Amtrak marked the milestone with a reopening celebration Monday at Penn Station.
The tunnel, which carries more than 450 Amtrak, Long Island Rail Road and NJ Transit trains daily, underwent a yearlong overhaul after sustaining damage during Superstorm Sandy in 2012.
Amtrak officials say the 116-year-old tunnel has been modernized and rebuilt to improve reliability and safety for the hundreds of thousands of passengers who rely on the corridor each day. The project included stripping Line 2 down to its concrete liner and reconstructing key tunnel systems, along with related infrastructure upgrades near Long Island City in Queens.
"They installed new track, drainage, power, communications, state-of-the-art life safety systems, and other key infrastructure throughout the three-mile tunnel, all in just over a year," said Amtrak Interim President Byl Herrmann.
Senator Chuck Schumer, who helped deliver funding for the project, reacted to the major milestone.
"After Superstorm Sandy flooded these tunnels with 14 million gallons of corrosive salt water, I was proud to fight for and deliver the $1.3 billion to fix it," he said in a statement. "Today, Long Islanders can finally see the light at the end of the East River Tunnel, paving the way for safer and faster commutes."
The tunnel closure cut the LIRR's capacity by 20%, contributing to some service challenges for commuters. In May, a track fire disrupted rail service into Penn Station for three days, sending some trains to Grand Central Terminal instead.
The railroad hosted a press conference and ceremonial train ride through the rehabilitated tunnel on Monday afternoon.
The rehabilitation project began in May 2025 with the full closure of Line 2 to allow crews maximum access while minimizing disruptions across the region's rail network.
"We are going to protect every project performed around here, to get the same level of planning and risk reduction that came into being on this project," said MTA Chairman Janno Lieber.
The MTA was so concerned about the project's potential impact that Gov. Kathy Hochul urged Amtrak to perform the work at night and on weekends, a request engineers refused to honour.
When asked how much longer the project would have taken if work was restricted to nights and weekends, Warren LeBeau of Amtrak said, "It would have taken years-years longer."
The East River Tunnel system, which opened in 1910 and connects Penn Station with Queens and the rail corridor to Boston, consists of four tunnel tubes. Amtrak is rehabilitating the two tubes damaged by Sandy, with work on Line 1 expected to begin this fall and continue through the end of 2027.
Lines 3 and 4 do not currently require rehabilitation.
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