Noticed/Questioned Major Delays, Annulments, Reroutes

Train 97 the Silver Meteor yesterday, Friday, August 8th left Penn Station, New York 1 hour and 1 minute late but from
there it was all downhill. Washington 2 hours and 28 minutes, Richmond 3 hours and 50 minutes, Jacksonville 6 hours and
6 minutes.
I think this trip for the passengers could be deemed the trip from hell or the trip through hell. Amtrak probably did not win
any friends on this one.
I wonder what time they will finally arrive Fort Lauderdale, I might take a ride down to see.
Noel Weaver

Noel Weaver wrote:Train 97 the Silver Meteor yesterday, Friday, August 8th left Penn Station, New York 1 hour and 1 minute late but from
there it was all downhill. Washington 2 hours and 28 minutes, Richmond 3 hours and 50 minutes, Jacksonville 6 hours and
6 minutes.
I think this trip for the passengers could be deemed the trip from hell or the trip through hell. Amtrak probably did not win
any friends on this one.
I wonder what time they will finally arrive Fort Lauderdale, I might take a ride down to see.
Noel Weaver

Does anybody in the know on here have any info as to what caused the delays that I mentioned above?
Noel Weaver

Train 98 again this morning left Miami 55 minutes late. There might be a reason but there is not a good excuse in my
opinion.
Noel Weaver

regarding to delays from miami is the maintance facility right near the station(like sunnyside to penn or Southhampton to Bos) or could the train get delayed in between the maintance facility and the station.

The Hialeah maintenance facility is adjacent to the Amtrak Miami station and one can safely presume such is within same Yard Limits. Amtrak selected the location for that station on the strength of its proximity to the former SAL facility ingnoring that it is "uh, not exactly in the best part of town".

Gilbert B Norman wrote:The Hialeah maintenance facility is adjacent to the Amtrak Miami station and one can safely presume such is within same Yard Limits. Amtrak selected the location for that station on the strength of its proximity to the former SAL facility ingnoring that it is "uh, not exactly in the best part of town".

This area is bad enough that the day I rode 98 up to Kissimmee (I wanted to ride out of Miami on the NB trip) I took Tri-Rail
down to the Metro-Rail Transfer Station but even though the stations are maybe 15 minutes apart by foot, I chose to use a
taxi and I think it was worth the cost which was not that much. Less than $5.00 with the tip.
The best way to avoid bad neighborhoods is to not walk through them and if you are in doubt, again, do not walk through them.
Noel Weaver

Does anyone out there know why #20 eastbound Crescent dropped 7' 40" between Meridian and Atlanta on the 15th???

Sunday, August 17th train 98 departed Miami 1 hour and 52 minutes late. Again, there is a reason but not a good excuse.
Noel Weaver

They had a derailment in the yard, which blocked the switching lead.

Another bad trip:

#20 eastbound Crescent of the 16th dropped 6' 10" at Charlotte, NC; anybody know why?????

Does anyone know why #351 (18) on the westbound detroit corridor dropped 5' 20" between Detroit and Dearborn???

Full trip Pontiac to CHI took 13'.

Amtrak got back into operation out of Miami this morning but it wasn't a good start. Train 98 left Miami 15 minutes late
for some reason.
A later up-date on this, apparently there is police activity somewhere in the Cypress Creek or Pompano area, i am not
getting everything on my scanner and I don't even normally bother with CSX and Tri-Rail. So far as i know, 98 is still in the
mix somewhere in the area. Tri-Rail is having major delays over this too and they have even annulled some trains.
It looks like a bad afternoon for rail travel in South Florida whether it be Amtrak or Tri-Rail.
I will try to stay in touch with this situation for a little while.
Another update at 12:00 NOON on TV that 98 hit a tractor trailer at Pompano Beach, Atlantic Blvd. Crossing.
The truck stopped and did not clear the crossing and the rear of the trail got hit, they have boxes of two way radios all over
the place and 98 is still there. It was featured on channel 10 at noon. According to the TV news the truck driver will be
cited for this and he should be. There were 188 passengers on the train but so far as I know there are no serious injuries.
Noel Weaver

boy the stupidity of some people.

Here is coverage, including video, from the Local TV station noted by Mr. Weaver:

http://www.local10.com/news/17264226/detail.html

Seems that I can recall a like indident where at Deerfield station, there was a semi trrailer rig traveling EW on Hillsboro Rd (that is where you stayed on your trip Mr. F-40). The trailer did not clear the X-ing and the gates came down atop the trailer. The SB Tri-Rail had adequate time to stop before a collision occurred.

Someone else on the platform with me made the comment "He knew it was Tri-Rail and they were stopping anyway".

Darwin awards, anyone?

Finally, I could not help but note the trailer belonged to Landstar Transpotation. Most of their haulage is with owner-operators; there goes any effective company safety programs. The recent incident involving #59 and a Waste Management truck is an exception, as most of the grade X-ing incidents seem to involve independent truckers, and not the well known carriers such as Schneider, Werner, Covenant, England, etc..

It's gotten worse, 98 from Friday, Sept. 22nd left Kissimmee 6 hours and 37 minutes late and left Jacksonville 9 hours and
43 minutes late. Anybody know anything about this.
Noel Weaver