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  • Amtrak Effects of East Palestine Derailment Incident

  • Discussion related to Amtrak also known as the National Railroad Passenger Corp.
Discussion related to Amtrak also known as the National Railroad Passenger Corp.

Moderators: GirlOnTheTrain, mtuandrew, Tadman

 #1615220  by Gilbert B Norman
 
#29 and #30, Capitol Limited, pass through East Palestine OH on NS (PRR) rails. Alliance, 33 miles to the West, is a station stop for 29 and 30.

Owing to the serious derailment incident involving HAZMAT, 30(4) is cancelled; presumably 29(4) same.

The incident is being discussed at the Norfolk Southern Forum.
Last edited by nomis on Tue Feb 07, 2023 3:23 pm, edited 1 time in total. Reason: updated thread title
 #1615225  by STrRedWolf
 
Per Amtrak, 29/30 on the weekend departure dates are canceled. Trains departing on 2/3 were terminated early (Toledo for 30, Pittsburgh for 29) and then sent back to drop passengers back off (they became excursion service).

derailment-east-palestine-ohio-t175028.html for the NS forum thread.

That said, possible detours... oh! NS Cleveland line. Just have it go ALL THE WAY on the line, with a reverse move to the station. Not a lot of sidings though...
 #1615366  by STrRedWolf
 
urr304 wrote: Mon Feb 06, 2023 9:51 pm Bus substitution between Pittsburgh and Cleveland not possible? I was just wondering.
Three hours in the dead of the night each way? Not a good customer experience. Better to rebook through the LSL and the Cardinal this far in advance, and you'll know this will take a while since it's hitting the news. I bet Amtrak have already reached out to this week's bookings to reschedule or switch to other trains.
 #1615406  by urr304
 
I can see your point about in middle of night especially for through passengers, but what about the intermediate passengers who would be up anyway.

Origination passengers could be rerouted to either LSL or Cardinal but can Amtrak add the cars needed?

It just seems that Amtrak can not adjust to short term changes the way even the private railroads could. The Erie Lackawanna I recall on a couple occasions due to wrecks within 1 or 2 hours had a charter bus to forward passengers from my point of origin [Greenville, PA].

Let us hope that soon the situation in East Palestine is rectified for all especially the residents there.
 #1615413  by John_Perkowski
 
urr304 wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 12:51 pm It just seems that Amtrak can not adjust to short term changes the way even the private railroads could.
I think you nailed the heart of the matter. I went and looked at the Union Pacific. On the route that mattered to me the most (KC-DEN, because my grandparents lived on it), as late as 12 months before A Day there was twice daily service. I keep saying “One A Day is a trademarked vitamin name, not a viable means of moving people.”
 #1615422  by Mackensen
 
I think it was far easier for private railroads to respond to situations like these. They owned the right-of-way, and there was more of it, making potential re-routing easier. They had additional cars. They had far more employees. Labor rules were different. I'm not sure any meaningful comparison can be made between 1963 (for example) and 2023. It's sixty years, with Amtrak, Conrail, Penn Central, the Staggers Act, and Precision Scheduled Railroading in between.
 #1615446  by STrRedWolf
 
No official announcement on if 29/30 is canceled today (7th) or tomorrow (8th) but I'm just going to assume it's toast for the week anyway until NS gets it's act together on a detour route. Any insiders care to share?
 #1615652  by rcthompson04
 
hi55us wrote: Thu Feb 09, 2023 5:12 pm Too bad we couldn't have seen a WAS-PIT section run with a turn at PIT. Amtrak has the facilities in PIT to turn trains and at least would have left less passengers with a bad impression.
I am curious how many people take PIT to WAS or WAS to PIT. There aren’t a lot of intermediate stops so unless they get a lot of traffic there was an alternative (even though longer). You can accommodate both via the Pennsylvanian.
 #1615669  by STrRedWolf
 
rcthompson04 wrote: Thu Feb 09, 2023 7:25 pm I am curious how many people take PIT to WAS or WAS to PIT. There aren’t a lot of intermediate stops so unless they get a lot of traffic there was an alternative (even though longer). You can accommodate both via the Pennsylvanian.
A normal WAS/PIT pairing? I would imagine those going to a convention (yeah, some folks know) would fill up the Cap Limited since they couldn't get the Pennsy and brave a dead-of-night offload at PIT. But I'd have to see traffic data on a regular day.