Suspended PM service 9/16

I left williamsburg at 1am and made it back home at about 5am about 45 minutes later then usual, all things considered, not that bad.

matt91 wrote:

SlackControl wrote:How ironic, service to Brooklyn but not to NY

My thoughts exactly. They cut overnight service on Monday, only to have emergency shuttle service tonight. At least that was a good decision

They actually ran trains to and from Brooklyn after midnight?

That was the train that made it to the Woodside platform (the first car platformed) The trees were on the track right in front of the train.
I was on it, but got off at Woodside to get a bite to eat and came back around 8 PM to find that the trees had been cleared off the track and the trains were gone. There were no trains leaving Penn at that time so I hopped on the 7 and made my way to Jamaica on the E. But I was curious if anyone stayed on the 5:33 and , if so, what ended up happening. Did it continue on east after the trees were cleared or did it go back to Penn? If it continued on east, what time did you get to your stop?
Thanks!

Now that I have had time to fully digest yesterday''s situation (fiasco), in order to save money, all of upper management should be fired.

Let the place run on auto-pilot. It could not get any worse than it was last night.

Apart from the PW branch how were things this morning?

And if trees are down on the tracks, some of them pulling wires with them, what is the railroad supposed to do, tell the engineers to "open 'er up and plow through all them trees and obstacles"?

Heh ... I'm betting MOW has to come clear the trees, right?

That's one of the benefits of mountain railroading on a shortline ... we just grab the chainsaw and cut 'em ...

- litz

Auto Pilot Is not detecting a downed tree. and you and your other commuters will be sitting stuck on a train in a tornado until you can be rescued. Maybe even get whirled around in the funnel a bit.
Everyone here can complain about bad and getting worse decisions by political hacks and persons that are a danger to operations. But we can't complain about mother nature and the damage caused by it.
It would have been much worse if the trees were not cut down a few years ago.
This is not Kansas, were not used to tornado's every day after 4.

PS, LI crews can have chain saws in the engines and under the MU's but It would become a "it's not my job" argument, instead of getting a train over the road. And even if the train crew stopped cut and removed the tree therefor getting the train over the road, Management will come down cracking the whip across their behinds.
In electrified territory add the possibility of having to cut power before being able to cut down trees.
Also not that yesterdays storms may have brought down signals and Con Ed lines that the LIRR had to wait for Con Ed to cut power and replace too.

Perhaps this is not a fair comparison, but how come Metro North, which is also is a commuter railroad, and under the MTA umbrella, never seems to have these sort of issues?

Commuter X wrote:Perhaps this is not a fair comparison, but how come Metro North, which is also is a commuter railroad, and under the MTA umbrella, never seems to have these sort of issues?

Better management at MNCR then LIRR.

The better crews would only be stopped by the largest tree, and management would never criticize anyone from removing an obstacle and proceeding. Most trees can be moved using the train, but some can't and sometimes live wires are also down.

Unfortunately many of the newer crews don't have what it takes to get over the road and whine if a small branch lays across the tracks. One crew even refused to operate through a foot of snow and was sent home.

Transportation supervisors used to be field guys who would handle chain saws and clear the right of way. I knew a few guys who carried a truckload of chainsaws, ropes, winches, even cutting torches in their Company trucks for this type of restoration work, but the Company has since taken the trucks away from their managers and that forced those kind of supervisors to retire or go back to the crafts.

Now they call out Communications, Track or Signal to clear the right of way and hope they answer the phone for overtime and have chainsaws with fuel in them.

Ken S. wrote:

Commuter X wrote:Perhaps this is not a fair comparison, but how come Metro North, which is also is a commuter railroad, and under the MTA umbrella, never seems to have these sort of issues?

Better management at MNCR then LIRR.

All the more reason to clean house starting from the top

I did not see one LIRR employee last evening. The only people who were telling us anything were the MTA police

How many LIRR employees work at Penn Station, and why were they invisible yesterday?

