early snow disrupts Amtrak

Trains Magazine Passenger
1

Saturdays snowfall disrupted some Amtrak trains. Both directions summary

  1. All empire service to Albany operated although a couple 2 hrs late.

  2. Springfield - New haven had some cancellations and 1 departure on time but arriving 3 hrs late.

  3. BOS - NYP some cancellations and 1 OT departure a 6 HRS late

  4. NYP - WASH some cancellations and a few a couple hrs late arriving

  5. PHL - HAR some cancellations and a few 2 hr late arrivals

  6. Vermonter cancelled both ways end to end

Most cancellations later in day

Does this mean Amtrak will have trouble this winter in other snow storms?

2

Not necessarily…this was a sort of surprise (nevertheless predicted by the Almanac along with the two rain storms of September (Irene and Lee). Power outages prevailed through the NY Metropolitan area causing signal problems as well as feeds to MNRR/Amtrak and NJT; downed trees and ice, too. Very early in the season for such late summer weather. Weather experts say this should not be indicative of the winter ahead. Rails aren’t the only problems: roads and home power also knocked out, icy road contidions, wet heavey snow bringing down limbs and trees and powerlines. Its a people mess as well as a rail mess.

3

And remember when the trains got through the snow when the airlines couldn’t and the roads were closed?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-snowstorm-forces-overnight-stop-for-chicagotoboston-train-20111030,0,1775033.story

The passengers were taken to their destinations by…bus!

4

Yes, back in the days before M/W work was mechanized and railroads had small armies of personnel available for snow removal.

5

Small armies stratigiclly located in platoons. But things are quite different today, yes. The big problems here are 1) trees down blocking tracks and pulling down wires for both signals and catenary 2) power outages, not on the railroads but from the suppliers so there is no power to the catenary wires but also to switches and signals…and with remote interlockings, etc., no way to get impulses to move switches or change signals!; 3) the entire region is caught so it is difficult to get around, getting people out to do the work then getting out to find the problems and do the work. AND I’m wondering about the adhesion of today’s equipment as leaves and ice seem to affect operations much more than used to. All three NYC commuter roads have specail train/cars which spray rail with chemical to reduce effects of leaves and ice; never needed it before.

Part of the problem is the foliage along the rights of way. To ensure the local people are protected from noise, and to camaflouge I am sure, trees have bee allowed to grow along the rights of way. These trees in turn have caused the leaf problem a

6

Todays WSJ has shown its anti- Amtrak rail bias again by posting each cancellation of trains even the Capitol Limited’s & BOS sections of Lakeshore routes over CSX implying it is an Amtrak cancellation problem. All this in Paragraph 4. About paragraph 12 a quick note that some roads are closed as well. From what I have read there are many roads blocked with downed trees and power lines.

7

Henry6: Since you ride all these routes quite frequently do you find that the cancelled routes that have not had tree removal are grouped together? It appears that the main stem of the NEC survived fairly well although it did not receive much heavy snow? On the other hand the Harrisburg and Springfiel lines seem to have been hard hit? Albany - NYP also seems to have been missed even with all of its signal system still code line? Had Albany been cleared before this?

8

Primarily we have ridden commute routes…including Amtrak’s Corridor New Haven to Phila and Amtrak north to Poughkeepsie. I think induction signaling instead of wayside has been a major factor in helping in some areas. But still the blockage of tracks, platforms and roadways by falling trees and wires then moved by high winds, have caused all kinds of problems this and previous times. Even though lineside wire is no longer in existance in many places, feeds to the system are broken. There are some ROW’s that have become more tree lined, too. Some is a “why bother” approach to trimming because it is off track and in some cases cab signals cover the problems but train crews have complained. The Port Jervis line is a good example where crews warned of potential problems from close by trees which finally happened over the past several winters. Keeping sound levels down in some neighborhoods is why foliage has been allowed to grow, too. But the catch 22 is that it forms wind tunnels, falls on lines and tracks while keeping the neighbors satisfied nor is it necessarily cheaper than keeping trimmed. I really don’t think there is a blanket answer, each location, each storm, each time, seems to bring a new problem to light (or dark).

9

When Ma Nature decides to exercise her power - Ma Nature wins!

10

Nearly half the people in Connecticut are without power and it may be a week before all are back on line.

