Hudson LIne -- Aug. 20 Signal outage.

[amm in ny]

I don't know how many non-Hudson-line people heard about this, but yesterday evening, there were problems on the Hudson Line. The announcement at GCT simply said that there were "signal problems" on the Hudson Line and that passengers would do well to find alternate transportation, but not much more.

Today, a search of the MTA website brought up an article explaining the problems which had a rather testier tone than you usually see in MTA's public announcements. The bluntest part was

Metro-North officials have repeatedly warned the contractor and developer to cease all work until the proper approvals were in place and told the parties that there were Metro-North utilities buried in the area. The complete disregard of these directives is inexcusable.

I sense quite a back-story here.

Is anyone in a position to tell any more? Or is this pretty much it?

FWIW, the Westchester County paper (the Journal News) seems to have missed this one entirely.

[lirr42]

It looks like they just threw the contractor under the bus (or train). Glad to see it it only caused delays of 30 minutes or so instead of crippling the entire railroad like a certain other MTA agency...

[Backshophoss]

IF the underground cables were propery marked out on the surface,and on the site "blueprints",this "developer" basicly disreguarded MNR's
guidelines for working near the tracks,and DIDN'T want to pay for a MNR worker to keep watch on the cables.
The "developer" should be held responceable for the costs involved on repairs to the cables and "Kicked Off" the site!!

[kitn1mcc]

there are alot of these new age contractors doing work like this. they just don't care what they do and just do it. i wonder who is was

[kitn1mcc]

was it here

http://www.hudsonvalleyruins.org/yasins ... nwood.html

[lirr42]

was it here

http://www.hudsonvalleyruins.org/yasins ... nwood.html

Yeah, that's the "old power substation currently being renovated by a private developer" the release mentioned.

[Backshophoss]

I suspect when the trees/ivy were removed,there were "incidents" trackside at that building,enough to raise the "hackles" of the
ET and Signal depts.,along with the Track dept. Mangement was notified to attempt to stop the "incidents",the "developer/contractor"
ignoired any form of contact from MNR.
If the "developer/contractor" didn't believe MNR on the location of the underground cables,they could have called a
"call before you dig service" to mark where the cables were. "New age" or not,they hit the cables and disrupted service,
it was avoidable.

[truck6018]

It looks like they just threw the contractor under the bus (or train). Glad to see it it only caused delays of 30 minutes or so instead of crippling the entire railroad like a certain other MTA agency...

The contractor threw themselves under the train by digging on property that wasn't there's (allegedly).

While it didn't cripple the entire railroad or even the line, there were numerous trains annulled and combined. Being it was a relatively short piece of territory that was out all trains ran restricted between CP12 and CP19. I think it was just above Glenwood Station that north bound trains were able to pick up any sort of code in the rail.

[SecaucusJunction]

If this was the Port Jervis Line, it would have probably been several months before service could have been restored.......

[Terminal Proceed]

secaucus - you have been warned in the past about this type of commentary - cool it.

kevin

[SecaucusJunction]

Goodness gracious, it was a simple joke to try to get a chuckle... that whole thing went down a year ago. Can't we get over it by now? No one has been more supportive of MTA and their operations than me. Ask the NJT folks.

[blockline4180]

SJ just has some crazy things going on in his head sometimes, especially when it comes to his Anti West of Hudson diatribes....
I wouldn't take what he says personally!!! LOL

[Terminal Proceed]

the warning still stands

[SecaucusJunction]

Thanks

[bigK]

I was at the Poughkeepsiestation today - Sat. 09-01-12 between 11:00 AM and1:45 PM, - for some Amtrak train watching (with and without pvt. car) and MNRR train watching (with and without loco new paint job/scheme)

there were quiite a number of late trains both RRs

here is what I had observed:

the Pok. station now has those new graphic displays for train info - nice except at first was reporting both Amtrak and MNRR northbound trains were on time

11:04 anouncement Amtrak train no. 280 to PS will be late 5 min. - suposed to arrive as per sched 11:05 AM
11:16 Amtrak no. 280 actualy arrives 11 min. late

another anouncement is made that the MNRR train no. 8815 from GCT due to arrive at Pok. 11:32 will be 5 min late
11:36 MNRR train from GCT arrives (so much for MNRR's 97% on time record)

12:00 PM new anouncement for Amtrak train no. 281 (the one with pvt. car) will be 25-30 min late due to track work (this is what THIS anouncement said as to cause of delay) - WAS suposed to arrive as per sched 11:36 AM
12:10 PM Amtrak no. 281 actualy arrives 34 min late

it should be noted that the anouncer (computer?or human?) kept getting the train times wrong by a tad - 1:10 for 1:08 etc.

THEN... (thee are those who may be wondering at this point what all this has to do with this post...)
1:08 PM anouncement Amtrak no. 233 to ALB (reported as the 1:10 but actualy is 1:08 at Pok.) will be 10-15 min late due to.... SIGNAL FAILURE - and there is the connection to this post

1:30 PM another anouncement that the MNRR 1:35 from GCT will be 10-15 min late due to the above signal problem

'back hoe Billy' strikes again?? or maybe a diferent problem with the signaling at a diferant location?

the term 'signal failure' was used in the last 2 anouncements - but in the earlier anouncement the term 'track work' was used

it seems the northbound trains were afected the most