Hurricane Sandy

ThirdRail7 wrote:They are shooting for extremely limited NYP-ALB service for 11/3

Keep your eye on the website.

Per the ticketing function on the Amtrak website, it looks like 3 RTs tomorrow, NYP-ALB, with one being the Maple Leaf. MN says they're restoring full service to Poughkeepsie. Are there still issues north of Poughkeepsie?

And here's the news release:http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentSe ... 1622960753

Amtrak is restoring Empire Service trains between New York City and Albany-Rensselaer on a modified schedule on Saturday, November 3. Amtrak will update this statement by Saturday evening, November 3, for Empire Service trains on Sunday, November 4, and other service beginning Monday, November 5.

Repairs by other track owners continue for the route between New York and Albany-Rensselaer, with no estimate available for a restoration date for the Adirondack (Trains 68 & 69) to and from Montreal, Québec, Canada, and the Ethan Allen Express (Trains 290 & 291) to and from Rutland, Vt.

NH2060 wrote:VIA Rail trains could be making a rare US appearance to free up additional Amtrak equipment for NJ commuters.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-1 ... ng-repairs

Now that is thinking outside the box!

RE:

Repairs by other track owners continue for the route between New York and Albany-Rensselaer ...

what other track owners?? I had thought by now Amtrak owns the tracks btwn Poughkeepsie and Schenectady - I guess the deal with CSX did not go through and so Amtrak will have to rely on CSX to do repairs

MNRR has restored svc. on the Hudson line as of this AM Sat. 11-03-12 and the New Haven line/NEC as well

25Hz wrote:

NH2060 wrote:VIA Rail trains could be making a rare US appearance to free up additional Amtrak equipment for NJ commuters.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-1 ... ng-repairs

Now that is thinking outside the box!

the VIA deal for Amtrak is aleady called off, as NJT is getting enough cars back in service for Monday.


AMTRAK SERVICE RESTORATION PLAN FOR NOVEMBER 3 AND NOVEMBER 4
Modified Empire Service between New York City and Albany-Rensselaer this Saturday; Acela Express and Northeast Regional weekend schedules in effect Boston-New York City-Washington, D.C.

November 2, 2012
8:30 p.m. ET

Amtrak is restoring Empire Service trains between New York City and Albany-Rensselaer on a modified schedule on Saturday, November 3. Amtrak will update this statement by Saturday evening, November 3, for Empire Service trains on Sunday, November 4, and other service beginning Monday, November 5.


Repairs by other track owners continue for the route between New York and Albany-Rensselaer, with no estimate available for a restoration date for the Adirondack (Trains 68 & 69) to and from Montreal, Québec, Canada, and the Ethan Allen Express (Trains 290 & 291) to and from Rutland, Vt.


As previously announced, Amtrak will provide Acela Express and Northeast Regional trains on weekend schedules on the Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington, D.C., via New York City, on Saturday, November 3 and Sunday, November 4.


Amtrak services to and from New York City are subject to delay while repairs continue.


To avoid the possibility of long lines at ticket offices and sold-out trains, passengers should make reservations and payment in advance through Amtrak.com, through the Amtrak app on a smartphone, or by calling 800-USA-RAIL.


Other plans, full and modified service, for Saturday, November 3 and Sunday, November 4:

Keystone Service trains will operate normally between Harrisburg, Penn., and New York
Crescent (Trains 19 & 20) will operate normally between New York and New Orleans
Cardinal (Train 50) will operate normally between Chicago and New York
Vermonter (Trains 54 & 57) will operate normally between St. Albans, Vt., and New York
Maple Leaf (Trains 63 & 64) will operate only between Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and Albany-Rensselaer, rather than originating and terminating in New York
Silver Star (Trains 91 & 92) will operate normally between Miami and New York
Lake Shore Limited (Trains 448 & 449) will operate normally Chicago-Boston, with no service to points south of Albany-Rensselaer, rather than (Trains 48 & 49) originating and terminating in New York
Customers are encouraged to monitor Amtrak.com/alerts and those Northeast Corridor passengers on Acela Express, Northeast Regional or Keystone Service trains can follow @AmtrakNEC on Twitter to be notified when updates are posted on Amtrak.com. Amtrak will also be providing updates on its Facebook.com/Amtrak and Twitter.com/Amtrak pages.

