It's the Brian Lear Show on WNYC.

I'm David First, WNYC's weekend edition host filling in for Brian.

And here's something you may be very familiar with.

If you are stuck in one of the Amtrak and New Jersey Transit summer meltdowns,

America's busiest rail corridor is in a state of disrepair.

We dive now into the crumbling infrastructure of Amtrak's northeast corridor.

Our guest is Nolan Hicks, who covers city

agencies, politics, and transit, and now contributes to New York Magazine. He's the author of a new

piece in Curbed that offers a closer look at Amtrak's longstanding problems. As Nolan reports,

according to Amtrak's own regulatory filing from last year, it states that, quote, not one inch of the overhead wiring between Washington, D.C. and New York's Pennsylvania station, 0% is in a state of good repair.

And this has led to at least 10 major power failures in the past two months,

stranding tens of thousands of passengers. And Nolan Hicks joins us now. Welcome to WNYC.

That's a pleasure to be here. And listeners, we can take your calls. If you are an Amtrak or New Jersey

transit commuter along the Northeast corridor, you can help Nolan Hicks

report this story, especially if you were traveling during one of those recent electrical

failures. Have the infrastructure issues left you stranded? Call us. 212-433 W-NYC, that's 212, 433-962.

Nolan, this is a problem that has a lot to do with what you refer to as a fraying and ancient power supply.

We'll talk about the critical failures in this infrastructure, but by way of background,

can you give a sense of how it actually

works? How are trains along the Northeast corridor electrified? Sure. So if you think about the

subways here in the city or if you're a Long Island Railroad customer, if you're writing an

L.A. Double R train into the city. All the trains are electric,

...