Hurricane Sandy

Jersey_Mike wrote:Pussies cancelled MARC service so it looks like I'll have to take the B30 Bus.

You expected them to keep it open?! Afaik every commuter rail (and RT) service in the NE from MARC to MBTA was cancelled on Monday.

Does anybody know the condition of the Shoreline Route in CT this morning? There are stretches where it is right along the water. Hopefully it is just wet but still there...

I'm a bit surprised they didn't roll some coal trains or ballast hoppers out on the vulnerable parts of the shore line and hudson line. Out here when the summer floods happen (think 1993 and more recent) they park really heavy low-value trains on bridges and the like to keep them from washing away.

What did Amtrak do with the Keystone equipment that stages at Harrisburg? Did they evacuate it? But to where?

Where all the trains deadheaded out after there last runs Sunday?

The Harrisburg station is in a low lying area of Harrisburg. But if they took the equipment to Philly that is more in the teeth of the storm. Where would you park equipment to keep it out of harms way?

T2

It is still there as far as I know, there was not a reason to evacuate it. The station is in a low lying area...but not that low lying. Six inches of rain shouldn't be sufficient to cause the flooding needed to put the Harrisburg station anywhere near danger.
Cheers,
Nick

Tadman wrote:I'm a bit surprised they didn't roll some coal trains or ballast hoppers out on the vulnerable parts of the shore line and hudson line. Out here when the summer floods happen (think 1993 and more recent) they park really heavy low-value trains on bridges and the like to keep them from washing away.

An ocean storm surge is way more powerful than a river flood. A cubic yard of water weighs 1,700lbs- and when a surge comes in, there are breakers on top of it with thousands of cubic yards of water in them. It'll throw 100-ton derrick stones around like pebbles. Any rolling stock parked on the Shore Line would just get washed into the Sound along with the track structure-- as happened in 1938.

I know that at least one set (out of NYP) was used on the Northeast division as a patrol train for the purposes of engineering department inspections.

I didn't find a Sandy thread other than the cancellations. If I missed it, please merge.

I found this while reading about the MTA floods. MTA chairman is reporting "The Long Island Rail Road evacuated its West Side Yards and suffered flooding in one East River tunnel" (we all know it's Amtrak-owned). Link

Any other info on this? Depth? Timeline for resumption of service with a manual block? Signalling fixed?

When the Muddy River overflowed into Kenmore Station on the Green Line in Boston, some service impact lasted for months.

Probably came in from the Queens side as the Manhattan side would meant that Penn Station would have flooded. Wonder if it was one of the vent/escape shafts which are closer to the rider. Good thing they repaired those PRR era flood doors with 9/11 anti-terror funds.

Mayor Bloomberg was on TV this AM stating that transport will be canceled until further notice. This is going to take a long time to clean up...

I'm guessing that Metro North will be the first railroad to operate into NYC, as the upper east side (where I live and where Metro North enters the city from) was the least impacted by the storm.

We never lost power (around 86th St.) and there are only some broken limbs on trees (no flooding as far as I can tell). The low-lying areas around Pelham Bay (on the hell gate line) are probably flooded and the line into NJ is most likely in rough shape through the Meadowlands between NYP and NWK.

This is not going to be an easy clean up job for Amtrak and NY City.

Tadman wrote:I'm a bit surprised they didn't roll some coal trains or ballast hoppers out on the vulnerable parts of the shore line and hudson line. Out here when the summer floods happen (think 1993 and more recent) they park really heavy low-value trains on bridges and the like to keep them from washing away.

Sounds like what they do on the California Zephyr west of Denver (albeit for a possible avalanche)

MTA's webpage has a link to a flickr photostream. Based on the photos, there was significant flooding on the Hudson Line at/near Croton, Garrison and Beacon, with at least one washout of one track.

VRE has announced they will be operating a full schedule of trains on Wednesday. Hope that bodes well for some restoration of Amtrak service south of Washington.

I was on the Empire Builder that left Seattle on Saturday returning from vacation with a friend. We had connecting (paper) tickets for Monday's Capital from Chicago to Washington. Yeah right! We got a refund from Amtrak for the Capital trip and booked a ticket on the Wolverine to Ann Arbor instead (I have family there) but the Builder was late and we missed the connection. Amtrak put us on a bus to Ann Arbor and we got in 3 hours late at 2am. I'm now hanging out here waiting for the airlines to sort themselves out so we can get a flight home. Have tickets on WN for tomorrow, but they aren't yet saying when they will resume service.

The bus operation in Chicago was a little disorganized IMHO, especially considering this sort of thing seems to happen fairly often.

From what I gathered in Chicago Amtrak was putting up most of the people with Northeast/Florida connections in a hotel. I don't know what the plan is for getting them to their destinations. I know the Capital route has been hit hard by storms in the past, so I wouldn't be surprised if the train doesn't start running for a while. Hopefully everyone makes it home safely.