Passenger Trains > Capitol Ltd and the East Palestine

Does anyone out there have an ear to the ground about Amtrak's operation of the Capitol Ltd following the East Palestine mash-up? I see that departures from Washington are cancelled (the term of art is "sold out") on the 7th, 8th, and 9th of Feb. but Amtrak claims the Capitol is open for business on the 10th. This is of interest to me because I have a ticket for WAS–CHI on the 11th. The details of the wreck make it look like cleanup and restoration of service on that line have to be way more problematic (i.e., time-consuming) than the average coal drag coming to grief.

So, it looks like someone at Amtrak thinks success is just around the corner; does anyone know better?

I don't think anybody really knows, right now.  The fires are still burning.  Amtrak is in a "best-guess" situation and it could go either way.

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/07/23 07:29 by GenePoon.

As of Monday, "controlled release" of hazardous materials was begun as a first step in safe decontamination. After that, bulldozing and removal of wrecked cars and reconstruction of temporary trackage can begin. It's going to be a while.

widowsihler Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Does anyone out there have an ear to the ground
> about Amtrak's operation of the Capitol Ltd
> following the East Palestine mash-up? I see that
> departures from Washington are cancelled (the term
> of art is "sold out") on the 7th, 8th, and 9th of
> Feb. but Amtrak claims the Capitol is open for
> business on the 10th. This is of interest to me
> because I have a ticket for WAS–CHI on the 11th.
> The details of the wreck make it look like cleanup
> and restoration of service on that line have to be
> way more problematic (i.e., time-consuming) than
> the average coal drag coming to grief.
>
> So, it looks like someone at Amtrak thinks success
> is just around the corner; does anyone know
> better?

Maybe look at the Lake Shore Limited as a backup? Take a NE Regional from Washington DC to NY Penn. Catch the Lake Shore westbound from NYC. Despite cutting coaches, ironically, Amtrak has at least maintained three sleepers on the Lake Shore Limited (1 Boston Sleeper and 2 NYC based sleepers). Just a suggestion. You can probably even put a reservation on hold now - and it will hold for a couple of days - till you get more information on Capitol Limited operations.....

The former "Three Rivers" (40/41)  CSX route would certainly be 
useful now as a detour , but Amtrak (David Gunn) foolishly discontinued
it in 2005. Yea, well, too late now. Besides, it's easier to simply "suspend
service until further notice."   Gardner says so.

I can't understand why NS can't supply a pilot to run the Capitol over the Cleveland line between Pittsburgh (Rochester, PA) and Alliance?  Yeah the train would lose some time but like another poster said the other day the train wouldn't even miss a stop.  Why are simple moves like this such a cluster f*ck these days when it was normal procedure say 50 years ago?

50 years ago? Not even that long ago, 20-25 years ago
"it was normal procedure," but that's the problem - No "normal."

stevelv Wrote:
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> I can't understand why NS can't supply a pilot to
> run the Capitol over the Cleveland line between
> Pittsburgh (Rochester, PA) and Alliance? 
==========================

NS would not "supply" a pilot (actually both a pilot engineer and conductor) if available. Amtrak would have to pay for them. Less money for executive bonuses...!!!

Could use the Fort Wayne Line?