Passenger Trains > NS meltdown into Chicago continues

* Train 351 of 09/18/2014.
* Wolverine

* KAL * * 1 850A * 905A Departed: 15 minutes late.
* CHI 1 1012A * * 1206P * Arrived: 1 hour and 54 minutes late.



* Train 371 of 09/18/2014.
* Pere Marquette

* SJM * * 1 944A * 957A Departed: 13 minutes late.
* CHI 1 1038A * * 1245P * Arrived: 2 hours and 7 minutes late.



* Train 29 of 09/17/2014.
* Capitol Limited

* SOB * * 2 751A * 1041A Departed: 2 hours and 50 minutes late.
* CHI 2 845A * * 1251P * Arrived: 4 hours and 6 minutes late.


* Train 365 of 09/18/2014.
* Blue Water

* NBU * * 1 1024A * 1110A Departed: 46 minutes late.
* CHI 1 1055A * * 102P * Arrived: 2 hours and 7 minutes late.



* Train 49 of 09/17/2014.
* Lake Shore Limited

* SOB * * 2 849A * 1126A Departed: 2 hours and 37 minutes late.
* CHI 2 945A * * 122P * Arrived: 3 hours and 37 minutes late.

They need to move that intermodal yard further out of the city!

Well, they can't blame the weather, can they?

Should relay all the tracks Conrail tore out, it'll make it easier also!

It has been 15 years since the Conrail purchase, and NS has done nothing except regard it as a passenger train problem and wait for government handouts. Meanwhile they made much of their "Crescent Corridor" capacity upgrade, where there is no Amtrak near it.

Not to mention in the late AM an EB NS intermodal was strung out CP 513-515 with his rear end blocking the Metra mains (and no clear tracks between there and Whiting either);the AAPRCO special I believe got snagged for quite a bit west of Whiting,and NS had single track up Otis Hill between CP 482 and CP 466,just a cluster.J-O-K-E.

Dispatchie68 wrote: J-O-K-E
I write: W-A-T
(All the same thing)

In fairness to NS, the mostly federally-financed Indiana Gateway program is in full swing, which involves placing a new crossover in service at Burdick (about 6 miles east of CP 482/ Porter) and installing some new crossovers/controlled sidings in the Burns Harbor area. Also the Englewood flyover may be resulting in some flagman delays. This construction is probably resulting in some tracks being taken out of service.
The point is well taken, however, that NS should have made it known years ago that the Chicago Line was at capacity and worked with the states on solutions. What we've seen for the past several years has been unacceptable to freight shippers as well as passengers.
BTW it is interesting that NS appears to have no capacity issues over the former PRR east of Pittsburgh.

Andy

I see the EB Pennsylvanian almost everyday in Newark , on-time at about 430pm
No railroads were abandoned east of Pittsburgh or Cleveland. But the Class I's have been ridiculously ruthless west of there, especially in Indiana. The E-L is of course gone. Reducing the Fort Wayne Line to a glorified branch line was dumb. Then NS pulls most of their freight off the MC and stuffs them on the Water Level Route. They also took on CP trains at Butler rather than Porter. No capacity expansion for any of that, except for upgrading a Pennsy branch Line from Alliance to Cleveland when the CFW&P was downgraded and segmented.

CSX at least double-tracked the B&O after plenty of Garrett Yard meltdowns. NS and CSX need to put back the Fort Wayne Line as a through route, call it Conrail, as they do with joint trackage in NJ, and Amtrak put the Capitol Ltd or an extended Pennsylvanian back on it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/19/14 08:53 by joemvcnj.

mp51w Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> They need to move that intermodal yard further out
> of the city!


Which one there are there are 5 in 10 miles? In addition trains are held waiting to get on to like the BRC, add in the CSX trackage trains and 55 undergoing a major enlargement it does slowdown at times not to mention the normal holding of trains waiting amtrak to get around

Actually, the B&O was double tracked after CSX and NS agreed to split Conrail. The B&O single tracked the Garrett SD west of Garrett in the mid to late 60's and then started east. In the 80's the B&O was down to about 8 trains a day on average - but this number started to pick up in the mid 90's as railroads started to regain business.

Both CSX and NS continue to have on and off again congestion issues at various points leading into Chicago - some due to crew/manpower issues, some due to increased business, some due to the inability of the western carriers to handle traffic, and some due to lots of track work going on.

twropr wrote:
> BTW it is interesting that NS appears to have no
> capacity issues over the former PRR east of
> Pittsburgh.
>
> Andy

The NS has the equivalent of a triple track (more in some sections) mainline all the way from Alliance, OH to Altoona, and only one passenger train per day. Plus, NS has the added challenge of having to coordinate interchange hand offs with the western carriers west of Elkhart.

It'll be interesting to see if there's much of a shift on the NS side once the yard project at Bellevue is done. As for the PRR west of Crestline, it's still an answer in search of a question. A boatload of Cash for sidings, signals, crew districts, MofW forces & track work to erase 15+ years of neglect, just to make it usable.

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