Sen. Schumer calls on Congress to work together on $1T infrastructure bill

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sen. Chuck Schumer on Sunday urged Congress to “come together and compromise” on a $1 trillion infrastructure spending package that would include funding to repair the Northeast Corridor’s aging rail system, Newsday reports.

Speaking at a news conference in front of Penn Station, Schumer’s push for lawmakers to act in a bipartisan fashion comes after two train derailments in the past two weeks that caused massive delays for commuters. He noted that last week’s derailment of an NJ Transit train at Penn Station was caused by damaged wooden track ties that were long in need of repair.

Amtrak, which owns and maintains tracks used by the LIRR and NJ Transit at the station, said last week that inspectors had recently documented that the track ties were in need of repair, but did not act sooner on repair work because there did not appear to be an imminent safety threat. Amtrak officials have said they are grappling with a $28 billion repair backlog due to funding shortages. For the full story, click here.