Minor failure for now but may be close to a major failure of the B & P tunnel

[blue streak 1]

With it being the Christmas season the Pols are unusally silent.  Hopefully there will not be another extension.  If so then there may be cause for worry.

Question does the tunnel still have the guantlet track for oversized freigts ?  Would that complicate the repairs ?

[Overmod]

blue streak 1

News wire has a post on the B&P tunnel emergency repairs.

Baltimore Sun article

for those who don't get the Newswire.

[blue streak 1]

News wire has a post on the B&P tunnel emergency repairs.  Originally repairs supposed to be complete by Thursday but latest unconfirmed report says maybe DEC. 24 ?

Report of water flowing under track bed is causing settling.  We must wonder if this is a repeat of Baltimore Howard st. tunnel wreck on CSX that may have been caused by a water main leak / break.

Baltimore infrastructure is ancient probably with many cast iron and wooden water mains.

A concern is that if the new B&P tunnel is not built soon enough any repairs of the current tunnel may be too late ?

 

 

Here is copy of MARC billetin.

 

MARC Service Alert Amtrak has informed the MARC Train Service that repairs to one of the two tracks in the tunnel between West Baltimore and Penn Station is taking longer than anticipated. The new estimated date for com

 

 

Today at 3:40 PM

Amtrak has informed the MARC Train Service that repairs to one of the two tracks in the tunnel between West Baltimore and Penn Station is taking longer than anticipated. The new estimated date for completion is Wednesday, December 24. Amtrak is putting all available resources into this emergency trackwork, however, a survey yesterday found that the damage was more significant than first thought.

Penn Line rush hour trains may experience 15-25 minute delays��specially in the evening��nd midday and late night trains may experience 5-10 minute delays due to the single track operation.

In addition, Train 428 (4:10pm departure from Union Station) will continue to terminate at Odenton until both tracks are back in service in Baltimore. Passengers traveling to stations north of Odenton should use Train 532, which operates 15 minutes behind Train 428.

As a result of Train 428 terminating at Odenton, Train 447 (the 5:50pm departure from Penn Station) will be cancelled. Passengers will be accommodated on Amtrak Train 85 at no additional cost. The scheduled departure times for Train 85 are as follows:

--Baltimore Penn, 5:42pm
--BWI Marshall Airport, 5:56pm
--New Carrollton, 6:10pm
--Washington, 6:25pm