The Longest Day, Amtrak style

[Adlington]

On June 7, hundreds of riders on Amtrak’s Lake Shore Limited and Capitol Limited experienced what, to them, may have felt like one of their own longest days, at least in recent memory. That experience was a trip on Amtrak between Chicago and the East Coast.

A a freight train derailment, in turn caused by an abandoned road vehicle blocking the track, caused severe disruption for many passengers on several trains. One of them arrived 12 h 48 min behind schedule, another 14 h 44 min late, another 16 h behind schedule. Passengers at two other affected trains were lucky (or rather less unlucky): Train 29 arrived 8 hours behind schedule and Train 49 only 7 hours late.

The article describes in details what some passengers were subject to:

The train finally left—with all riders facing backwards—more than nine hours after [its] scheduled departure time

(my emphasis).
There was some kind of consolation, though:

Amtrak provided a free slice of pizza for passengers on [two of the affected trains] in the lounge car . By the time the pizza was served, it was cold.

Schadenfreude (or epicaricacy), anyone?

Source (Railway Age)

 

[jumble]

I raise you this one in February

https://liveandletsfly.boardingarea...st-starlight-train-stuck-in-snow-for-37-hours

183 passengers onboard encountered an unexpected stop in a small town called Oakridge, about 150 miles south of Portland, on Sunday night. Just after 6:00PM, the train struck a tree that had fallen across the tracks. The train screeched to a halt and engineers surveyed the damage. Passengers were told to expect a “two hour” delay. But that delay eventually turned into a 37-hour delay. During that time, for safety reasons, passengers were not allowed off the train.

 

[etr221]

Story I heard (a few years ago now) was of someone (a railfan) who went down to the station at Erie. Pa to see the Amtrak train go through (only one a day).

He duly did, only a couple of hours after it was due. As he was walking back to his car, the station guy (who knew him) called out 'there'll be another in a couple of hours'. So he stayed, and yes there was. That was yesterday's train. The first one he had seen was the day before yesterday's - so about 50hrs late. Today's was cancelled, as the set was still heading the other way... But the story did conclude by saying there were several feet of snow on the ground...

 

[matt]

I was lucky then. I was only 5 hours late on the California zephyr a few weeks ago.

 

[Steamysandy]

Time keeping on Amtrak is a joke.Watching Virtual Railfan for the California Zephyr at LaPlata ,Missouri is an education.Also the Empire Builder at Skycomish,Washington.This morning the westbound train was 2-1/2 hours late for example.

 

[Calthrop]

Story I heard (a few years ago now) was of someone (a railfan) who went down to the station at Erie. Pa to see the Amtrak train go through (only one a day).

He duly did, only a couple of hours after it was due. As he was walking back to his car, the station guy (who knew him) called out 'there'll be another in a couple of hours'. So he stayed, and yes there was. That was yesterday's train. The first one he had seen was the day before yesterday's - so about 50hrs late. Today's was cancelled, as the set was still heading the other way... But the story did conclude by saying there were several feet of snow on the ground...

The old libel about Turkey's railways, from the days when lots of people went there in quest of steam -- "if you see a Turkish passenger train running on time, it's probably yesterday's, 24 hours late" -- comes true "and then some", in North America !

A year or two ago, a couple of friends of mine took a holiday travelling extensively in Canada, mostly by rail. They recounted some horrendous experiences of delays for various reasons, to passenger trains on which they travelled.

 

[Taunton]

In contrast, in reading the account of the initial accident, Norfolk Southern managed in TWO DAYS to deal with the substantial wreckage, relay the lines, and reopen. The US does have those skills. In Britain such accidents have typically taken a week or more to clear up. We used to have the skill, but not any more. So there are some aspects in the US which are way ahead.

 

[jamesontheroad]

The article describes in details what some passengers were subject to:

You wouldn't think it looking at their government </politics>, but Americans hate going backwards. It is standard practice for Amtrak trains to be turned on 'wyes' (Y) between journeys, or for conductors and/or cleaners to manually rotate every pair of coach seats before departure.

Don't know why, it's just a cultural thing. It causes some interest for Americans travelling in Europe to discover that seats face both directions and can change direction en route.

 

[AlexNL]

In Britain such accidents have typically taken a week or more to clear up. We used to have the skill, but not any more.

I wouldn't say that the skills were lost. In my view, it takes longer because more due diligence is now required to deal with the aftermath of an accident. More thorough investigation is done (by an independent body, not the railway itself), stricter health & safety rules apply regarding the clean up of a crash site, and the way in which damage is cleared is handled more procedural as well.

"Back in the day" the process would be 'clean first, investigate later'... with a chance of evidence getting lost or destroyed.

 

[Taunton]

"Back in the day" the process would be 'clean first, investigate later'... with a chance of evidence getting lost or destroyed.

Well much as that may be an excellent Job Creation Project for the team from Derby, I can't quite recall any incident from those bad old days where the key evidence was lost in the clearup.

Gerry Fiennes even commented on it from the 1960s, where a night sleeper derailed, he went straight there, all the rescue was done and the civils got stuck in to the reinstatement. Late in the day he got a laconic message from the investigation side "Touch nothing until I come".