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Train fight! Amtrak sues MTA amid long-running railroad feud
By
Stephen Nessen
Published Apr 23, 2026
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Stan Grossfeld/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
By
Stephen Nessen
Published Apr 23, 2026
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Amtrak sued the MTA on Wednesday, claiming the New York transit agency has for more than a month refused to let the national railroad test its fancy new Acela trains on tracks owned by the Metro-North Railroad.
The lawsuit, which was filed in Manhattan federal court, states the MTA “began systematically denying Amtrak’s requests for non-revenue train movements on both the New Haven Line and the Hudson Line” on March 18 in order to test its “NextGen” trains, which rolled out last year.
Amtrak in the lawsuit alleges the denials came after equipment on one of the new trains damaged Metro-North’s overhead power cables. Amtrak asked a judge to immediately force the MTA to give it access because the standoff is “escalating harm to Amtrak’s operations and to the traveling public,” and is “crippling its efforts” to run faster service on the Northeast Corridor.
The lawsuit is the latest escalation in a long-simmering war between the two railroads. Last year, MTA leaders blamed Amtrak for delays to the MTA's Penn Access project, which aims to bring Metro-North trains to Penn Station via four new stations in the Bronx. The transit agency said its crews were repeatedly denied access to the Hell Gate Bridge, which is owned by Amtrak and serves as a crucial link in the Penn Access plan.
The two railroads have also fought over Amtrak’s plan to close its East River tunnels, which are also used by the MTA’s Long Island Rail Road, in order to repair damage from Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Amtrak earlier this year also killed the MTA’s plan to run Metro-North service to Albany out of Grand Central Terminal, which would have offered cheaper tickets than the national railroad.
And last year, the Trump administration put Amtrak in charge of the long-sought reconstruction of Penn Station, taking control of the project away from the MTA.
The issue at the heart of the lawsuit dates back to August 2021, when Amtrak was testing its new Acela trains. The lawsuit says the train's pantograph — a device on top of the train that connects it to the power line — was damaged when it hit a Metro-North bridge.
The lawsuit states Amtrak redesigned the device on top of its train, but in January this year, one of them damaged a Metro-North power line during rush hour, upending commutes for thousands of riders.
Amtrak wrote in court documents that its engineers went back to the lab after the fiasco and came up with a new design for the faulty pantograph, but the MTA denied Amtrak access to the tracks to continue testing.
MTA spokesperson John McCarthy suggested the lawsuit was politically motivated, but did not address the allegations the agency refused Amtrak access to its tracks.
“It’s not clear who in the federal government is directing Amtrak’s lawyers to create distractions from the real issue — getting Bronxites the service they deserve,” McCarthy wrote in a statement.
Amtrak spokesperson Jason Abrams said the MTA’s refusal to open its tracks violated agreements between the two railroads that have been in place since the early 1990s.
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Stephen Nessen
Stephen Nessen covers transportation. Since 2008 he has reported on everything from Occupy Wall Street, the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site, Hurricane Sandy, to Trump’s campaign for president. His transportation reporting has taken him everywhere from the MTA’s secret Rail Control Center to the gleaming subways of Seoul. Got a tip? Email [email protected].
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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