Amtrak NEC Delay and Service Disruption Thread

[west point]

Try this Power failure/ Note this happened before 0830 and announcement just came out at 1230.

https://www.amtrak.com/alert/service-te ... -and-.html

[PRRTechFan]

This is ridiculous. New York City news says power failure from New Haven to Penn Station. BS. There are NO Jersey Transit delays and there are no Metro North delays, so NYP and some tracks to the north have power. They say there is an issue in CT. I'm betting that the 60Hz north of New Haven to Boston is okay. Doesn't Amtrak have some dual-mode locomotives? Run catenary as far as you can out of NYP north, through the failure area on diesel to New Haven, where they can then continue on 60Hz to Boston. This isn't rocket science...

[Erie-Lackawanna]

This is ridiculous. New York City news says power failure from New Haven to Penn Station. BS. There are NO Jersey Transit delays and there are no Metro North delays, so NYP and some tracks to the north have power. They say there is an issue in CT. I'm betting that the 60Hz north of New Haven to Boston is okay. Doesn't Amtrak have some dual-mode locomotives? Run catenary as far as you can out of NYP north, through the failure area on diesel to New Haven, where they can then continue on 60Hz to Boston. This isn't rocket science...

According to the Amtrak Service Notice, there was a faulty breaker in the Bronx. Power was off from the phase gap at GATE to MANOR. MNR was not affected.

The only dual-mode locomotives are those used for the Empire Service. I’m pretty sure Amtrak wasn’t going to kill Empire Service in order to get trains running through a temporary service disruption on the Corridor.

Customers were advised to take Metro-North from GCT to New Haven; they said MNR was honoring Amtrak tickets.

[RandallW]

The dual modes are all used for the Empire Service and other trains up the Hudson, and since non of those trains are affected by this, Amtrak can't pull those locomotives for other trains. Metro North can't provide Amtrak spare locomotives (and those dual modes, I think, are equipped only to run into GCT, not NYP). So it makes sense that Amtrak is claiming no trains can run between NYP and New Haven (where it has diesels to operate the Springfield Shuttles and Vermonter).

Amtrak has dual modes for NEC on order, and claims they will help with these kinds of situations, but they are only on order, not in service.

[PRRTechFan]

...at least they had the foresight to route customers to New Haven via Metro-North and GCT. I know that the original PRR electrification had multiple redundancies built in so that any one (or two) points of electrical failure wouldn't take out a entire section of a route. But I do NOT know if the electrification north of NYP was built to similar standards...

[west point]

There is no excuse for Amtrak's misleading announcement. Only the Amtrak CAT from Rochelle to Gate is not operating. No problem with MNRR!

[JimBoylan]

From Train Status at Amtrak.com, some trains from Boston were turned back at Stamford, Connecticut, others at New Haven. On Sunday morning, 7/7/24, 2 Northbound trains from New York are cancelled and the Vermonter is cancelled between Washington and New Haven.

[Gilbert B Norman]

There is no excuse for Amtrak's misleading announcement. Only the Amtrak CAT from Rochelle to Gate is not operating. No problem with MNRR!

Wholly agree, Officer/Captain West Point.

There has been (appears resolved; so it should read "was") much misinformation so that last evening, NBC News reported that all service NYP-BOS was shut down. No mention that Amtrak service was intact East of New Haven and they had arrangements with MNR to X-honor their tickets.

Delay and inconvenience; of course. But you could still get between New York and Boston on the rails. NBC News did a great job misleading their viewers on that point.

[Railjunkie]

Depending on ones point of view the media does a wonderful job misleading viewers... and has for the past 40 years or so.

[CSRR573]

Are the p32s even ACSES equipped?

[JimBoylan]

The media were only quoting https://www.amtrak.com/alert/service-te ... -and-.html:

On July 6, due to an ongoing electric power issue, Amtrak canceled service between Boston and New York City for the remainder of the day

That was literally true, but didn't mention that some service between Stamford or New Haven and Boston was not cancelled.

[NortheastTrainMan]

Regarding the NYP - NHV issue affecting Amtrak on July 6 and 7, it makes sense imo for Amtrak to announce service suspended from NYP - BOS, to whom I presume are those travelling from NYP - BOS, not 100% sure about the other way around.

Why? Because most travelers don't know much about trains, or public transportation. I've run into a ton of people who don't know the difference between GCT & NYP.

Of course us here on this forum can figure a few things out, but I don't think those who aren't familiar with public transportation would be too thrilled to have to travel from NYP to GCT in this sweltering heat. I'm sure Lyft & Uber are expensive too in Midtown. Think for a second, someone unfamiliar with public transportation and / or NY in general, would they be willing to take the subway from NYP to GCT, take a Metro North train to New Haven (not one terminating at Stamford) and then an Amtrak from NHV to BOS, or points east? Possibly yes, there's always a small handful willing to do that, but the vast majority would not, and would probably have some "nice" things to say.

Similar for the inverse. If Amtrak (which I think they did, correct me if I'm wrong) ran trains from BOS to NHV, would they be happy to transfer to Metro North to reach NY? Depending on their final destination it might be easier. If it's NY, they might compromise with GCT. If it's say, maybe somewhere south of NY, it could be an issue.

Plus, there's a difference between deliberate misinformation from news stations & just plain ignorance when it comes to railroads. I'm wagering 90% of the latter (I'm being generous). For example, I highly doubt a news anchor would know the difference between a P32 and a P42. Should they? In theory yes, but we all know what happens in reality most of the time. Misinformation in both cases, nonetheless.

All in all, good points are being raised. Just remember the average person isn't as knowledgeable or cares to be as knowledgeable about trains as we are.

[west point]

Is Amtrak's excuse for not providing a shuttle bus because it was a holiday or holiday weekend? Amtrak should have provided shuttle bus(s) that departed NYP for NYG in time to meet a MNRR train going to New Haven. As well same from NYG to NYP. Then short turned all equipment of trains from BOS at New Haven to make trains back to BOS for connecting passengers from MNRR?

And of course a proper announcement stating the same.

[NortheastTrainMan]

Is Amtrak's excuse for not providing a shuttle bus because it was a holiday or holiday weekend? Amtrak should have provided shuttle bus(s) that departed NYP for NYG in time to meet a MNRR train going to New Haven. As well same from NYG to NYP. Then short turned all equipment of trains from BOS at New Haven to make trains back to BOS for connecting passengers from MNRR?

And of course a proper announcement stating the same.

The shuttle bus would probably be more comfortable (AC, one seat ride, etc) than taking the 2 and the 7 or shuttle subway trains between GCT / NYG & NYP. However, with midtown traffic being relatively insufferable and exacerbated on the holiday weekend with parades, more tourists, etc, I don't think it would be the timeliest option. It would be easier for some, but ultimately difficult to reliably time with MNRR trains from GCT to New Haven.

That said, I never drove in NYC. So it might be easier than I'm imagining. Interestingly enough, Google Maps lists both options (driving & subway) at about 10 min. Obviously factors can impact that, but who knows? Well, someone who actually drives in midtown on a somewhat regular basis. I don't mean to get off track here (pun intended )

[Railjunkie]

Are the p32s even ACSES equipped?

We have both types of PTC on these things ACSES and I-ETMS. We also have the extra magic box for getting past stop stop signals, with permission of course. It's coming to an electric near you, it works some of the time in Albany but not much of the time in and around Sunnyside. Still waiting to see what happens at the division post with Metro North as they don't use the magic box and without a code the magic button is useless. Because you know everything is going to to exactly what it was designed to do. BBBBWWWWWHHHHAAAAA