Long Island Rail Road blasts Amtrak for Penn Station cancellationsPublished: April 21, 2011
NEW YORK — Long Island Rail Road officials are asking Amtrak to review the way it handles track repairs after work forced the commuter line to cancel dozens of trains Monday, the Wall Street Journal has reported. LIRR uses Amtrak’s line from Penn Station to Queens, and work Amtrak calls “emergency repairs” led to the cancellations.
Amtrak said a maintenance crew found problems with a rail joint in a tunnel beneath the East River Monday afternoon. The timing was poor, as passengers were crowding trains to head home for Passover, a Jewish holiday. Amtrak spokesman Cliff Cole said it took workers time to get the necessary supplies and tools after finding the defect around 2 p.m. “In our estimation, we did what we needed to do to repair the joints,” he said.
LIRR called on Amtrak to do a “full review” of the incident. Officials there said Amtrak should schedule inspections so they don’t interfere with peak travel times. LIRR also said Amtrak should have staff “readily available” to do emergency repairs.
Amtrak apologized for the delays, but Cole defended the repairs as necessary.
Everyone is complaining about the discovery and repair of a defect. Isn’t the goal to NOT HAVE defects? What of that?
The speed to complete repairs after discovery is legitimate. Is there a culture of hustle and efficiency or one of “make this last until quitting time” or worse yet, “can we stretch this into some overtime?”
What were the alternatives? I remember an old boss telling me how, in the 1960s, he had to watch the Broadway Ltd back over a broken frog every day for weeks until the track dept. got around to fixing it. Could this approach, or another, work here?
How anyone could insinuate that a rail defect doesn’t exist until it is discovered is a complete head scratcher. Do these people actually listen to and try to comprehend the words coming out of their mouths?
What exactly was the defect ? How bad was it ? Depending on what it was, the track ‘closure’ may have been justified - or excessively cautious, or someplace in between. Then again, remember the 1st rule of safety: “In case of doubt, the safest course must be taken”, or similar. So now we’re “Monday-morning quarterbacking” the poor guy ?
To identify the defect, call it in, gather the necessary materials/ parts and equipment, arrange for track closure/ occupancy/ protection, and mobilization from ??? into the tunnel could well take a couple hours. Keep in mind as a comparable for timing, for ‘wilderness’ emergency rescues the rule of thumb is 1 hr. for every 1/4 mile ‘off-road’ that the victim is - seems to me that a tunnel would be of like kind.
If the LIRR guy wants a track crew on ‘stand-by’ during all rush hours - is he willing to pay for that, 261 business days a year, likely 2 shifts a day (AM & PM) ?
How is it the morning trains were apparently able to run over it without any problem, until it was found ?
There’s some authority in the FRA Track Safety Standards for an on-scene inspector or track supervisor type to allow limited movements over a discovered defect, pending full repair - such as Not to Exceed 5 or 10 MPH, Prepared to Stop on Signal, etc., as Don mentions in 3. above.
Well stated Paul. For officials, hindsight is always 20/20 and it’s so easy to question as to “why wasn’t this defect found earlier”. The point that should be appreciated is that the defect was found and the person in charge determined the best course of action was to stop rail traffic on that line and not take chances.
Suppose it was a transverse fissure that was finally revealing itself on the surface of the web and the boss in charge decides it’s safe enough to let trains roll by at 5 mph? Two or three trains later, the rail fractures and two LIRR coaches bounce off the track. Now Amtrak is suddenly stuck with a full blow mess! No one is killed but:
You have angry passengers stuck on a train (some that later will cry “whiplash”) that must be safely transported off of it.
MOW crews and equipment must be immediately mobilized for track repair, and somehow re-rail and remove the train.
Amtrak’s management goes into “high strung mode” in assessing and investigating the incident, dealing with the media, the LIRR, securing assistance to help the passengers, while pondering how many lawsuits it’s going to have to deal with regarding this incident.
Worst of all…dealing with the good, friendly folks from the FRA!
Now with that in mind, it seems that the person who shut down the line made a wise, maybe unpopular decision.
FIrst, this is over a week old. Second, LIRR management gets killed by their riders and the media for a lot of problems and not standing up to Amtrak. Third, wires were down in the tunnels west of NYP the other day killing NJT service. Fourth, commuters are getting tired of LIRR and NJT communique’s stating this or that about Amtrak tracks, switches, signals, and catenary problems. Fifth, LIRR had to do and say something publically. In my following this incident LIRR feels Amtrak could have had an inspecition crew out earlier in the day so that it would have been found and fixed before evening rush. If you’ve ever seen the track diagram for the East RIver Tunnels you’ll see how diffcult the northern most tunnel supports the bulk of the LIRR traffic by design and the southern bore NJT and Amtrak moves to and from Sunnyside. To funnel any traffic from north to south or south to north is not an easy chore and can cause all kinds of confusion and problems. I’m telling everyone who complains about commuter hour distruptons due to Amtrak’s signals, switches, track, catenary, etc., should notify their Congressman to give Amtrak money to repair and replace 100 year old stuff! Here, the LIRR had to take a public stance.
