McCOMB, Miss. —The Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to open portions of a spillway to divert Mississippi River waters has once again prompted Canadian National to prevent Amtrak’s City of New Orleans from operating over its full route.
The move to open additional bays of the Bonnet Carre Spillway, to keep rising waters away from New Orleans levees, means CN will not allow the Amtrak train to cross a wooden trestle between Hammond, La., and New Orleans.
However, instead of allowing the train to make a bus transfer at Hammond before or after it deadheads to the Crescent City for servicing, CN has told Amtrak that the passenger swap must be made 52 miles further north at McComb, Miss. It also is prohibiting the City from stopping at Brookhaven and Hazlehurst, Miss., between McComb and Jackson, Miss.
When the spillway was opened last year, CN forced Amtrak to make the transfer 130 miles north of Hammond at Jackson.
“We want to thank Canadian National for allowing us to shorten the bus ride for our passengers compared to the operation that took place for several months last year,” Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari tells Trains News Wire. [See “City of New Orleans route truncated indefinitely by flood mitigation,” News Wire, Feb 26, 2019.]
Asked why the transfer was being made at McComb, and why the train is not allowed to stop at the two Mississippi stations just because it isn’t operating with passengers through to New Orleans, CN government affairs personnel emailed the following statement:
“CN works closely with Amtrak to provide safe and efficient passenger rail service to the city of New Orleans. When the US Army Corps of Engineers opens the Bonnet Carre Spillway, Amtrak trains will not operate with passengers across the spillway bridge. CN is in the process of building a new bridge at our cost which will alleviate the issue.”
The railroad has planned to replace the aging, mostly wooden single-track structure that carries the City of New Orleans and CN trains over water that is often fast moving even if few bays are open. A trestle fire in February 2016 caused Amtrak to bus passengers to and from New Orleans for several months.
When the spillway was opened last year, CN spokesman Alexandre Boule similarly told Trains News Wire, “a new bridge on CN’s McComb Sub is already in the process of being built.” An observer in the area tells Trains News Wire that little apparent progress has been made, and CN declined to provide details about a construction timeline.
The spillway, completed in 1931, was first opened to control flooding in 1937 and has only been opened 15 times since it was built. Four of those instances have occurred during the last three years. New Orleans TV station WDSU reports that 10 of a possible 350 of the spillway’s bays that allow water to flow into Lake Ponchartrain were opened last Friday, but as many as 90 may be opened in the coming weeks as a result of heavy rains.
As was the case in the spring of 2019, the decision of when through City of New Orleans service will resume depends on the Army Corps of Engineers assessment of when water diversion through the spillway will no longer be needed.
— Updated at 6:30 p.m. CDT to clarify dates spillway was completed and first opened.
I heard that the other day on Facebook CONO group. A friend was down there for Mardi Gras late Feb and he was stuck in traffic on #10, so he was watching the construction of the new bridge, Drive piles into the water and then lay prefab concrete slabs down. He said it was very interesting to watch, he is a Project Mgr for a General Contractor in St Louis and knew what was going on. He said looks to be about half done, will not be finished before next year, probably about 8 miles long. I have never really noticed where the spillway is but he told me and to look out of window on other side of train from #10, I have always been looking in wrong direction and never knew about it anyway until last year when it was open so long and I cancelled my trip. Have friends down there and cousins in Baton Rouge,and know some of the crew members so had hoped to get there this year, have a reservation for mid-Aug, but not sure if I will get to go or not. It has been terrible down there with the virus. They think Mardi Gras helped spread it so fast, as their first cases were right after MG ended. No one knew it was that bad and did not cancel any events.
yada, yada, yada
JOE BROWN – So, MSY had 64 flights cancelled??? I guess you must mean New Orleans, I’m not familiar with the airport code MSY. MSY cancelled 64 daily flights, evidently means there are 64 or more daily flights to cancel. How does that compare to Amtrak at the same city? If my number is correct in the average day 2.43 arrivals and 2.43 departures at New Orleans.
Amtrak has either six or three arrivals and either six or three departures at Detroit New Center (I’m not sure if Detroit to Pontiac carries local traffic). Been to DTW Detroit Metro Airport recently? It must have been back in the mid-1980’s, in low light (with the aircraft lights visible) when I could see EIGHT or maybe TEN airplanes in the twin landing queues coming in low over Ecorse Road into DTW’s parallel runways. That’s all at once, imagine the total all day and that was over thirty years ago.
As a long-time rail supporter I’m happy Amtrak has record ridership, thirty-seven million. For whatever that means. It doesn’t mean eighteen and a half million people each took one round trip. Amtrak has a goodly number of frequent riders or even daily commuters. Of the US population I’d be willing to bet the overwhelming percentage haven’t ridden Amtrak even once in their life.
JOE – I’d not use the pandemic in New Orleans (if that’s where MSY is) as a reason to show Amtrak’s viability. When the going gets rough – as this very article shows – Amtrak is the last thing you can count on.
Also, with the discount airlines, you can often get a similar or lower fare then an Amtrak coach as well as all the time saved if you are traveling between 2 decent sized cities. So longer trips on Amtrak under those circumstances is strictly for those who just want to travel by train because they aren’t in a hurry and don’t care about the cost of sleeping quarters. That customer group is getting smaller and smaller every year.
Last year (2019) was a record year for Amtrak’s ridership. Over 37 million riders. Clearly people want and will use Amtrak. But, CN earned a D- from Amtrak (in 2018). Thus, when it makes a tough call like restricting movement over that old trestle, there’s nothing in their “bank account” of goodwill to offset public frustration as witnessed by comments in this column. Hope CN will work with William Flynn to restore public confidence and raise that score to an A.
PS. as of this posting, MSY has seen 64 flights cancelled today… THAT is total frustration, folks. At least Amtrak will get people to their needed destination via a bus.
Shit like this and many other reasons, principally, Slow. A drive or a plane ride is faster. Even the damned Bus is quicker.
One more reason why the vast majority of Americans don’t ride trains. When a rail line has a problem, the train is annulled. If a highway has a detour or an airline has a problem, there may be a delay but by and large people get where they’re going.
CN apparently has no consideration for people living in or visiting Hazlehurst or Brookhaven.
I would really appreciate knowing their reason(s) for the decision.
The busing of passengers from McComb Ms I can understand, but how come the passengers aren’t being allowed to detrain/ board at Brookhaven or Hazlehurst? There wasn’t any explanation in the statement byCN.