Up Close: Amtrak repairs at Penn Station
NEW YORK (WABC) -- Imagine you own a home - but rarely put money into making sure everything works.
That's what many critics of Penn Station say has happened over the years to the biggest railroad hub in the country, a hot mess of aging infrastructure.
Now, finally, after weeks of delays and problems that has often turned Penn Station into a human parking lot, Amtrak is stepping up and beginning to fix antiquated tracks and signals, a kind of extreme railroad makeover.
The downside: the delays will be bad - very bad - until the end of summer.
So will this be enough to really solve the problems for commuters at Penn Station, more than 600,000 people who use Amtrak and the Long Island Railroad and New Jersey Transit?
And what will it be like to have planned delays to disrupt commuters' summer?
Joining us are Mark Epstein, chairman of LIRR Commuter Council, a volunteer group trying to improve conditions on the LIRR, and Robert Paaswell, distinguished professor at the Grove School of Engineering at CUNY and an expert in transportation policy, planning and operations.
Also this week, he has the lowest approval rating after his first 100 days in office of any president in the modern era.
But 96% of Republicans who voted for Donald Trump approve of the job he's doing.
In other words, this country's still very much divided.
A flurry of action this past week by President Trump tried to jam in a host of proposals leading up to his 100 days in office.
Joining us to gauge how Mr. Trump is doing is New York Congressman Dan Donovan, the only Repubican member of the New York City congressional delegation.
Digging deeper into the weeds of the Trump Presidency's first 100 days, and then we can finally put that time frame to bed, are political analyst Hank Sheinkopf in the studio and ABC News political director Rick Klein, who joins us from Washington.