Safety was not the issue. LIRR felt Amtrak’s inspection was late in the day and delays and problems could have been avoided had the inspection occurred just after the morning peak instead of just before the afternoon peak. Also, as I stated, LIRR had to make some kind of noise if only for public relations or public image sake. But, and this is my opinion only, I would think that LIRR, NJT, and other commuter agencies are getting frustrated with conditions along the Amtrak ROW which could be fixed if Congress would give Amtrak the monies needed to do so. So, tell your Congressional delagation to give Amtrak money to fix track, signals, catenary, and other ROW and operational problems.
The problem, Balt, is not whether or not it got fixed but that the customers of the LIRR, SEPTA, NJT and other agencies keep hearing blame being put on Amtrak because of downed cantenary, stuck open bridges, broken rails, malfunctioning signals and switches so often that it is not believed; too often it sounds like the agencies use Amtrak as a scape goat. This is not good for Amtrak nor the agencies and the only fix can come from Congress with money to replace, repair,and maintain on a firm, annual, long term basis.
Even when you have the best physical plant that money can but…things will break…critical things. When they break and cause a shut down, they have to be fixed. Today’s operations in any industry does not permit having a dedicated crew just sitting at the ready to attack the failure. Every employee has a dedicated primary job…when they are working on a emergency fix, they are not working on their every day responsibilities. The carriers do not stock all possible replacement parts at each location that they could be used as that would be a waste of valuable capital being tied up in unused inventory.
Business practices of the 21st Century do not permit the manpower and inventory practices of the 1920’s. From a business perspective we are in the JIT age (Just in Time). No business want’s to carry inventory or manpower that is not totally used in every working hour of every working day.
NJT & LIRR are faced with the same kinds of challenges as AMTK and are complaining for the sake of their constituents as a means of self defense. Were the shoe on their foot, it is unlikely they would do much better than AMTK is currently as they would still have most if not all the same budgetary restrictions.
Balt: NJT and LIRR have their own properties, equipment, rights of way, etc., yes. But they have to use Amtrak property, rights of way, track, etc. for NJT to get across NJ along the Corridor and for both LIRR and NJT to enter Penn Station. It is Amtrak track, signals, right of way, bridges, catenary, etc. that are old and unstable and thus breaking down, malfunctioning, causing delays to LIRR and NJT patrons. Although NJT and LIRR pay for the use of the track and services, Congress still has to cough up the money for Amtrak to repair and replace a century old catenary, track, signal system, infrastructure, something that has far outlived its supposed useful life. Congress will not allow Amtrak a multiyear business plan with capital and operating funds and programs that would rebuild and replace the system to a standard where service could be provided. Many of these Congressmen claim to be businessmen who should know better than to expect perfection and completion of such a task with a minimum amount of money doled out on a year to year basis; they certainly wouldn’t do it with their private businesses but feel comfortable doing it with Amtrak. NJT and LIRR, along with SEPTA and MARC, pay Amtrak for use of the track, etc. but have no control over what to fix and when…only Congress has that power!
I am fully aware of that fact. I am also aware of how such properties can sweep their own failing under the rug when they have another party to heap abuse on. There is no perfection in any organization, but if you can publicize your ‘partners’ failures and minimize your own you appear to be the winner in the PR game. And PR is a game. That is the game that is being played.
If you are a commuter on the LIRR or NJT at least, then you’d know and understand the plight of the two agencies and the weekly, almost daily, problems with track, switches, signals and catenary and power (NJT. Oh, yes, both agencies have their own power and equipment and signal and switch problems seperate and apart from Amtrak…but nine time out of ten it is an Amtrak problem…they are not sweeping anything out of the way when the 80 some odd year old catenary falls to the roadbed or the 100 year old power plant go off line in Wilmington, DE and the trains stop in their tracks or a 100 year old bridge gets stuck in the open position. This is Amtrak property and equipment and there is no denying the source of the problem…You can’t blame an equipment or track failure in Montauk or Port Jervis on Amtrak, but at the crucial New York Pennsylvania Station and attending yards and with the track, switches, signals, catenary and power failures thereon, can only be Amtrak. Thus, Congress has to be made responsive because I believe Amtrak is doing all it can with what its got at the moment, that the LIRR, NJT and other agencies have legitimate concerns, and that those agencies have to communicate to their customers that those customers, rather than take things out on the agencies, or even Amtrak, should let their Congressional representatives know they are responsible and therefore capable of fixing the problems.