From what I’ve read elsewhere Coney Island yard, 148th St & Lenox, 207th St and the other low lying yards were emptied of equipment. I’m not sure about some of the museum equipment at Coney Island yard though.
I’ve seen a picture of the Sea Beach line. At Av U it had water over the platform. South Ferry on the #1 line was underwater last nite. The water was up 6" deep at the booth.
According to news reports all the East River tunnels were flooded. In addition I heard that the DeKalb Av station in Brooklyn was flooded. I can not understand that as I thought DeKalb Av & Flatbush Av were on higher ground.
I saw a report elsewhere that NJT did not do a good enough job of getting equipment to higher ground and that 65 locomotives and 257 passenger cars suffered varying degrees of damage.
Yes…information is scarce from NJT…anything else is just hearsay at the moment. CSX has gotten it’s line through Philadelphia north to NJ sort of opened with signal problems reported by SEPTA…SEPTA also saiys its running to Trenton on the AMtrak line and Amtrak reports getting trains to Newark. This bid well for NJT Newark to Trenton at least. MNRR is no further along this morning and LIRR reports tree down are the main problem to Port Jefferson, Oyster Bay, and other eastern points and several high tension towers leaning over the tracks out east. Again lack of commercial power is also a major problem for the railroads.
Just checked around the media and agencies in the NY area, and nothing more, nothing new as yet. Even the Middletown NY Times Herald had nothing to report on MNRR.NJT conditions except that there are inspections going on…
If reports that the operations center was flooded then all NJ residents need to have the head of the architect / engineer who built it in a potential flood area. The other thing is unconfirmed reports of major rolloing stock flood damage is true then … ??
NJT still has not reported specifics beyond what is found on their website as linked above. The River Line is operating from Walter Reade Transportation Center to Trenton and Camden area bus services have resumed. But no other NJT or NJT-MNRR services have not been further addressed.
MNRR has announced that North White Plains to GCT will begin on the Harlem Line with hourly service starting at 2PM,
I will tout the Middletown (NY) Times Herald as having a great website and excellent coverage of the area above the NY/NJ border and better than any news media anyplace I’ve seen in the country…and I’ve been in the media for almost 50 years…they beat the NYTimes, all TV and Radio stations and mass owned media.
““The situation is somewhat grimmer on NJT. The entire regional/commuter rail and LRT service will remain suspended until further notice and there is currently no estimated time for service resumption due to widespread damage to critical infrastructure. NJT’s rail operations centre is engulfed in water, which has damaged backup power supply systems, the emergency generator, and the computer system that controls train movements and power supply to catenary. There are numerous fallen trees which have damaged catenary and signalling cables, and there are track washouts across the network.””
This is indeed grim. with no control of cat, signals, emergency generator,computer system it may be weeks to set up manual control ??
This isn’t met to be a excuse for any of the failures, however, flooding occured in places that had never experienced flooding before. So, heretofore SAFE places were no longer safe.
BaltACD; absolutely correct. IMHO the lessons of Irene were lost on the various rail agencies in one way or another. What seems to be lost on so many people is the bands of heavy rain and winds. You can have 2 identical hurricanes ( of course would never happen ) and places that destruction happened with one at a certain location might not necessarily happen with the next.
That includes wind gusts, tornados, tidal surges, etc. But to build or store equipment including rolling stock in any 500 year flood plain is just criminal.
I’ve heard now that although equipment was removed from Hoboken some was taken to Meadows facilities where 65 locomotives and up to 257 cars were lost…those are the numbers from non NJT sources.
Yes, See an earlier post of mine noting Denville as a DL&W back up spot for dispatching. So you’d think that after Irene and after the Nine Eleven attack a back up location would have been developed. Why not? Wonder if there is a firm answer. For NJT I would nominate Port Morris NJ as the summit of the system, all water courses in all directions flow down from there and there are no peaks above the railroad except the hill on the east side where an installation should be located.
Henry; this report comes from CNN and was picked up by Trains newswire which reported the CNN new source. However NJ TRANSIT has not released any information so am somewhat skeptical. It may be that NJT is evaluating the equipment to lower the final figure.
if exposed to salt water – unit life will be extremely limited
1. 65 locos at $4M = $250M ?
2. 257 cars at $2 - 2.5M = $600M ?
If these units are destroyed everyone from the decision maker up to and including the CEO of NJT should be fired. Do you know where there is a corporate structure diagram ?
Worse than the report are the hundred or so pictures that NJT has up on their website NJTransit.com. I was led to believe equipment was moved out of Hoboken, but the pictures show cars and locomotives there as the water receded…another pic of cars (and insinuating locomotives) in Bay Head. MNRR/NJT did reportedly move trains west on the Southern Tier line from Suffern and or east from Port Jervis for safety at the Ottisville and Campbell Hall sidings…I saw a picture of one trainset at Otisville on the Meddletown Times newspaper website. Pics show diesel locomotives but there must be electric and the dual modes, too, especially in the Meadows complex. And the cars ain’t the steam heat buggies of yesteryear but modern HEP cars with train control lines, too. NJT certainly can not go to the tourist lines an bring back the coaches they sold or gave away years ago.
I’m a railfan,not a railroader, but it does seem to me, as it does to you Blue Streak, and I am sure to others, too, that keeping equipment in such vulnerable locations as Bay Head, Hoboken, and Meadows, along the NJCL with all the long range warning they received, with the warning of how devastating the storm could be, was not the wisest decision. Couple that with the increasing flooding experiences over the years, last year’s Lee and Irene one two punch, and the scary episode of 9/11/01 that leaving the toys laying on the living room floor was not very smart. And further, as I mentioned earlier, the need for either a less vulnerable site for a permanent or back up site for operations also should have been explored if not put into service. I suggested Port Morris, NJ because it is, I believe, the highest point on NJT in NJ at about 900 feet (yes, the Southern Tier line between Moodna Viaduct and Otisville are higher but that’s in NY).
Update for MNRR: they will be operating from Mt. Kisco to GCT on the Harlem line and from Stamford to GCT on the New Haven line tomorrow. All other MNRR lines will not be operating, “check with NJT for MNRR services to Port Jervis and Spring Valley”. The LIRR reports it is operating from Atlantic Ave Brooklyn where there will be bus connctions to Manhattan, to Jamaica…but doesn’t make clear how you get to Jamaica from the East…at lest not yet… Amtrak’s website shows service from Newark south and west but very restricted with the Crescent only to and from D.C. and other restricted schedules. Nothing on the Corridor between Newark, NJ and Boston nor south of Albany with Lake Shore going to Boston only. SEPTA seems to be up and running although with delays and some train cancellations.
All have their own websites with updated information faster than I can get it to you.
Right now Amtrak says it will restore some service between Boxton and New Haven tomorrow, Nov. 1. The only missing link between Boston and New York will be below New Haven.
However, there is still the North River Tunnel to deal with.
North and East River tunnels are still flooded…so Amtrak can only come west as far as New Rochelle when it can get clearance from New Haven to New Rochelle…could it go into GCT? If MNRR can spare the dual diesels, which it might because it can’t run the Hudson line and isn’t going to Wassaic, Danbury or Waterbury yet, either.
LIRR is scheduling trains from Jamaica to Penn Sta hourly at this time. Thurs, they will also add trains from Great Neck to Penn on the Port Washington line and to and from Ronkonkoma on hourly basis.