Recently the railroad had many of these crises to analyze what went wrong and where.
Perhaps this is not reviewed, or perhaps the management of the railroad is incapable of learning from past mistakes

Commuter X wrote:Perhaps this is not a fair comparison, but how come Metro North, which is also is a commuter railroad, and under the MTA umbrella, never seems to have these sort of issues?

Metro North has issues as well, they're just not overblown like those of the LIRR. If Metro North is having problems, it's probably because the overhead wire infrastructure was damaged ( weather related or human related ). If it's weather related, usually you'll also see New Jersey Transit having similar problems.

Their diesel services also appear to be 10x more reliable, which makes me wonder why the LIRR didn't opt for the P32's that MN uses. There's only one point I can nitpick on, and that would be that some older commuter cab cars show their age ( complete with electronic compartment doors that open on their own mid-trip ( more amusing than annoying though )).

Personally I think of MN as the stronger of the two. The LIRR would really benefit if that relationship were tightened and MN had greater control over NY area commuter rail traffic ( like full control ) operations.

PS, LI crews can have chain saws in the engines and under the MU's but It would become a "it's not my job" argument, instead of getting a train over the road. And even if the train crew stopped cut and removed the tree therefor getting the train over the road, Management will come down cracking the whip across their behinds.
In electrified territory add the possibility of having to cut power before being able to cut down trees.
Also not that yesterdays storms may have brought down signals and Con Ed lines that the LIRR had to wait for Con Ed to cut power and replace too.[/quote]


They would last as long as the emergency tools an mini fire extinguisher that were on the the M-1's and M3's. when they were delivered new.

A Message to LIRR Customers About the Storm of 9/16
September 17, 2010
At the height of Thursday night’s rush hour, a violent storm moved through the New York City area with wind gusts of up to 100 miles per hour. Weather Service meteorologists are trying to determine if a tornado caused the high winds that shattered windows and shredded trees across sections of New York City. The media reported more than 300 lightning strikes in just 15 minutes.

Fallen trees, branches and broken poles east and west of Forest Hills blocked the LIRR’s Main Line tracks forcing the suspension of train service to and from Penn Station and other parts of our system. Eight trees blocking Main Line tracks and 14 trees on the Port Washington Branch required removal. In addition, branches, snapped tree limbs, and other debris blocked the railroad and disrupted signals in 15 other locations.

For safety reasons, the LIRR and MTA Police restricted access to Penn Station. Customers were advised to take the NYC Transit subway to either Jamaica or Brooklyn’s Atlantic Terminal for LIRR train service to points east.

MTA Police Emergency Service Units and LIRR track crews equipped with chain saws were among the first to respond to begin removing trees. Congested road conditions caused difficulty in getting some LIRR crews to destinations where trees were down. Police escorts were needed in some instances to get crews to the critical locations.

Trees and branches were removed, and test trains were operated to be certain the tracks were free of debris, before customer service could be safely restored. LIRR crews worked throughout the night clearing trees and other debris from the tracks, and repairing damaged signal and communication lines.

LIRR service on all branches except Port Washington was restored before the AM rush on Friday. At about 7 am, LIRR crews were able to restore westbound service on the Port Washington Branch using one track. Full service on the branch was restored at 9:49 am.

Customers on the Port Jefferson and Ronkonkoma lines experienced delays of up to 60 minutes Friday morning when a LIPA power problem caused a loss of LIRR signal power near Hicksville. With swift cooperation from LIPA, LIRR crews were able to fix the signal problem, although residual delays occurred. Normal PM rush hour service is expected today, including the addition of 8 trains to serve customers leaving the city early to observe Yom Kippur.

In all, 239 trains were delayed by the magnitude and destructive power of the storm. We apologize to our customers for the delays and inconvenience caused by this severe storm. The LIRR restored service as quickly as we could while keeping the safety of our customers and employees as our No. 1 priority.