NEW ORLEANS — Lengthy disruptions to Amtrak’s City of New Orleans ended Tuesday, with the restoration of full service over the route between Chicago and New Orleans.
Since May, a combination of scheduled track work, floodgates which had to be opened on a spillway near New Orleans, and other restrictions have meant that passengers were bused for about 180 miles between Jackson, Miss., and New Orleans. That has now ended.
Amtrak is marking the occasion with a ticket sale on the route, offering buy-one, get-one-free fares for both coach and sleeping-car accommodations for travel on the City of New Orleans through September, if purchased by Aug. 31. Details are available at the Amtrak website.
The problem with the Bonnet Carrie spillway bridge isn’t the height over the water but the age of the creosoted wood piling construction. Can you imagine the catastrophe of that bridge failing with the City of New Orleans over it! The location is miles from any easy access. The water flowing under the bridge, with the spillway open can easily undermine the structure without any obvious sign above the water. The disaster of the Bayou Canot bridge with the Amtrak Sunset, would be considered just a minor derailment!
It took far less time to restore the train after Hurricane Katrina.
The Bonnet-Carre spillway was opened twice this year. And was open for most of 5 months because of the very high river levels. This spillway diverts water from the Mississippi into Lake Ponchartrain so reduce flooding downstream, including in New Orleans..The wooden bridge over the spillway is in the process of being replaced by the CN. In the future this won’t be a problem because the new steel bridge is much higher over the spillway.
So that’s why it took longer than in 2005.