened with the theatrics [last week], we thought we were getting along better,” he told The Post. “And yet we find out that someone who we don’t even know, who happens to work for Janno in the past, looked at it for them.”

Morea previously worked on the “master planning” and coordinated construction schedules for the World Trade Center project, according to her bio on Ankura’s website. Lieber was president of World Trade Center Properties LLC from 2003 to 2017.

“We would love an independent third-party to come in and look at it, but that doesn’t feel like the same thing,” Harris said.

John McCarthy, in charge of Policy and External Relations at the MTA, didn’t see an issue with Morea’s past work with the MTA head.

“Melissa Morea is a globally recognized scheduling expert who in addition to the WTC and Hudson Yards mega projects, consulted for the MTA on East Side Access, helping to get that project done despite Amtrak issues,” McCarthy said in a statement after The Post reached out. “Her findings on Amtrak’s delay of Penn Access have not been questioned—by Amtrak or anyone else.”

Lieber snapped on Wednesday when a reporter asked if the MTA should shoulder any of the blame for the delays.

“We shouldn’t be focused on that,” Lieber said. “We can fight it out with Amtrak in arbitration, that is going to happen.”

MTA heads were similarly abrasive about the East River Tunnel project in May, fear mongering about possible delays for riders before Amtrak even started that repair work. So far those delays haven’t materialized, Harris said.

“We’re about 40% of the way through that project, and so far, it’s going really well. And you haven’t heard them complaining much about it, because there’s not much to complain about the project today,” Harris said.

Harris thinks the MTA’s embarrassing public spiral in recent months may stem from bruised egos after the MTA lost the Penn Station Redesign contract in April. 

“I’m sure that there’s a degree of wounded pride here,” Harris said. “That’s a human condition, especially around such a large marquee project as Penn Station. Also in today’s incredibly politically charged environment everybody is kind of on the edge a little bit,” he said.

Meanwhile, Lieber vowed Wednesday to still get Bronx residents service by 2027, even if it means temporary platforms or complicated shuttle arrangements to bypass ongoing construction.

“These people have nothing to get to jobs and education and opportunity when you’re coming from Co-op City or Morris Park,” Lieber said, appearing deeply frustrated after an MTA board meeting.

“We need to start that service in 2027, and we need Amtrak to help us,” Lieber pleaded, after claiming Amtrak’s Acela trains have been “flying through the Bronx for 100 years without ever stopping to serve people in the Bronx.”

Amtrak was established in 1971.