NEW YORK — Amtrak celebrated the start of major construction on a new maintenance facility today at Sunnyside Yard in Long Island City.
The project will help prepare for the introduction of Amtrak’s new Airo trainsets while improving maintenance operations that support millions of passenger trips across the Northeast each year.
As it opens in phases through 2030, the new maintenance facility will be used for daily inspections, service, cleaning, and more. This investment will improve operational efficiency and working conditions while significantly speeding up train maintenance and reducing turnaround times.
Work includes:
- Construction of a new two-track maintenance and inspection facility for major work
- Construction of six new service and cleaning tracks
- Consolidation of commissary, employee workspace, material storage, and parking into a single location within the yard, including an efficient modular office compound
- Bringing 11 existing service platforms to a state of good repair (required to clean/prepare trains for passenger service and store trainsets when not in operation)
- Other infrastructure upgrades to accommodate this work, including reconfiguration of two major interlockings and tracks connecting the yard to the Northeast Corridor
The facility is being designed to support Amtrak’s new Airo trainsets, which will replace passenger cars that have been in service for more than 50 years. The new trains will offer improved accessibility, greater comfort, enhanced reliability, and a more modern travel experience.
The new maintenance facility, crew base, and platform improvements represent a combined investment of over $1 billion, primarily funded by Congress through FRA-administered grants. FRA also recently announced $2.05 billion that will fund up to 43 additional trainsets beyond the 83 Airo trains currently on order.
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