Delays Yesterday Morning (4/4)

This is a new one for me

https://nypost.com/2023/04/04/commuter- ... hits-wall/

Train and/or rails need service
I will say that there is no longer a smooth ride as you approach the tunnels

Trains striking the bench wall is a rather common occurrence. It's probably reported about monthly and perhaps happens much more often. A common cause is a shifted spring seat on the car. I've never heard of any damage being caused by it.

Funny that the media publishing the report made no effort to determine what exactly happened, why it happened, how often it happens and what the outcome or rectification of the problem happened to be. So we can call it fake news.

All the news media are known for being big on blowing smoke and short on facts.

Opinion: Do we need the use of "embarrassing" to describe a this?
Here's the article from the NY Post:

LIRR train hits concrete walkway in ‘embarrassing’ mishap during morning commute By Nolan Hicks April 4, 2023 6:35pm

Scores of Long Island Rail Road riders had their commute thrown into chaos Tuesday when a train struck a concrete walkway along the tracks.

MTA officials described the collision as minor and said none of the 386 passengers or crew members aboard the train — the 6:24 a.m. bound from Hempstead, LI, to Penn Station in Manhattan — were injured.

But the incident forced the closure of one of the four heavily used railroad tracks running between Queens and Manhattan for roughly four hours as Amtrak, which owns the tunnel, conducted an emergency inspection.

The shutdown caused delays to ripple across the system and led to a dozen trains either cancelled or diverted from Penn Station to Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan.

It also gave LIRR commuters and staff — already frustrated with the railroad’s controversial schedule shakeup — another reason to fume.

“This is straight-up embarrassing,” an employee radioed to another worker in a conversation overheard by a Post reporter, who was aboard one of the delayed trains from Ronkonkoma.

The LIRR said the collision occurred shortly before 7:30 a.m. and that the train kept on toward its destination and arrived on time. It was not immediately clear why the collision occurred.

The MTA had initially told LIRR riders that they could “expect possible delays, cancelations and diversions this morning as Amtrak personnel inspect the rail in one of the East River tunnels” in a service bulletin posted on its mobile TrainTime app.

Amtrak revealed the emergency track inspection was caused by an LIRR train striking the concrete walkway that runs along the tunnel’s side, in response to an inquiry from The Post about the cause of the emergency track work.

The MTA credited its recently opened $11 billion Grand Central Madison train hall with helping to limit the fallout from losing a track to Penn Station during the rush hour.

“Thankfully, given the existence of a second Manhattan terminal and set of tunnels at Grand Central Madison, the disruption to service was less impactful to riders than it might have been before,” said spokesman Aaron Donovan.

Dozens of LIRR trains were either canceled or diverted because of Tuesday’s snafu.
J. Messerschmidt/NY Post

Only sensible cause is one train car suspension out of Wack. think of the millions of passing cars that did not hit the bench wall.

It has happened with M3 equipment in Line 4. To avoid bench wall strikes, the speed of M3's were reduced to 50 MPH in Line 4. Starting Monday, the maximum speed will be further reduced to 45 MPH in Line 4.

That 45mph will only apply to M-3's, right?

yes

That specific car may have had a localized issue which contributed to the car striking the bench walls

These tunnels are over 110 yrs old and I’d you ride on the M3, you will see from the infamous rail fan window that the concrete around some of the track gang clearance cutouts have completely deteriorated.
In normal operations the trains are close enough to the wall. If any of this concrete wedges between the train and the wall you will get a strike.
That said. The most common cause is suspension related or a potential track condition.

An informed observer would notice lines along the wall where the LIRRs side door threshold plates have “assisted in the improvement of their clearance envelope” All 4 lines have this evidence.
Additionally the “restriction”
Is only in line 4. That is directly
Telling me that this issue is localized to the infrastructure in line 4 and not the m3 car body.

WE and Gamer: Good points about the M3 MU cars and the condition of the bench wall edges in Line 4...
Was there any significant sideswipe damage to the M3 car pair (or pairs) involved?

Reducing the authorized M3 MU car speed limit through Line 4 until the cause is found is necessary...
Let's see what happens here...MACTRAXX

To my knowledge it was nothing significant. Either a scraped threshold plate or grab iron but nothing major.
M3s got a 45mph MAS now in line 4
When practical all westbound m3 trains to NY should got west in line 2 and avoid this but it is what it is.