2019 Winter service cancellations

[243129]

BaltACD did not work for Amtrak. Perhaps his observations  did apply at CSX. I worked for Amtrak (NEC) and my personal experience there along with input from still employed former co-workers is more credible than the source you claim to have accessed but will not or cannot provide. Your statement;

charlie hebdo

Since you dispute what I and he have said, you provide the numbers.

leads one to assume or you have no source for your 'facts'.

charlie hebdo

But everyone on here knows your method of making claims without any facts to back it up.

You speak for everyone? The above is an unsubstantiated allegation which I take exception to.

[243129]

charlie hebdo

deleted

 

RE: 2019 Winter service cancellations

Reply bycharliehebdo

243129

You state: "OK Amtrak owns the short stretch to New Rochelle.  Is that of any real importance?" What about the "stretch" from New Haven to the Massachusetts state line?

In my first post I stated:  (Amtrak operates and maintains the MA section).

 

???????????

[BaltACD]

243129

 

charlie hebdo

deleted

RE: 2019 Winter service cancellations

Reply bycharliehebdo

243129

You state: "OK Amtrak owns the short stretch to New Rochelle.  Is that of any real importance?" What about the "stretch" from New Haven to the Massachusetts state line?

In my first post I stated:  (Amtrak operates and maintains the MA section).

 

???????????

If Amtrak has not reduced MofW 'boots on the ground' since they assumed basic ownership and maintenance of the NEC that might be the cause of their substansial red ink in their financial performance.

[243129]

BaltACD

If Amtrak has not reduced MofW 'boots on the ground' since they assumed basic ownership and maintenance of the NEC that might be the cause of their substansial red ink in their financial performance

Amtrak's financial situation is just another example of poor management, their snow emergency program or lack thereof is a product of their ineptitude.

[David Lassen]

Can you guys possibly have a difference of opinion without a.) taking it personally and b.) complaining to us when it gets personal and snarky? If not, I'll just ban the offending parties now and simplify the moderation process.

[charlie hebdo]

David Lassen

Can you guys possibly have a difference of opinion without a.) taking it personally and b.) complaining to us when it gets personal and snarky? If not, I'll just ban the offending parties now and simplify the moderation process.

 

OK.  I'll just stay out of threads involving Joe 243129. But I didn't make any complaint.

[BaltACD]

I have no complaints about differences of opinion.  I am a big boy, don't know about others.

[243129]

Differences of opinion are healthy and make for lively repartee. What is not healthy are those who cite facts and when called to produce them or they are proven wrong they run away , create a diversion, post a disclaimer and or complain to the moderator.

[blue streak 1]

The NYP - New Rochelle over the Hell Gate bridge may be more complicated than at first look.  

1.  At one time there were 4 tracks over the bridge.  Now Amtrak operates on the original 2 western most tracks.  CSX operates over the next track.  The location of the eastern most 4th track now is blank as the track was removed.

1.  Does Amtrak own all the ROW?  CSX operates over the bridge and who owns that   ROW and track?  What about the abandoned 4th track ROW?

2.  Now it has been announced today that MNRR has a MOU to start engineering swork for rail service from New Rochelle to NYP over the Hell Gate route.

3.  What will that entail for the present track arrangement?  

a.  Almost surely the 4th track will e restored.

b.  Will all 4 tracks revert to Amtrak with CSX using the 4th track? Or will CSX just use the 4th track and Amtrak / MNRR use just tracks 1 - 3

c.  Will  the 4 new stations for MNRR in the Bronx require MNRR to use the 2 outside tracks confusing the way CSX iwill use the tracks?

d.  The way this all finally is decided may require  alll 4 tracks to be electrified? 

m 

[aegrotatio]

What the heck happened to the "all-weather mode of transportation?"  When did it all fall apart?

[BaltACD]

aegrotatio

What the heck happened to the "all-weather mode of transportation?"  When did it all fall apart?

