Blessing in disguise here for Amtrack and a great opportunity to do an overhaul of a subset of the one of the oldest railroad infrastructure in the USA. Many lessons we can learn from European counterparts.
It's not easy to move a rail line. It's politically and economically infeasible. Amtrak hugs the coast in the northeast in part because that land is useless for anything else. Much like the subways, bridges, tunnels, roads, and every other piece of transit infrastructure in the northeast, the rail problems are systemic and it's a huge effort just to keep things moving at all. This isn't a blessing; it's a snapshot of one of dozens of problems that are just as urgently in need of investment.
Amazing how most of the reactions equate “move” to
“relocate to a different corridor” without offering
the costs of “elevate the trackage in the same corridor”.
Not cheap, to be sure, but avoids the land cost/urban planning morass of how to relocate major infrastructure.
While we’re at it, make the elevated passenger trackage
be serious high-speed rail, instead of the max. 125mph
(~200kph) it is now.
"politically and economically" this is the problem right there. When people graciously justify (and subconsciously) roadblock to any advancement and progress economical and political issues.
If Amtrack pauses its service segment-by-segment so they get to focus on re-building infrastructure then I believe It will not have that much of a negative impact on travelers, at least. People can always resort to other traveling alternatives(buses, cars, planes). Heck, it is economical to travel from NYC to DC by bus vs train. Train gets you in 3 hours for $200 and bus gets you in 4 hours for $19. For me, $200 is worth paying if I get to DC in an hour!
Yes there will be job displacements while the overhaul is underway. But for numbers sake, more job will be created as part of the overhaul.
By politics I assume you meant unions. It is a rabbit-hole debate but I will say this that unions have done more damage to the infrastructure progress
than any other political entity in northeast USA.
Northeast airspace is overcrowded, as is I-95. Not to mention that Amtrak mostly gets money for NEC from the fares, so pausing it is a non-starter without serious government cash infusions.
Amtrak's long-term vision did involve moving away from the coast and swinging up future HSR via Hartford and western Massachusetts.
I say "did", because politicians from eastern Connecticut and Rhode Island were understandably not thrilled about losing their existing high-ish speed services.
