State of the New Haven Line (CP216-Div. Post)

From an(Amtrak) engineers perspective this line is getting worse and worse. It seems as if there is only 1 'good' section of track (#1 CP217-CP232) and the rest is just riddled with temporary speed restrictions. Its so tiring/dissapointing when you come off the shore-line with an Acela train-set from doing 150mph to being slowed, stopped, and held for semi-local express trains.

Over at Harold interlocking LIRR MTA track crews are laying track and installing signals and building tunnels with no working limit stop signs or speed restrictions and that's the busiest interlocking in the country!
Over at MNCR though. while still under the MTA name they cant lay track without having to repair/put a temporary speed restriction on it a couple of days later.

The NH line really is a 45mph piece of railroad, when there aren't speed restrictions, there are stop signs, when there's no stop signs there's wheel-slip restrictions, when there is no wheel slip restrictions there are overhead wire restrictions....its always something else. It seems that most of us Amtrak guys are waiting for MN's form of ACSES to be installed but the worry is they will set it up the same way they handled their current cab signal drops which in some spots will prevent you from doing 70mph and bring you down to 45mph because of a 50mph curve 2 miles away! it sucks to run over and i can only imagine it sucks for the commuters.

MN should really hire an amtrak track gang to have the place fixed in a month because the current work they get out of their track guys who probably make $200k a year and work less than 8 hrs a day (and never at night) isn't doing anything.

Mod Note: Just a reminder to keep it civil lasses and gents.

Blendedbreak - I am sure if you talk to a few of your zone 3 colleagues they feel equally as frustrated. The Hudson, specifically from Croton - CP12 is brutal. I was told the downgrades being 2 miles out in either direction from a restriction is for the freights that run over our system. From my experience working on the NHL on the average the RTC's gave good moves to Amtrak especially Acelas.

Granted MN's New Haven Line is a mess. But what else can be done? Fixing tracks with slow orders, replacing catenary and underpasses takes time. It most likely will be another 3 to 5 years until all such projects are completed. Even after that, the upcoming replacement of the drawbridges will commence. Hopefully once all the temporary speed restrictions are lifted and the PTC system activated, things may get better.

I feel your pain Blended Brake. MN and LI's knee jerk reaction by misusing the signaling system to enforce civil speeds is a real headache, and in reality makes things less safe, promoting complacency.

Clean Cab wrote:Granted MN's New Haven Line is a mess. But what else can be done? Fixing tracks with slow orders, replacing catenary and underpasses takes time. It most likely will be another 3 to 5 years until all such projects are completed. Even after that, the upcoming replacement of the drawbridges will commence. Hopefully once all the temporary speed restrictions are lifted and the PTC system activated, things may get better.

For starters they can whip their track department into shape or at least have another railroad come in to train the young track workers on on how to properly do their job.These gangs that MN employ will drop ballast stone in the gauge, remove the temporary restriction from the area they just worked on , and then not tamp out the bed!So what happens the next few days, the restriction is back! CP232 has had a 30mph restriction on it for a few years now, why cant these guys work at night to fix the problem? every other railroad does it! Then they run their new equipment over shoddy track!

EM2000 wrote:I feel your pain Blended Brake. MN and LI's knee jerk reaction by misusing the signaling system to enforce civil speeds is a real headache, and in reality makes things less safe, promoting complacency.

total misuse of the signal system! CP232 and CP255 are good examples...they use the signals to enforce a 30mph track restriction so you dont know if you are coming up to a stop, or going to crossover, or make a straight move!

A couple of months ago on my only trip on MNRR, I noticed the M8 was about an inch or so higher than the platform at West Haven. At Grand Central it was even. Is this variance unusual? I've never noticed it on the MBTA.

BlendedBreak wrote above:
[[ From an(Amtrak) engineers perspective this line is getting worse and worse. It seems as if there is only 1 'good' section of track (#1 CP217-CP232) and the rest is just riddled with temporary speed restrictions. Its so tiring/dissapointing when you come off the shore-line with an Acela train-set from doing 150mph to being slowed, stopped, and held for semi-local express trains. ]]

Get used to it, kid.

It's been like that for decades, will be like that for the rest of your working career, and will remain like that after you've retired.

Found out the same things myself, 35 years ago. You learn to live with it.

In time, you may come to realize that having MN there is -good- for your career, and for the other guys on Amtrak.

If Metro-North -wasn't- like that, New Haven crew base would be long-gone.