When there were no long 'boots on the ground' as the railroads put their MofW funds into high production Tie & Surfacing units, Rail replacement units etc.  No longer are ther 8-10 man section gangs stationed every 8-10 miles along the right of way, no longer is there a signal maintainer stationed at every control point with power operated switches.  When the track workers and signal personnel had to use the highway system to access their points of responsibility, rather than living at those locations.

[243129]

BaltACD

 

 

aegrotatio

What the heck happened to the "all-weather mode of transportation?"  When did it all fall apart?

 

 

When there were no long 'boots on the ground' as the railroads put their MofW funds into high production Tie & Surfacing units, Rail replacement units etc.  No longer are ther 8-10 man section gangs stationed every 8-10 miles along the right of way, no longer is there a signal maintainer stationed at every control point with power operated switches.  When the track workers and signal personnel had to use the highway system to access their points of responsibility, rather than living at those locations.

 

Are you speaking of Amtrak specifically or are you making a general statement?

[charlie hebdo]

I was finally able to obtain some accurate figures on number of employees on Amtrak and the Class Ones.   (source BTS)

Year           Amtrak          Class Ones

1980         21,416            458,994

1994         25,049            189,962

2004         20,938            157,699       

 

So it is pretty clear that Amtrak's workforce has remained pretty stable (their recent report lists 20,000 employees) while the Class Ones have drastically cut their's by 300K from 1980 to 2004.  

[matthewsaggie]

MofW breakdown for Amtrak is the needed info now.

[charlie hebdo]

matthewsaggie

MofW breakdown for Amtrak is the needed info now.

 

Good luck with that!!

The numbers posted do raise questions as to why Amtrak has not been able to make cuts more like the freight railroads have, at least somewhat similar to a 65% trim.  .

[Deggesty]

matthewsaggie

MofW breakdown for Amtrak is the needed info now.

 

Perhaps 243129 can post this information?

[BaltACD]

charlie hebdo

 

matthewsaggie

MofW breakdown for Amtrak is the needed info now. 

Good luck with that!!

The numbers posted do raise questions as to why Amtrak has not been able to make cuts more like the freight railroads have, at least somewhat similar to a 65% trim.  .

In the dealings I personnaly had with Amtrak it sounded like CNOC was overstaffed with suits and understaffed with indians, however I have no audited numbers to back up that assertion.  I do know that Amtrak Crew Management had no idea of the HOS situation of their crews until notified by the freight carriers of a impending HOS situation.

[243129]

Deggesty

 

 

matthewsaggie

MofW breakdown for Amtrak is the needed info now.

 

 

 

 

Perhaps 243129 can post this information?

 

 

 Johnny  and friends, all I can offer are real time situations.

[blue streak 1]

There is no bulletin from Amtrak. however reservations show both originating Builders 7 & 8 of today Jan 29th cancelled.  Speculation but This probably due to the extreme cold predicted along the route?.  Temperatures are getting close to diesel fuel gelling?  Makes one wonder if any locos have fuel tank heaters? 

[JPS1]

As of FY16, which is the last year Amtrak’s Monthly Operating Report included workforce statistics, the company had 20,183 employees directly or indirectly involved in operations.  Of this number 17,193 were core, 1,107 non-core, and 1,883 capital. 

 

The operating departments had 17,030 employees.  Of this number, 4,962 worked directly on the NEC, while 1,180 were assigned to state supported trains and 4,963 supported the long-distance services. 

 

At the end of FY12 Amtrak had 20,151 employees.  Of this number 17,115 were core, 1,245 non-core, and 1,791 capital. 

 

The operating departments had 16,927 employees.  The 2012 report only shows the number of employees in transportation; it does not breakout the numbers by NEC, state supported trains and long-distance services. 

 

In 2012 approximately 14 percent of Amtrak’s employees were executives and/or worked in support services, e.g. IG, Finance, Marketing & Sales, etc. In 2016 approximately 15 percent were executives or devoted to support services.

 

Amtrak’s operating workforce remained essentially the same from 2012 through the end of 2016.  However, according to the Bureau of Transportation Rail Profile, Amtrak’s employment reached a high of 27,316 employees in 2001.  As shown, by 2004 the size of the workforce had been reduced to 20,938, which appears to be a significant reduction. And it had been reduced by 755 souls between 2004 and 2016.

