City, Amtrak Settle Long-Standing Dispute

Amtrak will pay New York $20 million for failing to speed up its service between Manhattan and Albany, state and Amtrak officials agreed yesterday.

After a longstanding legal battle between the national railroad corporation and the state, the two parties have also agreed to jointly invest $10 million to improve the Empire service line, which connects the city to the capital. Improvements could save 2.6 million passenger minutes annually, according to the State Department of Transportation.

Amtrak has agreed to pay $6 million for improvements around the George Washington Bridge. The project will require Amtrak to stabilize the area's rock slopes, which force trains to travel at 15 miles an hour as a precaution against falling rocks. Normal track speed in this section is 60 miles an hour.

The dispute dates back almost a decade. In 1998, Governor Pataki unveiled a $185 million plan with Amtrak that sought to reduce travel time to two hours. Amtrak suffered a series of financial and safety setbacks, which prompted the state in 2004 to sue the national railroad corporation in federal court for $477 million.

"This agreement puts to rest a long-standing dispute and enables the state and Amtrak to move forward cooperatively to improve passenger rail service," Governor Spitzer said in a statement.