Passengers who have paid but choose not to travel due to this service disruption can receive a refund or a voucher for future travel. Some tickets booked online that have not yet been printed can be modified or canceled on Amtrak.com or by using the free Amtrak mobile app.

From what Ive been able to find out through the grape vine, havent worked since last Sunday. Tivoli Bay did flood and a couple of other spots, no were near as bad as down south. Think there running DCS rules CP124 to CP89. The deal between CSX and Amtrak for the Hudson sub has been postponed due to weather/flooding.

Jeff Smith wrote:

Station Aficionado wrote:

lirr42 wrote:Maybe when Metro-North clears/opens the upper Hudson Line (Croton-Harmon->Poughkipsee) and they get Poughkipsee->Albany cleared they can run trains to at least Croton-Harmon so people can connect to Metro-North to New York if the Empire Connection isn't ready yet.

In that case, I think Amtrak could just run the Empire Service to GCT (especially since that's where the passengers would end up if the transferred to MN). More to the point, is there any trustworthy information on whether there really are problems with the Empire Connection or the Spuyten Duyvil bridge? The only thing I've seen confirmation of is continuing problems on MN north of Croton.

Once upon a time, there was a connection from the B&A (?) at Chatham to the now Harlem Line of MNRR. It's too bad that's not available now.

The Harlem should never have been ripped up. It should have at least been rail-banked. Complete lack of vision there.

scoostraw wrote:

Jeff Smith wrote:

Station Aficionado wrote:

lirr42 wrote:Maybe when Metro-North clears/opens the upper Hudson Line (Croton-Harmon->Poughkipsee) and they get Poughkipsee->Albany cleared they can run trains to at least Croton-Harmon so people can connect to Metro-North to New York if the Empire Connection isn't ready yet.

In that case, I think Amtrak could just run the Empire Service to GCT (especially since that's where the passengers would end up if the transferred to MN). More to the point, is there any trustworthy information on whether there really are problems with the Empire Connection or the Spuyten Duyvil bridge? The only thing I've seen confirmation of is continuing problems on MN north of Croton.

Once upon a time, there was a connection from the B&A (?) at Chatham to the now Harlem Line of MNRR. It's too bad that's not available now.

The Harlem should never have been ripped up. It should have at least been rail-banked. Complete lack of vision there.

Agreed. I suspect part of it was taxes. Since NYS taxes on rails were dang expensive. But would definitely have been nice to keep that (and some other) routes around.

But we're off-topic.

So to bring it on.

Yeah, looks like (when I looked earlier, things are changing so quickly could be different) Amtrak had TWO trains scheduled SB today ALB->NYP, I believe the Maple Leaf and Adirondack. One for tomorrow (Maple Leaf) but marked as "sold out" and full slate for Monday, but all marked "Sold out". My guess on the those it's more a "we plan on running them, but not selling tickets until we know for sure."

scoostraw wrote:

Jeff Smith wrote:

Station Aficionado wrote:

lirr42 wrote:Maybe when Metro-North clears/opens the upper Hudson Line (Croton-Harmon->Poughkipsee) and they get Poughkipsee->Albany cleared they can run trains to at least Croton-Harmon so people can connect to Metro-North to New York if the Empire Connection isn't ready yet.

In that case, I think Amtrak could just run the Empire Service to GCT (especially since that's where the passengers would end up if the transferred to MN). More to the point, is there any trustworthy information on whether there really are problems with the Empire Connection or the Spuyten Duyvil bridge? The only thing I've seen confirmation of is continuing problems on MN north of Croton.

