Well we received our snow and then freezing rain on top of the snow around Atlanta. As a consequence road traffic is almost at a standstill with all the ice and re freezing of the snow last night and this morning. What few idiots tried to go anywhere are not getting very far. Ga does not have many snow plows so no chance for the snow to be plowed and have residual melted away. The forecast is for below 20 degrees starting Tuesday night thru Thursday so the black ice will come on with a vengence.
Hartsfield - ATL airport almost all flights cancelled last night and all of today.
That being said the RRs are not faring very well either.(lack of crew?).
Crescent cancelled last night and today to/from Atlanta north to Wash.
I am on the the A&WP sub of CSX and had one south bound and one short northbound last night and nothing else this morning an afternoon on a route usually with 24 - 36 trains a day. All BNSF haulage trains absent as well maybe no employees at Fairburn intermodal facility?.
Any other reports from persons in the SE? I certainly am not going out in this mess as automobile traffic in front of home less than 1 every 10 minutes…
Here in Gastonia NC,we have a lot of snow and when i was getting wood for the fire i heard a train,and that is the line that goes to Atlanta,but could not tell if it was north or south bound.
I work here at the Fairburn Ramp and we shut down early today and tomorrow is a question mark , we got one train about an hour ago , but that is it . The whole yard is a solid sheet of ice .
TV weather folks here (Tallahassee) said freezing rain and/or sleet could happen as far south as Moultrie, GA, about 50 miles north of the GA-FL line. Sleet wouldn’t be too bad as long as there isn’t a ton of it, but the freezing rain could bring auto traffic to a standstill.
The issue largely isn’t the condition of the physical plant. It almost all is the problem of folks can’t get from home to work. The track guys can’t go far from their base of operation in their rubber tired trucks once they survive the drive to work (double jeopardy?)
The trainmen down there most likely don’t know what a switch broom is, how to operate it or what that short chisel on the other end is for.[(-D]
Atlanta shut down still this evening. MARTA trains ran but all its buses were left parked so no bus service from any metro bus lines including Greyhound. Now isn’t that just good for pushing BRT?
There has still been no traffic on CSX’s A&WP sub.
A person I know that works for one of the ATL based RRs said that the few crew callers working there are very frustrated that no one can get to work assignments? Put about a 80% reliability on that report.
You can bet that the main issue is the railroad employees getting to and from work. Having lived and worked in the Atlanta area, I am glad we are here in the hinterlands of Kansas!
Most of the population in Atlanta is from some place else! And in the trip to Atlanta, they got a brain wipe when they crossed into Georgia. Most of the drivers there seem to think that the answer in slick road conditions is to add on more speed that velocity is the answer to keep from getting stiuck. The part of the equation that they have forgotten is the part about STOPPING! I-285 around Hot-lanta has got to be a circus.
One thing ‘flatlanders’ forget when they start talking about all the fun Easterner’s have with the snow is that for many of the Eastern cities and their surrounding metropolitan areas their terrain is anything but flat…not mountainous, but not flat. Throw in a grade and icy conditions…you can’t go up it and if you are coming down - you can’t stop. Atlanta and it’s surrounding area is a very rolling terrain with many ups and downs, add in the real lack of snow fighting equipment and you have the region coming to a stop when the flake start to fly in quantity.
[quote user=“samfp1943”]
blue streak 1:
Atlanta shut down still this evening. MARTA trains ran but all its buses were left parked so no bus service from any metro bus lines including Greyhound. Now isn’t that just good for pushing BRT?
There has still been no traffic on CSX’s A&WP sub.
A person I know that works for one of the ATL based RRs said that the few crew callers working there are very frustrated that no one can get to work assignments? Put about a 80% reliability on that report.
You can bet that the main issue is the railroad employees getting to and from work. Having lived and worked in the Atlanta area, I am glad we are here in the hinterlands of Kansas!
Most of the population in Atlanta is from some place else! And in the trip to Atlanta, they got a brain wipe when they crossed into Georgia. Most of the drivers there seem to think that the answer in slick road conditions is to add on more speed that velocity is the answer to keep from getting stiuck. The part of the equation that they have forgotten is the part about STOPPING! I-285 around Hot-lanta has got to
It is going to be even a worse mess tomorrow morning.
