Penn Station Hudson River Tunnels vs East River

"...why are the East River Tunnels not an issue? "

They are, and they are mentioned quite a bit in local papers and TV stories.

"Why did PRR only build two under the Hudson yet 4 under the non-PRR favored side with less traffic?"

The Sunnyside Yards are the extension ("tail end") of all the PRR long distance train traffic that terminates at Penn Station.  Also, through traffic on the NEC uses the tunnels.  All LIRR and terminating and storage traffic from Manhattan use the four tracks.

I believe the East River tunnels also need extensive repair, but the fact that there are four of them makes it possible to close one for restoration while handling traffic in the other three, although it still comes down to money in the end. It's just not feasible to take one of the two Hudson River tunnels out of operation and still maintain service into Penn Station.

As for why there are four East River tunnels, my guess, without having the history books right at hand, is that four tunnels were required to allow both through connections via Hell gate and the New York Connecting RR, and suburban connections via the busy LIRR. Also the big coach yards and engine-service facilities at Sunnyside Yard had to be accessible from Penn Station, which may have contributed to the need for four East River tunnels.

The LIRR tunnels need work, but as others pointed out they can take tunnels out to work on them, but they likely need modernization and updating. Among other things, the east river tunnels had the same problem during Sandy and got salt water in them, but they have been able to work on them from what I recall. The Hudson also simply has too much traffic for 2 tunnels, it was not built for the load it takes. 

it was not built for the load it takes

that's really not the case. during WWII, the North River tunnels saw huge volumes of trains run through them. rivaling the amount of traffic today. they can take the load, except they are 110 years old and in desperate need of repair.

there are 4 East River tunnels because of the sheer volume of traffic: LIRR trains and transfer moves to and from Sunnyside. In fact those tunnels were more difficult to dig due to the river geology, despite being much shorter in length than the North River tunnels.

 Here is a good summary of the history of the tunnels.

http://insights.globalspec.com...-tunnel-to-manhattan

Tom 

The Hudson tunnel project has been given preliminary approval by President Obama before he left office. Both Gov's, Cuomo, and Christie, met with President Trump last week to ask him to finalize the approval for funding from Congress. The Gateway Project will add to desperately needed new tunnels from NJ to Manhattan.

All 6 tunnels (on both sides of Manhattan), were flooded during Sandy and need major repairs. Since Amtrak owns the tunnels and tracks its up to them to get the funding. They just completed the first of many projects this Summer "The Summer of Hell" on the west end of Penn Station, with minimal service interruptions.

Taking even one of the 4 east side tunnels out of service for repairs will cause havoc for the three railroads that use them. The LIRR and Amtrak are still negotiating a solution that will allow the work to move forward. The LIRR is way behind schedule and billions over budget on the East Side Access project to bring a one-seat train ride from Long Island to Grand Central Station. Its estimated that 160,000 riders will use the new service out of the average of 250,000 daily riders.

The LIRR parks their trains in Hudson Yards along the river. Amtrak, and NJ Transit have to head east under the East River to Sunnyside yards to park and service trains. The Amtrak NE Corridor service also uses the East River tunnels to get to the Hellgate Bridge heading north to Boston.

This is what the tunnel exit looked like under Manhattan when they were completed.

More info on the Regions trains

http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirr/licity/licity.htm

Can all trains serving Penn Station use all East River Tunnels?

Mike W. posted:

Can all trains serving Penn Station use all East River Tunnels?

yes they can.