Passenger Trains > delays on Northeast Corridor 10/11/09

My son reports that his train (#87) south out of NY Penn at 3:06 has been stopped in Delaware somewhere south of Wilmongton for over 90". Initially they were told mechanical problem on a train ahead of them following a good deal of very slow running. LAter told there was a medical emergency on a preceding train. Anyone know anything?

what ever the case is it sounds like the classic "dis-information" that conductors normally give when something has happened and they dont want to have to tell everyone they know they will be delayed for a great length of time. i could take a guess but that wouldnt prove much anything nor would it be likely to be correct. especialy since i am on the west coast. but having been on the corridor before and knowing how information to passengers from some conductors is given on an "if we want you to know" basis as opposed to just being up front. i would say expect anything from, signal/equipment problems to possible fatality. either way if they have been hit for 90' all ready you can guarantee it is going to get later before it gets better.

one other thing that makes me think this is not another train having problems. they can always cross the train behind the problem train over and run around it!

hopefully i am wrong and it is just an equipment problem

As of 7:55 pm Amtrak train status indicates
#2253 Acela left NYP 13 mins late
#163 Regional left NYP 08 Mins late, due
Washington 55 mins late at 8:37 pm
2253 Acela is listed as a service disruption
Other trains seem to be doing OK or slightly
late

Looks like #87 is about to crawl into Washington at about 8:40, about 2:20 late. Still no solid info.

2253 hit a trespasser (fatality) at MP48. As usual the local authorities closed all the tracks to do an investigation, and held a couple of thousand people hostage for a couple of hours. Trains delayed were: 126, 2222, 166, 80, 87, 97, 2221 and 163 as well as 2253.

and it will be Amtrak's fault because someone tried to cross the tracks?

AmtrakHogHead Wrote:
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> what ever the case is it sounds like the classic
> "dis-information" that conductors normally give
> when something has happened and they dont want to
> have to tell everyone they know they will be
> delayed for a great length of time.

I hate giving disinformation, if I know we'll be delayed a while I'd rather tell them we'll be there a while then say it'll just be a few minutes and have them start approaching me after a few minutes one at a time asking how much longer it will be. The problem here is that everything a closely guarded state secret and we rarely are told what's actually going on. Apparently the railroads feel it's best to give the crews the bare minimum in terms of information so that we don't go scaring the passenger with our announcements.

That said......

swirsk53 Wrote:
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> Initially they were told mechanical problem on a
> train ahead of them following a good deal of very
> slow running.

Crew was probably told that there was "A Problem" with the train ahead and assumed that the problems were mechanical. I've gotten that kind of information a lot "Amtrak xxx we'll be holding you there at (Insert Station Name Here) for a little bit, got a problem with another train ahead, we'll try to get you moving as soon as we can". No estimate for how long we'll wait there. Sometimes we've sat for two hours, often it's been a matter of minutes. Once got stuck behind a freight/trespasser incident, we were simpoly instructed to stop (in the middle of a field in the middle of nowhere) and wait for further instructions, further instructions didn't come for nearly three hours; DS wouldn't answer us, however we could pick up on the conversations going on ahead of us which was how we knew what was going on.

swirsk53 Wrote:
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> Later told there was a medical
> emergency on a preceding train. Anyone know
> anything?

This would be the standard announcement once the crew was informed what was actually going on, they don't want us describing a trespasser strike to the passengers so we're instructed to refer to it as a Medical Emergency.

Thanks to all who helped me figure out why my son was stuck where he was, when he was. As I told him he was a lot more comfortable and in touch with the world via phone, Internet et al, with cafe and restrooms, than he would have been sitting on the tarmac at LaGuardia waiting for 2 and 1/2 hours for his 35 minutes of flying time to begin.

I always take a scanner with me when I travel on Amtrak and I've been delayed a few times. The conductor usually makes his limited announcement but after a little listening I can usually figure out what is really going on.

We got stopped east of Colton a few years ago. The conductor told us that there was a derailment ahead. That turned out to be true and we were delayed about an hour. We passed that area and stopped for another hour. No announcement. I found out that there was a train on the hill in front of us that was having trouble making it due to one diesel going dead. The engineer broke the train in half and pulled it up in two sections. It was faster than waiting for another diesel got there to help.

It didn't help us go anywhere any faster but it's kind of nice to know what's going on.

John