Amtrak Vermonter / Montrealer

Maybe VT needs to hire a new operator?

It's all scare tactics. The trains aren't going anywhere.

asull85 wrote:The trains aren't going anywhere.

That cold be read in either of two ways...

dowlingm wrote:Good luck getting a personal injury trial lawyer representing the folks in the Cascades wreck that Amtrak weren't negligent by failing to wait for PTC to be fully operational there. This is surely influencing Amtrak thinking.

The fact of the Cascades crash does not predict a Vermonter crash,or indeed even another Cascades crash. I would wager any amount of money that someone traveling today from St. Albans to Washington is safer on the Vermonter than on the highway. Anderson should be terminated.

asull85 wrote:It's all scare tactics. The trains aren't going anywhere.

I agree, as I usually do with asull85. This is a negotiating ploy, etc... That said, after Cascades, and now Cayce, they seriously want this done so they can reduce exposure to negligence claims.

From vermontbiz.com. Amtrak apologizes for Vermont Trains Threat.

http://vermontbiz.com/news/2018/march/0 ... apologizes" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is actually a fairly significant piece of news in part because that statement covered all other PTC exempt routes and also because the extent to which Amtrak acknowledged the error of their position.

Wouldn’t it make sense to address the risks that have recently caused accidents or incidents in Vermont? Those would be rockfalls and crossing collisions. Couldn’t these risks be mitigated with smaller investments than PTC? Shouldn’t we make the most cost effective safety improvements first?

What's so hard about installing a slide detector fence,if that's what needs to be done??
Believe some of Mr Anderson's comments were driven by Amtrak's insurance carrier !!

Amtrak is self insured.

I was driving up NH Route 12 yesterday and noticed signals on the line north of Walpole, NH. I thought I remember someone here saying that the Vermonter's route is dark territory -- or do I misunderstand the term?

The Amtrak Vermonter is dark from just south of White River Junction north to St. Albans VT.

CTC ends at the north end of the NECR White River Junction yard just before MP 16. The old ABS installation ended just south of the station (MP 14.8) at around MP 14.4. Prior to the 2013 signal upgrade CTC ended at Windsor (Palmer Sub 169.75/Rockingham 0.0) at the former B&M/CV boundary with ABS north of Windsor.

The rock slide a couple of years ago involved a slab from the side of a cut opened in 1848. There had never been a slide there before, so no reason for a slide fence.

Allouette wrote:The rock slide a couple of years ago involved a slab from the side of a cut opened in 1848. There had never been a slide there before, so no reason for a slide fence.

A Slide Fence at every rock cut SLOW ORDER section is the highest priority on the Vermonter route. The eternal temporary slow orders are the greatest source of constant late arrival of the southbound Vermonter at Massachusetts "Knowledge Corridor" stations. The situation is so bad WMass Rail Advocate; Ben Heckscher drove 3 hours each way to Montpelier, VT to speak at the quarterly meeting of the Vermont Rail Council. https://trainsinthevalley.org/2016/08/2 ... ways-late/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The feeble solution by the VT Rail Council/Amtrak was to add time to the schedule but the southbound Vermonter is still perpetually late. These SLOW ORDERS with the schedule deterioration have ruined any performance improvements that were planned from the Billions of dollars spent on track improvements. A Slide Fence would be a tiny investment at this point. If there hasn't been a rock slide before the Oct 2015 incident why have the slow orders been imposed since?

Palmer5RR wrote:If there hasn't been a rock slide before the Oct 2015 incident why have the slow orders been imposed since?

Preparing for the last war. This has become the new norm where no amount of evidence can convince regulators, or in this case G&W, that some things only happen once. Even if another slab went down the slope, the likelihood of it a) being the same size or larger, or b) landing in exactly the same place, is very, very small. Much smaller than the likelihood of someone driving a truck (or, in the most recent case, towing a jeep) across the tracks at train time.