Once upon a time, there was a connection from the B&A (?) at Chatham to the now Harlem Line of MNRR. It's too bad that's not available now.

The Harlem should never have been ripped up. It should have at least been rail-banked. Complete lack of vision there.

What is gone is gone. That portion of the line is not coming back unfortunately. I was not even born when they removed the rails, but Google Maps seems to indicate that the line missed even the small towns in the area, so it must have been really unprofitable to keep and kind of unworthy to restore now even if they had a chance of buying back all the ROW.

Now back on topic -- I have seen contradictory information about the East River tunnels: some sources indicate that 3 tunnels are available, some indicate that only 2 tunnels are available. What is the real story?

Single tracking in hudson river tunnels, and i believe one of the tunnels is out under the east river.

Doesn't matter a whole lot with NJT not running, a single hudson track isn't so bad. Once they are up & running again it will take some careful planning to line all the trains up without too much backlog.

I recall reading someplace that NJT/Amtrak schedule weekend trains in a way that they could get away with only using 1 North River tunnel. So since they have 1 cleared out, they could in theory run regular weekend service through the North River Tunnels.

On the east side, I think they have 3 tunnels available, with line 2 out of service. From what I can deduce, LIRR's four operating branches have their emergency schedules set up to allow them to only need the use of 1 tunnel and as few station tracks as possible. So Amtrak could have the use of 2 ERT's to run near-normal service at this point (I presume).

lirr42 wrote:I recall reading someplace that NJT/Amtrak schedule weekend trains in a way that they could get away with only using 1 North River tunnel. So since they have 1 cleared out, they could in theory run regular weekend service through the North River Tunnels.

Correct.

lirr42 wrote:On the east side, I think they have 3 tunnels available, with line 2 out of service. From what I can deduce, LIRR's four operating branches have their emergency schedules set up to allow them to only need the use of 1 tunnel and as few station tracks as possible. So Amtrak could have the use of 2 ERT's to run near-normal service at this point (I presume).

Incorrect. The East River tunnels remain at 50 percent capacity.

Hoping for more Albany service on 11/4.

Railjunkie wrote:From what Ive been able to find out through the grape vine, havent worked since last Sunday. Tivoli Bay did flood and a couple of other spots, no were near as bad as down south. Think there running DCS rules CP124 to CP89. The deal between CSX and Amtrak for the Hudson sub has been postponed due to weather/flooding.

My brother hasn't worked since last Sunday either! Might be back to work tomorrow though. Do you work down to Penn too?

ThirdRail7 wrote:

lirr42 wrote:I recall reading someplace that NJT/Amtrak schedule weekend trains in a way that they could get away with only using 1 North River tunnel. So since they have 1 cleared out, they could in theory run regular weekend service through the North River Tunnels.

Correct.

lirr42 wrote:On the east side, I think they have 3 tunnels available, with line 2 out of service. From what I can deduce, LIRR's four operating branches have their emergency schedules set up to allow them to only need the use of 1 tunnel and as few station tracks as possible. So Amtrak could have the use of 2 ERT's to run near-normal service at this point (I presume).

Incorrect. The East River tunnels remain at 50 percent capacity.

Hoping for more Albany service on 11/4.

Yes, you are right as of 7:47pm on Saturday. Here is a quote from the main page of the MTA in regard to the LIRR:

With two East River tunnels operated by Amtrak into Penn Station out of service due to flooding, train service must operate at reduced levels.

BM6569 wrote:

Railjunkie wrote:From what Ive been able to find out through the grape vine, havent worked since last Sunday. Tivoli Bay did flood and a couple of other spots, no were near as bad as down south. Think there running DCS rules CP124 to CP89. The deal between CSX and Amtrak for the Hudson sub has been postponed due to weather/flooding.

My brother hasn't worked since last Sunday either! Might be back to work tomorrow though. Do you work down to Penn too?

Zone 3 engineer I get to work today, first time in a week. The wife is having a party I think. LOL