1. All the interstates from some where south of Atlanta north to state lines have been blocked at various times with the 18 wheelers jackknifing and blocking roads. As well as all the surface streets.
2. Since the snow was not plowed due to lack of snow plows a slight snow melt occurred this afternoon and now has already frozen solied. Now it is glare ice and black ice. To top it off we are having a small amount of lake effect (from the atlantic) freezing rain occurring. The streets around my home which is 45 miles SW of ATL airport now have a thin coating of ice even though they were clear at about 1400. Ice skates anyone?
3. ATL airport not departing very many flights due to the deicing of the wings is only effective for 5 - 10 minutes to takeoff.
4. Greyhound stranded many passengers at Atlanta.
5. A&WP sub still no traffic.
6. Don’t expect many persons to make work tomorrow.
I lived there a number of years, and it used to tickle me watching the locals drive on even a little snow or ice. They’d lose their momentum by stopping at the bottom of a hill, then floor it trying to get going again. I’d time the lights so I wouldn’t have to stop, and then just roll right past some idiot burning up their tires trying to get going on green.[:P].
See that news wire has now acknowledged our problems.
There is some improvement today.
CSX dispatched several trains on A&WP sub from about 1230 - 1530 thru here then must have run out of crews as no more trains since then.
AMTRAK is running tonight from ATL - NYP and is overbooked even though previous maintenance cancellation NOL - ATL has left more seats available.
Wonderful Greyhound still leaving passengers stranded with no rooms or food. Thank goodness for the Red Cross coming to their aid.
Ga DOT turned many northbound tractor trailers away from the Atlanta area. Our truck stop overloaded and adjacent grocery store parking lots full of waiting trucks to be allowed northward. Trucks still have roads around ATL jammed but it is getting better.
ATL airport operating very limited service because cancellations and now cnx to the NE.
For revenge we are sending this storm up the east coast so they can have another Christmas type storm.
Nice that they noticed but I thought someone from Wisconsin would know the difference between snow and ice. Snow is NOT the problem, it is the ice.
Not too many people are experienced on handling ice regardless of where one lives-remember a few years ago when the Northeast and parts of Canada had the big ice storm. Effects were much like a southeastern ice storm.
How true; Ice is terrible. It is all about the hills! We do not have too many problems on the flat but the hills are different and anytime the road curves it is slipping and sliding to the inside of the curve. We have many compound hills with curves so a driver cannot set up at the balancing speed as it change.
New status report:
1. AMTRAK cancelled to/ from ATL - Wash Crescent some time after 1500.
2. MARTA buses have not operated Sun afternoon till this afternoon. However this afternoon only buses on main streets operated on about 7 routes vs 70+ regular routes. In Seattle yesterday/today they are having a snowstorm and have curtailed bus service especially on east side of lake except for those buses that they can install tire chains on.
3. Bus service through out the metro area not operating as well. Greyhound announce departures from ATL only between 1200 - 1700 then nothing till tomorrow. This really puts BRT in my mind as a very poor second to rail or light rail. I wonder how many other citys should look at this downer?
4. Roads still iced over in Atlanta with many delays on ice covered hills.
5. CSX A&WP sub had a string of trains late Tuesday evening then nothing until this afternoon. Several southbound general merchandise trains had enough ice trailing down the cars to start a fast food franchise.
CSX Abbeville sub ran a very limited number of trains the past several days, though today was much closer to normal. The first day, it looked like the “straight railed” the road . NS pretty much limited the Piedmont to the hot intermodal trains at the start. Today, it looked like the locals were out working.
If anyone is looking for a business opportunity? How about a Hulcher/RJ Corman type service that would do snow plowing and road salting? Plow trucks and road salt that would chase storms and augment existing equipment.
I believe the city of Atlanta ended up hiring contractors to help remove the snow from city streets/property on Tuesday. Caught the tail end of the story on WSB yesterday so do not know if it is a company formally structured for snow removal or some construction outfits moonlighting til our normal winter weather returns.
Heard the mayor talk about exactly that. Contractors on retainer, ready to go within an hour. That’s better. Biggest problem for the city is the state. City can’t work state routes w/o asking. Peachtree, Piedmont and MLK are all state routes - and were all a complete mess. Did you catch the Youtube of someone skating on Peachtree. Literally. Skating.