The two tunnels pegged for repairs — known as Line 1 and Line 2 — are primarily used by Amtrak, which runs trains up to Boston over the Hell Gate Line that begins in Queens, and NJ Transit, which stores trains in Sunnyside, Queens. The LIRR, which runs the majority of trains into and out of Penn, typically has Lines 3 and 4 to itself.

This is a very sensitive time. Nobody wants to upend a deal,” said Bill Dwyer, a professor in the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations.

In 2017, the MTA planned to close the L train tunnel below the East River for 15 months to repair damage caused by Hurricane Sandy. Just months before the work was set to start, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo swooped in with a group of engineers from Cornell and Columbia universities.

The pedestrian was struck on the train tracks west of the Long Island Rail Road's Bethpage Station, the MTA said in an alert on its website.

Negotiators for New Jersey Transit and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), the union representing 450 striking engineers, have reached a tentative<a class="excerpt-read-more"

The Long Island Rail Road is warning riders to prepare for possible service disruptions next week when Amtrak starts a years-long project to fix the East River Tunnels. Amtrak's major tunnel ...