WASHINGTON — All service between New York Penn Station and Newark, N.J., was suspended for about an hour today (Saturday, March 1) after debris apparently fouled electrical transmission wires over the tracks at Newark, according to an advisory on Amtrak’s website. Meanwhile, “ongoing switch and signal issues” at Washington Union Station has primarily affected trains to and from Virginia requiring an engine change before continuing on their routes.
Both Amtrak and NJTransit trains were affected by the New Jersey outage, which was announced at 2:30 p.m. EST and lifted at 3:20 p.m., with trains in and out of New York encountering residual delays. NJ Transit reports its trains are experiencing delays of up to an hour, and that Port Authority Trans-Hudson trains are cross-honoring its tickets. Amtrak also recommended PATH as an alternative method to reach New York.
At Washington, the southbound Palmetto to Savannah, Ga., sat in the station more than two hours and left almost three hours late, while the Carolinian to Charlotte, N.C. departed Baltimore on time but was held out of Washington for an hour and left over two hours late. All northbound trains suffered delays in the two-hour range as well.
Amtrak’s website message said delays at Washington were due to “rail congestion and limited space for northbound and southbound trains needing engine changes and the equipment required for these changes. While we will do our best to stay within the provided timeframes, please note that these estimates can change, resulting in longer or shorter delays. Please consider alternative modes of transportation if this timeframe does not work for you.”
A tardy train not initially caught in the switch and signal problems at Washington, D.C., was the northbound Floridian, which departed Richmond, Va., 37 minutes late but then suffered a breakdown north of that city causing a delay of more than 3 hours. A message to passengers said the train’s “crew has notified the mechanical team who are attempting to resolve the issue.”
Another noteworthy long-distance network setback took place over the weekend after Friday’s eastbound Texas Eagle left San Antonio. It departed more than six hours late waiting for the Sunset Limited, which had been delayed by congestion attributed to a Union Pacific freight derailment near Yuma, Ariz.
The Eagle then was sidelined on BNSF Railway tracks east of Temple, Tex., for a yet-to-be-determined reason. It left McGregor, Tex.,16 and a half hours late early Saturday morning and was nearly 18 hours late at (appropriately) Hope, Ark., departing at 3:01 p.m. on Saturday afternoon instead of 9:13 p.m. Friday evening. It is only six hours ahead of the March 1 eastbound Eagle [which was running on-time as of midday]. Friday’s Eagle is projected to reprise the role of Gulf, Mobile & Ohio’s Midnight Special as the last overnight train between St. Louis and Chicago. Passengers who may have boarded in Los Angeles Wednesday evening will thus have been on the train for five nights.
— Updated at 4:45 p.m. CT with new, more detailed article.
And one Auto Train set suffered some sort of malfunction resulting in delays that will reverberate for days.
Re Texas Eagle – An old joke was about the train that arrived at its destination on time. When the Stationmaster was complimented, he replied, “No, that’s yesterday’s train.” What is the current balance of the “Hey, let’s try the train this time” people versus the “Never again” crowd? Which way is it trending?
So have the number of tracks at Washington Union Station been reduced? The Pennsylvania Railroad did more interchanges with its southbound partners than AMTRAK does.
It ,may be that south bound trains could only arrive at the 2 leading switches into one bore. Speculation, maybe Amtrak had to pull each southbound train to a switch on the northside of the station to remove the motor and add the diesel loco?
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Amtrak+replacing+switches+at+WASH+first+street+tunnel&qpvt=Amtrak+replacing+switches+at+WASH+first+street+tunnel&FORM=VDRE
Does anyone in Washington have John Galt’s cell phone number?
Not anymore.
Libertarians would solve Amtrak’s problems? Huh? The problem has been decades of under investment by both parties, current lackluster managementand destructive prior management, freight railroads that are not penalized for ignoring their legal obligations and a lack of industry regulation for safety and investment. Seriously, how can you run passenger trains with 40-50 yo cars, 35 yo locomotives, understaffed maintenance on railroads choked with 3 mile freights.
Under investment and incompetence is tolerated, if not rewarded in the US. It is everywhere. We should turn over operations to SBB, JR or China.
Sorry, Gregg, you missed the reference to the fictional John Galt dispatching trains at a major passenger terminal, by hand, when the signals failed.