2017 Commuter Rail Delay Discussion Thread

[RenegadeMonster]

Article about this trespasser strike on the globes site: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/ ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


All we know at this point in time was it was a 61 year old man, he was suffered life threatening injuries and his condition is unknown at this time.

[RenegadeMonster]

Well, thats a new one I haven't seen before:

Rockport Train 2102 (10:00 am from Rockport) is operating near schedule. An on board GPS issue is causing station signs to read incorrectly.

[RenegadeMonster]

Train 156 was operating 30-40 minutes late this morning and train 158 had to take on two trains worth of people at Salem and Beverly.

Needles to say, it was a sardine can, standing room only, vestibules full and not everyone being able to board. To make matters worse, we were a express train and dispatch told them they had to make all stops. Yeah, with what room. We made the stops, no room for anyone to board. lol


Oh, and you know with the overcrowding no tickets were checked.

[RenegadeMonster]

Uh oh

Train service in and out of North Station is being held due to fire department activity at North Station.

Not going to be a good morning for those traveling into north station this morning.

[RenegadeMonster]

This morning the Eastern was a mess.

Train 104 80 minutes behind schedule and operating at reduced speed.
Train 106 40 minutes behind schedule and had to make all local stops.
Train 158 15 minutes behind schedule.
Train 160 15 minutes behind schedule.

These trains all appeared to hit Salem at the same time with 104 in the lead causing even further delays due to train traffic. Train 104 hit Salem station at 160s scheduled time and took on all of 160s passengers. 160 came to Salem right behind 104 and took on very few passengers and was pretty empty. I was on 160 and we were stuck behind 104 for awhile operating at reduced speed. Fortunately it we both were express so we didn't have to deal with station stops. After the Sagas marshes they were able to switch us over to the outbound track and we passed 104 going across the grade crossings in Chelsea. Quite of few people on that train with the "Are you kidding me" look as we passed them.

[BostonUrbEx]

160 never passed 104 -- you passed 106. Many on 106 had gotten off of 104 in the hopes that they'd be able to get to Boston faster, but the opportunity was never there.

[RenegadeMonster]

Was 104 operating at a reduced speed? We were already passed Chelsea Station when we passed them so what was the need to pass?

[BostonUrbEx]

Yes, 104 was shoving in the whole way, so the best they could do was 30 MPH. 106 was following them on bad signals, and 160 was following 106 on bad signals.There was an opportunity for 160 to have better signals by putting them on a parallel track, so that's what happened. And 104 was bogging 106 down so much that 160 actually made the pass.

[Diverging Route]

Dozens of T-Alerts for the NEC this afternoon, both PVD and STO lines, with delays up to 75 minutes due to "police activity." One report I saw noted a car near the tracks.

[Steve Wagner]

Tuesday, October 10
5:06 a.m.

Early news on Boston's Channel 5 this morning reported that a person had been struck and killed by a train in Concord, MA about 11 p.m. last night.

[jaymac]

No service alert as of 0640/10-11-2017, but the 40.2 gave the 402 on Track 2 an "Integrity Failure" and 47 axles 0607. D-3 had them do a roll-by at Shirley, and the 0611 results were 1 flat spo, but otherwise OK. Wasn't in range for 404, so dunno what if any follow-on there was.

[Steve Wagner]

The person struck by a train in Concord, MA about 10:30 or 11 p.m. on Monday, October 9 was an 18-year-old day student at Concord Academy. He died. Transit Police posted that the student had been trespassing on the track near Nashoba Road and no foul play was suspected.

[BostonUrbEx]

Train 401 struck and killed someone at the Park St crossing in Somerville. This is fatality #30 for the system this year, and I believe #2 at this particular crossing within the past 365 days.

[wilhelmh]

Totally aside from the victims’ families’ grief, I shudder to think what toll this is taking on the train crews. I recall reading somewhere that the average (commuter?) engineer strikes two people in their whole career, but with these 2017 figures, I fear that this will happen to our engineers twice this year alone.

[The EGE]

Any identifiable reasons why this is happening?