Perhaps someday you'll get better at it. You should know where the cab signal is going to change, and know WHAT it's going to change to, BEFORE you cross the code change points.

If you know that, you can follow a Metro-North local ahead, and never have to put the brake valve handle in suppression....

No one forces you to work over New Haven line, bid out exersize your seniority !!
only advice besides that is MN is watching these forums, keep harping on MN and as engineer you might burn some favors you might need in your career.

As for platform height of Mr.BandA are you for real ??? 1 " think you can lift your feet ?? before the age of spoiled rotten commuters you had to climb up 4 feet to get on train.

Dutch, love it or leave it? I expect better. And the crappy state of the railroad should not be an excuse for an RTC to stop doing his/ her job. We crawl over MN these days. Acela passengers are paying through the nose to ride now and if the speeds don't improve then we may see loss of ridership. That is not good for anyone who works on Amtrak. You must be hearing it on Metro North too.

There is no class of trains, to a MN rtc a amtrak trains is just as important as a MN train, to customers a MN train with 700 passengers is 3 1/2 times as important as a Amtrak train carrying 200 passengers.
Amtrak is guest on our railroad, just like Amtrak treats NJT trains on their railroad.

Fishrrman wrote:BlendedBreak wrote above:

Get used to it, kid.

It's been like that for decades, will be like that for the rest of your working career, and will remain like that after you've retired.

Found out the same things myself, 35 years ago. You learn to live with it.

In time, you may come to realize that having MN there is -good- for your career, and for the other guys on Amtrak.

If Metro-North -wasn't- like that, New Haven crew base would be long-gone.

Perhaps someday you'll get better at it. You should know where the cab signal is going to change, and know WHAT it's going to change to, BEFORE you cross the code change points.

If you know that, you can follow a Metro-North local ahead, and never have to put the brake valve handle in suppression....

I can do that just like any other zn 1 guy can it's just a pain to slow my train down just because MN can't properly run a railroad.NHV as a crew base would still stand the 60 miles between ny and NHV would be ran by someone and guaranteed they would do a better job of maintaining.MN runs a piss poor railroad, with high fares and low standards.running over MN as a passenger or railroader is a dissapointing experience.I love watching the cars on 95 pass me.

DutchRailnut wrote:No one forces you to work over New Haven line, bid out exersize your seniority !!
only advice besides that is MN is watching these forums, keep harping on MN and as engineer you might burn some favors you might need in your career.

You are right to a degree but I can't run a million pound train at 150mph anywhere else.Thanks for the advice but it's a new age, I'm not handing out trade secrets I'm only stating the simple observation of any who work on this territory, or observe news reports where your own CEO states that MN is in a bad place.

DutchRailnut wrote:There is no class of trains, to a MN rtc a amtrak trains is just as important as a MN train, to customers a MN train with 700 passengers is 3 1/2 times as important as a Amtrak train carrying 200 passengers.
Amtrak is guest on our railroad, just like Amtrak treats NJT trains on their railroad.

That's laughable, I can get you a list of trains that are held behind locals at Stamford and NHV daily, you would think the rtc's would want to get us off their tracks ASAP, but no they would rather run close to on time my trains and fill the gaps with our trains . And second, amtrak trains are not "guests" they are paid customers.our passengers pay an amtrak fare that also goes to paying the MTA namely metro north and CDOT. Didn't amtrak fund CP 248? MN can't even maintain it, it makes no sense as to why it takes 1.5 hours to cover 60 miles with only 2-4 station stops.
MN is in way over their heads trying to run a railroad.congrats on the M8's ! I'm thinking about buying a bummer so I can run it over potholes and dirt roads.

BTW SEPTA AMTRAK NJT MBTA get along because of well maintained tracks and efficient dispatchers.

Does the NHL still have two tracks out of service in the Bridgeport area?

Andy

MN had the NTSB and the FRA Crawling around after the wrecks at Bridgeport,DV, and the CSX trash train
Both the NTSB and FRA required certain things to be done,compliance was required.
What you see are the results of NTSB and FRA requirements.

Backshophoss wrote:MN had the NTSB and the FRA Crawling around after the wrecks at Bridgeport,DV, and the CSX trash train
Both the NTSB and FRA required certain things to be done,compliance was required.
What you see are the results of NTSB and FRA requirements.

More specifically what you see is a result of MNR not being able or willing to maintain its tracks. NTSB and the FRA didn't come in and tell MNR to fix stuff that wasn't already broken or in need of proper maintenance.