Passenger Trains > NEC Suspended between NYC and Philadelphia

From Amtrak:

"February 2, 2011
6:00 a.m. EST

Amtrak Northeast Corridor service between New York and Philadelphia has been temporarily suspended due to power problems along the line.

Crews are inspecting for the source of the problem and service will be restored as soon as possible.

All trains have been returned to their nearest stations and will proceed when the situation is rectified."

Per NJ Transit, service has been restored on the NEC and North Jersey Coast Line in NJ, but is running subject to delays

>>Northeast Corridor service being restored as of 9:14 a.m. with departures from Trenton and New York. Service will operate once an hour.

>>North Jersey Coast Line service restored from Long Branch and New York as of 9:13 a.m.

The Morristown, Gladstone, and Montclair lines are suspended due to ice on the overhead wires. Service on the diesel lines (Bergen, Main, Pascack) is operating.

I wonder if NJ Transit would be interested in helping fund the restoration of PRR 1361, Br&W 60, and C&O 614? These steam engines would do a great job keeping the overhead wires free of ice. DL&W used its 4-8-4 and 2-8-2 engines for that purpose for 20 years.

I figured this one would be bad, my parents' place in New Jersey is currently encased in ice. I'd rather deal with snow than ice!

hsr_fan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I figured this one would be bad, my parents' place
> in New Jersey is currently encased in ice. I'd
> rather deal with snow than ice!

hsr_fan, you missed a perfect opportunity to point out that this catenary icing wouldn't be such a problem if the Turbos were available :-)

Dave

Trains 2160 and 174 arrived in NY from DC on time this morning. Good job.

NJ Transit is providing service on the NEC and North Jersey Coast lines, but reports vary on how much service. It looks like Amtrak has its snow plan in effect (straight lining switches, closing Jersey Avenue) which should help move traffic along.

Service to Gladstone and east of Summit has been restored, while service west of Summit and Montclair line remains suspended. Diesel lines are doing OK.

Traffic watch: NNJ BULLETIN - 120+ m delay - NEW JERSEY TRANSIT TRAINS RAIL SERVICES IRREGULAR ON THE NORTHEAST CORRIDOR & NORTH JERSEY COASTLINE (PT.2): INBOUND NORTHEAST CORRIDOR TRAINS BYPASSING PRINCETON JUNCTION & HAMILTON STATIONS / OUTBOUND NORTHEAST CORRIDOR & NORTH JERSEY COASTLINE BYPASSING LINDEN DUE TO A DOWNED TREE.


NJT's website says the offending tree at Linden has been removed, and HAM/PJC passengers are being directed to take a Trenton train, and come back up the line as trains are bypassing these stations inbound. I'm guessing they straight railed the line from Trenton to MIDWAY tower in South Brunswick, which cuts off HAM and PJC's track 1 access.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:

> NJT's website says...HAM/PJC passengers are being
> directed to take a Trenton train, and come back up
> the line as trains are bypassing these stations
> inbound. I'm guessing they straight railed the
> line from Trenton to MIDWAY tower in South
> Brunswick, which cuts off HAM and PJC's track 1
> access.

Another report says that NJT trains are stopping at Princeton Jct. and Hamilton on the high speed tracks but using low level platform extensions.

GenePoon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Lackawanna484 Wrote:
>
> > NJT's website says...HAM/PJC passengers are
> being
> > directed to take a Trenton train, and come back
> up
> > the line as trains are bypassing these stations
> > inbound. I'm guessing they straight railed the
> > line from Trenton to MIDWAY tower in South
> > Brunswick, which cuts off HAM and PJC's track 1
> > access.
>
> Another report says that NJT trains are stopping
> at Princeton Jct. and Hamilton on the high speed
> tracks but using low level platform extensions.


They've done that in the past, but there's been a lot of concern about herding a large number of passengers down the five or six concrete steps and out onto the boards. I believe the boards are set up to allow access to just two cars at a time. It may work OK for off-peak travel, but not be preferred for rush hour mobs, etc.

Still, they used the boards at Metuchen a few weeks ago for a rush hour and it was a real mess. People had been waiting for a long while, and had been bypassed by a few trains, so they weren't interested in waiting any longer. Northbound Acelas ran around them on #3 track, alternating with southbound trains. Good Amtrak dispatching and some careful NJT customer service people, train crews, and police made it work effectively.

The low level "boards" were used at Hamilton, NJ and Princeton Jct, NJ for some early morning trains, since the NEC was only originally operating trains once per hour as service got restored.

As for the former Morris & Essex lines (M&E Lines) being suspended due to ice on the wires etc., NJT couldn't muster together some of its diesels to operate some trains on these lines? Not sure if service was ever restored on Wednesday, Feb 2nd due to this issue or not, but these lines have and ho operate with diesels from time to time. And NJT doesn't really have a shortage on diesels. They've even got the former ACES diesels running largely on the Raritan Valley line trains, so there's three or four diesels that should be available.......any train on these line would have surely helped!