 

Workforce statistics can be difficult to grasp.  For example, of the number of jobs eliminated between 2001 and 2016, the number of functions that may have been outsourced would be important to know.  My former corporate employer reduced its workforce by 43 percent over five years.  But some of the functions that had been performed by employees were outsourced to contractors.

[blue streak 1]

Now this is rediculous.  According to an Amtrak bulletin all service to / from CHI is cancelled today!!!

Amtrak Alerts‏Verified account @AmtrakAlerts 6h6 hours ago

More

 

Service Disruption: All Service Originations To and From Chicago Canceled on Wednesday, Jan. 30.

 

https://www.amtrak.com/alert/service-disruption-all-service-originations-to-and-from-chicago-canceled1.html

 

[JPS1]

blue streak 1

Now this is rediculous.  According to an Amtrak bulletin all service to / from CHI is cancelled today!!! 

This appears to answer the question I raised on Texas Eagle Very Late regarding the reason for the cancellation of the train.   Makes me wonder why they could not have run No. 22 at least to Dallas or maybe Little Rock.

The temperature as of noon in central Texas is around 50 degrees.  

[blue streak 1]

29 stalled just east of Chesterton and 49 appears to be waiting behind 29. 

Note the delay notice of Amtrak has the opposite end trains from CHI are cancelled as well Example  7/30 cancelled from CHI and 8/30 from SEA cancelled!

[blue streak 1]

CHI SD trains cancelled thursday.  Most LD trains will operate except LSL aand Cardinal.

https://www.amtrak.com/alert/chicago-service-restoration-plan-for-thursday--january-31--and-f.html 

[blue streak 1]

Even our Canadian neighbors are having problems.  The Canadian VIA$1 TOR - Vancouver, BC    29 Jan was cancelled according to othr site?

EDIT report is due to a derailment apparently a CN freight blocking a VIA Canadian that was originally reported as a VIA derailment.

[blue streak 1]

An interesting point made on some other sites is that some light rail systems ( MSP and MKE ) are not having wire problems that are occurring on South shore and METRA electric .  One item stated was that the CAT in CHI was not engineered to these very cold temps? 

Cannot remember but is the METRA electric variable tension?  Does it not have any swinging back and forth that we see on other newer systems? Or is it due to the CAT metal material installed has too much coefficient of expansion as compared to the above mentioned light rails? 

[blue streak 1]

METRA electric trains cancelled for Friday.  A CN freight derailed on the parallel tracks and took out at least 2 overhead gantries and for some reason damaged 2 substations.  For those who  can access METRA tweets you can see the damage as this poster unable to copy just the single tweet.  Wonder if this will affect the CN Amtrak trains

 

• Report post
•  #64

P 

N!

 

https://twitter.com/metramed?lang=en  

 

[blue streak 1]

Another METRA article.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/weather/ct-met-transportation-cold-weather-20190131-story.html 

[blue streak 1]

Amtrak bulletin about CN derailing onto its and METRA tracks.

https://www.amtrak.com/alert/chicago-service-temporary-track-closure-on-one-route.html 

If the Grand crossing connections have been built would Amtrak been able to miss this derailment? 

[charlie hebdo]

blue streak 1

Now this is rediculous.  According to an Amtrak bulletin all service to / from CHI is cancelled today!!!

Amtrak Alerts‏Verified account @AmtrakAlerts 6h6 hours ago

More

 

Service Disruption: All Service Originations To and From Chicago Canceled on Wednesday, Jan. 30.

 

https://www.amtrak.com/alert/service-disruption-all-service-originations-to-and-from-chicago-canceled1.html

 

 

"rediculous"  [sic!!]   What's is truly ridiculous is a guy from the Atlanta area complaining about Amtrak shutdowns in minus 23 degree weather.  I lived in Atlanta seven years long ago and I recall that city shutting down and people abandoning their vehicles all over the perimeter and I-85 when a few inches of snow fell.