I miss the "Summer of Hell"

[Commuter X]

All summer long, no problems

This morning, 30 minutes late. This evening, 45 minutes late

I guess things are back to normal

[freightguy]

Good point,

I was asking a few railroad friends if the reduced service kinda helped ease the traffic flow problems. One in every 5 trains not making their way to Penn in the morning may of helped with normal bottlenecks. For instance less trains piling up at an interlocking. Probably put a lot less stress on system even with 20% less trains. Wonder what years those service levels at with those train volumes? It goes to prove how badly the the third track is needed even with the current service levels.

[EuroStar]

NJT riders are observing the same. Comes to tell you how over-stressed and over-used the infrastructure is. The trains are scheduled up to the physical maximum possible with the tracks and signals currently installed. There are no gaps in the schedule allowing time for recovery. One train being delayed at a stop for an extra minute because of heavy traffic or another reason easily propagates exponentially to the following trains which given all the complicated dance of locals and expresses and the merging lines makes for the usual state of commute, e.g. 15-20 minute delays are normal. During the summer with the reduction of number of trains there were 'gaps' in the schedule allowing for recovery. That is not the case during normal operations.

[DogBert]

Subway riders definitely don't share this sentiment. The 7 train was a conga line of congestion every morning due to the added passengers transferring at HPA.

[JamesRR]

Good point,

I was asking a few railroad friends if the reduced service kinda helped ease the traffic flow problems. One in every 5 trains not making their way to Penn in the morning may of helped with normal bottlenecks. For instance less trains piling up at an interlocking. Probably put a lot less stress on system even with 20% less trains. Wonder what years those service levels at with those train volumes? It goes to prove how badly the the third track is needed even with the current service levels.

Exactly. My NJ Transit morning train was on-time or early all summer. On Tuesday this week, back to being delayed, crawling into Penn. Same on Wednesday.

The service reduction during the summer showed how the "normal" service is beyond maxed out, and until more capacity is added, the problems will continue indefinitely.

[andrewjw]

I wonder if Hoboken traffic will be up in the next few months as some people might decide their Hoboken accommodations were more pleasant than returning to Penn. If so, potentially NJT might slightly decrease the number of midtown direct trains to ease the bottleneck.

[mp15ac]

Wednesday morning's problem wasn't the fault of the LIRR. One of Amtrak's trains broke down in tunnel 2.

Stuart

[Amtrak7]

Wednesday morning's problem wasn't the fault of the LIRR. One of Amtrak's trains broke down in tunnel 2.

Stuart

Correct, but the exact incident couldn't have happened over the summer - the train in question is Amtrak 69, the Adirondack, which was combined with the Maple Leaf during the summer.