# Blue Line Train on Orange Line Track



## Guest (Jul 10, 2010)

Interesting post on train orders re Fridays Dc Metro having a dispatcher route a Blue Line train onto an Orange Line track during Fridays rush hour. Per procedure the dispatcher, a 10 year employee, will be drug and alcohol tested. This the second such episode this month but a spokesperson (aka PR flack=paid liar)told the media neither endangered safety in any way!  Glad I'm not commuting on the old Metro !


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## Ryan (Jul 10, 2010)

Isn't that junk done all automatically? I mean, the system knows what line the train is running and what it's destination is, I would think that the switches get lined automagically...

Edit: Nevermind, I went and read it - the dispatcher manually made the change for reasons unknown. WMATA does seem to be quite the bunch of buffoons lately.


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## Guest (Jul 10, 2010)

Ryan said:


> Isn't that junk done all automatically? I mean, the system knows what line the train is running and what it's destination is, I would think that the switches get lined automagically...
> 
> Edit: Nevermind, I went and read it - the dispatcher manually made the change for reasons unknown. WMATA does seem to be quite the bunch of buffoons lately.


According to the posting the trains were "manually" routed by a dispatcher, I'm not fam iliar with DC Metros dispatching, could the heat wave possibly have affected the computerized system or is this routine in DC? :help:


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## jis (Jul 10, 2010)

Misroutings do happen occasionally, more so on regular railroads than on subway lines. Usually they do not pose any danger specially in fully speed controlled signaled areas. They do cause headache, embarrassment and inconvenience of course, somewhat similar to forgetting to make a scheduled station stop.

There has been at least one case where an Amtrak Northeast Regional (well when it happened I guess they were Northeast Directs) for example has found itself headed towards Raritan, and come to stop before getting out of range of electrification at Hunter interlocking west of Newark NJ. I have also heard of an Amtrak train once heading off towards the NJ Coast Line at Rahway (Union). There have also been case where an alert engineer suspected a misrouting ahead and got things worked out with dispatch to correct the error before getting on the wrong route.


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## NJCoastExp (Jul 11, 2010)

I had a misfortune of being on a NJT Coast Line local being misrouted at Rahway toward Metropark. Fortunately we only went one car past the switch. Unfortunately that day it was about 6 hours after one of the biggest snow storms of 21st century dumped over 1 ft of wet snow, so only one track in each direction were open. Took us about 10 minutes just to reverse, then few more to get switch lined properly. That added almost 20 minutes to already 20 minutes late train.


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## leemell (Jul 12, 2010)

Guest said:


> Interesting post on train orders re Fridays Dc Metro having a dispatcher route a Blue Line train onto an Orange Line track during Fridays rush hour. Per procedure the dispatcher, a 10 year employee, will be drug and alcohol tested. This the second such episode this month but a spokesperson (aka PR flack=paid liar)told the media neither endangered safety in any way!  Glad I'm not commuting on the old Metro !


Identifying the city would help here. Other cities have both blue and orange lines,even LA, but one is a busway.


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## Eric S (Jul 12, 2010)

leemell said:


> Guest said:
> 
> 
> > Interesting post on train orders re Fridays *Dc Metro* having a dispatcher route a Blue Line train onto an Orange Line track during Fridays rush hour. Per procedure the dispatcher, a 10 year employee, will be drug and alcohol tested. This the second such episode this month but a spokesperson (aka PR flack=paid liar)told the media neither endangered safety in any way!
> ...


It's a little buried in the post, but it does say "Dc Metro."

I agree, though, the city/transit system should be mentioned more prominently, as Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles (Dallas too?), in addition to Washington, all have transit lines named both Blue and Orange Lines. Also, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and San Francisco-Oakland have lines colored blue and orange on maps, if not specifically/typically referred to as "Blue" or "Orange" lines.


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## John Bredin (Jul 13, 2010)

Eric S said:


> I agree, though, the city/transit system should be mentioned more prominently, as Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles (Dallas too?), in addition to Washington, all have transit lines named both Blue and Orange Lines. Also, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and San Francisco-Oakland have lines colored blue and orange on maps, if not specifically/typically referred to as "Blue" or "Orange" lines.


Well, I don't know about the other cities off the top of my head, but it'd be pretty hard to accidentally reroute a CTA (Chicago) Blue Line train onto the Orange Line. :blink: The Blue Line is isolated* from all the other lines except for a non-revenue track connection with the Pink Line. To get from the Blue to the Orange, a train would have to be routed onto the Pink, then go downtown to the Loop, then leave the Loop via the Orange.

*the tracks and trains, I mean, not the passengers. There are free transfers between the Blue and the Loop L routes (Green, Orange, Brown, Pink, Purple) at Clark-Lake and between the Blue and the Red at Jackson.


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## leemell (Jul 13, 2010)

Eric S said:


> leemell said:
> 
> 
> > Guest said:
> ...



Oooooops, missed it. Sorry.


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