Join the discussion on the following article:
NICTD cancels all commuter service Monday
I guess I understand the reasoning behind it (ability to access the right-of-way, etc.), but it’s sad that NICTD and other rail operators no longer find it feasible to provide service in severe weather.
This is exactly the kind of situation that sent people flocking to the rails for many years…because they KNEW they could count on the railroad operating when everything else was stopped.
In the severe Midwest blizzards of 1978-79, when many highways were closed for days on end, almost all of Amtrak’s and the RTA’s service continued. In many cases the trains were the only way to access much of downstate Illinois. Even the poor old Rock Island managed to run its Quad City and Peoria Rockets. Late as usual, but they got there.
The major highways in NICTD’s territory were closed this morning and if ever the people in Northwest Indiana needed an alternate transportation choice, today would have been the day. I suspect even a limited schedule would have been well-received.
Seems like winter always causes major and systemic disruptions to Amtrak service every year, but give them credit for at least trying to operate some kind of service today.
Wait a minute? The roads were closed in the late 1970’s? Well, perhaps for the uninitiated and those who believed the dinosaur media reports. But I was able to get where I needed to go and so did the neighbors. Cold? Shove cardboard in front the radiator. Use the proper cold weather fuel grade. Change the engine oil to a lighter weight. Carry a shovel and tire chains. Rock ballast the trunk of the winter beater. Snow drift ahead? Increase velocity to ramming speed. Old Buicks were good for that. Pretty much any old heavy metal American made rear wheel drive car from back then was capable of ramming speed. Every teenage male lived for ramming speed. What is the worst that can happen? Scuff the chrome? And if you do get stuck? That is what the shovel and chains are for. Plus you just learned what you did wrong and won’t go that slow next time. We did all this preparation before winter started every year. Americans today are very soft and apparently unable to think for themselves.
As for the commuter railroads, they just put themselves into the non-critical transportation sector because they chose to. Besides, snow and cold is not an excuse. If your employees econo-box hybird golf cart can’t get to work because of the snow and cold, there is always Arctic Cat. Or Polaris.
And another thing. How do the commuter railroads explain the ice fishermen out there today? Their wheels apparently worked.
Better to err on the side of safety…life will go on. Its not the end of the world…its a blip.
What Harold Krewer said.
Those Insull-era arks on the South Shore might have been held together with duct tape and baling wire, but a few of them managed to get through. Solid state and the jostling of railroading apparently don’t mix.
Ice fisherman dont hv elec from above. What a dope guse.
Guse…I lived in stevensville MI for the 78 blizzard. The South Shore was tbe 1rst! Railroad to cease opperations. Ice on the wires. It wasnt that cold…but wind from the lake stopped everything. I know…it was 2 days later before tbe plows came.