Amtrak has power, BUT, downed trees on the overehead wires between Boston and Providence required a stopage of service. It may be back by now.

The “Vermonter” hit a tree outside Amherst MA and was required to buss passengers.

11

And so, how his this going to affect Amtrak’s bridge replacement program scheduled for this coming weekend?

12

Tuesday’s WSJ continued its anti Amtrak / rail bias IMHO.

1.Page A2 had an article on continuing blackouts.

  1. Paragraph 1 mentioned continued rail-service disruptions.

  2. Par #2 mentioned trees on power lines and RRR tracks.

  3. #6 listed Amtrak cancellations of NH - Springfield - Vermont and BOS section of Lakeshore

  4. #7 - 8 listed commuter lines and specifically M&E

  5. Only then in #9 - 11 was Jet Blue mentioned

  6. Blocked roads finally mentioned in # 13

There was no mention of how much auto traffic and bus traffic was impacted!

And of course Wedensday’s WSJ does not mention service restored NH - Springfield. or what commuter service restored/.

Amtrak states there are still trees down on BOS - Albany and Springfield - north Vermonter.

13

Amtrak has now announced Lakeshore will operate today and northbound Vermonter tomorrow. Southbound Vermonter will start Friday when equipment gets to St.Albans.

Here is copy of Amtrak announcement

November 2, 2011
2:00 p.m. ET(ET)

Normal operations on the Lake Shore Limited are scheduled to be restored with the departure of train #448 out of Albany, this afternoon.

Earlier projections from the host railroad, CSX, necessitated the procurement of bus transportation between Albany and Boston for today’s travel, however, clean-up operations, resulting from last weekend’s storm, were completed ahead of schedule, allowing full service to resume.

Northbound Vermonter service is scheduled to resume with the departure of train #56 out of Washington, D.C., tomorrow (Thursday). Southbound service will be available between Springfield, MA and Washington, D.C. only. No alternate transportation will be provided between St.Albans, VT and Springfield, MA

Full service is expected to be restored both North and Southbound (St. Albans- Washington, D.C.) on Friday.

Passengers who have paid for travel on canceled trains can always contact Amtrak to receive refunds without fee or penalty or can rebook for future travel. If tickets have not yet been printed, the refund/rebook can be done on Amtrak.com or the free Amtrak iPhone “app.”

Amtrak regrets any inconvenience. This information is correct as of the above time and date. Information is subject to change as conditions warrant. Passengers are encouraged to call 800-USA-RAIL or visit Amtrak.com/alerts for Service Alerts and Passenger Notices. Schedule information and train status updates are available at the Amtrak.com home page.

14

With our high tech society of today - the one thing we continually overlook about coping with the effects of big time snow storms…

The only thing that can keep transportation facilities operating at anything approaching normal is a virtual army of man power. Today’s carriers do not possess that army of manpower that they had 30-40-50 years ago. While many things can be contracted out, there are not a sufficient number of contractors available to combat the storms in real time - and if you fall behind the storm, you will not catch up until well after the storm has spent it’s fury,

15

Manpower is a major part of what could maybe help, but is not the panacea for storm related problems. The enormity of a storm, along with its surprise attack, has a lot to do with it. But preplanning with properly cleared rights of way so that trees are not falling taking electric systems down and blocking tracks would be a help if indeed that is the problem. Railroads aren’t the only ones in trouble and out of business because of this snowfall. Right now NJPLC has imported crews from Ohio to handle power problems to the residents of NJ. During the clean up of Irene and Lee, NYSEG shuffled crews all across Ohio, PA, and New England. The plain truth is that you can never be as prepared as you need be because each situation is as bad as it is different. The problem might be not that there is enough manpower but that there are too many people relying on electric power and electronics and routine is a tightly scheduled rat race today. Yes, the whole system was simpler back then old days when there were track gangs enmasse on duty and available. But life was more laid back, pitfalls like storms and the attending inconviences were taken in stride instead of in stress. We often took the opportunity to rest, look over what and who we were and how we lived. Of course, as a teenager back in the late 50’s I relished snow storms because they were opportunities to earn cash for college by shovelling (by hand, no snow blowers, no lawn and garden tractor plows, real shovels). I also like the opportunity to watch rail operations in snow conditons.