East River Tunnel Line 2 reopens after $1.6B Sandy rehabilitation
Amtrak has reopened East River Tunnel Line 2 after a $1.6B Sandy-damage rehab, completing the first phase of a multi-year project that keeps trains running through Penn Station.
On August 17, 2026, Amtrak officially reopened East River Tunnel Line 2, marking a major milestone in the ERT Rehabilitation Project and providing safety and reliability improvements for thousands of daily Amtrak, LIRR, and NJ TRANSIT customers. The return of the line completes the first phase of a $1.6 billion rehabilitation of damage inflicted by Superstorm Sandy more than a decade earlier.
Amtrak reopened East River Tunnel Line 2 on Monday in reporting dated Aug. 17–18, marking the halfway point of a restoration project begun over a decade after Superstorm Sandy, with the 116-year-old tunnel carrying more than 450 Amtrak, LIRR and NJ Transit trains daily after a yearlong overhaul from 2012 storm damage. The line had been out of service as crews rebuilt its interior systems.
Amtrak celebrated the Aug. 17, 2026 reopening of Line No. 2 after nearly 15 months out of service for an overhaul, with the four-tube tunnel beneath the East River briefly returning to full capacity. That condition will not last: Tube No. 1 is scheduled to close in the fall for the same rebuild, and full functionality across all tubes is expected by the end of 2027.
The phased sequence lets Amtrak keep trains moving through the Penn Station approach while still executing a full reconstruction. One tube returns to service as the next goes offline, avoiding the total shutdown that unrepaired Sandy damage might otherwise have forced on a structure that carries more than 450 trains a day.
For riders, the immediate effect is a restored line with upgraded safety and reliability, even as the project remains mid-construction. The first half of the tunnel renewal is now done; the next closure will determine whether the 2027 full-capacity target holds.