Amtrak delays 2023 H2 - 2024

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Service Disruptions for 6/20/24.

Service Temporarily Disrupted Between Philadelphia 30th Street Station and New Haven Union Station
June 20, 2024 04:00 PM


Reports of a malfunctioning circuit breaker are said to be the cause of a widespread issue, resulting in a loss of power on the tracks between New York Penn Station and Newark Union Station. This issue will affect trains operating between Philadelphia 30th Street Station and New Haven Union Station. All services scheduled to travel in those areas are temporarily suspended until further notice. Personnel are troubleshooting the issue and hope to have a resolution soon. We will post updates here as soon as they are available.

There are now reports of a brush fire east of Newark Union Station. The local fire department is on the scene working to extingish the fire.

Customers with reservations on affected trains will typically be accommodated on trains with similar departure times or another day. Amtrak will waive additional charges for customers looking to change their reservation during the modified schedule by calling our reservation center at 1-800-USA-RAIL.

Follow us on X for real-time service information:
• @AmtrakNECAlerts for service information in the Northeast Corridor (Acela, Northeast Regional, and other corridor services).
• @AmtrakAlerts for service information outside the Northeast Corridor.

Subscribe at Amtrak.com/DelayAlerts to receive automated email or text message notifications if Amtrak trains are behind schedule at specific stations.

This information is correct as of the time and date above. Information is subject to change as conditions warrant.
 
New Summer of Hell?

Regarding today's issues in NJ

2:10:10PM Section A dispatcher asked if a train said they lost power on both power cars coming through Swift (repeating back what the engineer said)

With two power cars, it was certainly an Acela, so it was #2108. It got stuck just short of the Portal bridge and stopped showing on the map after 2 hours at 4:32PM: https://asm.transitdocs.com/train/2024/06/20/A/2108

I don't know if #2108 got rescued, towed or is still out there.

2:10:46PM Section A dispatcher asked if NJT #5176 said they heard a loud boom east of Erie on 3 track (repeating back what the engineer said)

Erie (interlocking) is at the eastern edge of Secaucus Junction putting that right where the brush fire is. The relation between the brush fire and the loss of train power remains to be explained.

How this affected the Penn Station area itself also remains to be explained. NY Penn traction power comes through the tunnels under both rivers.
 
Maverickstation said:
Service Disruptions for 6/20/24.

There are now reports of a brush fire east of Newark Union Station. The local fire department is on the scene working to extingish the fire.
Click to expand...

This all must be occurring in a parallel universe where Newark is served by a "Union Station," and I suppose intercity passenger service is provided by an entity called "Amtrack." In our universe, the main passenger station in Newark served by Amtrak is called "Newark Penn Station," and NJT also serves a stop on a different line called "Broad Street Station." :)
 
MARC Rider said:
This all must be occurring in a parallel universe where Newark is served by a "Union Station," and I suppose intercity passenger service is provided by an entity called "Amtrack." In our universe, the main passenger station in Newark served by Amtrak is called "Newark Penn Station," and NJT also serves a stop on a different line called "Broad Street Station." :)
Click to expand...
Also I don't understand the reference to New Haven Union Station, unless they meant to say Newark and got it wrong.
 
MARC Rider said:
This all must be occurring in a parallel universe where Newark is served by a "Union Station," and I suppose intercity passenger service is provided by an entity called "Amtrack." In our universe, the main passenger station in Newark served by Amtrak is called "Newark Penn Station," and NJT also serves a stop on a different line called "Broad Street Station." :)
Click to expand...
Sometimes I wonder who writes these screeds. Given that there are so many errors, I sometimes wonder how accurate some of the information is too.

Anyway, in this case, the whole problem was between Newark Penn Station and New York Penn Station and as far as I can tell the only problem at New York Penn Station was that nothing was running between it and New Jersey.
 
Friday 6/21 was a bad day for Empire Service trains. A disabled NJT train blocked access to the Empire connection out of Penn Station, forcing suspension of service between NYP and Yonkers for several hours starting in mid-morning. Nos. 281 and 283, the two Niagara Falls trains, finally were able to depart after 3 p.m. and ran as a combined train, slightly ahead of the Lake Shore. They encountered another delay west of Syracuse, arriving into Rochester at 12:54 a.m.

As the cherry on top, the last departure of the night for Albany (scheduled at 10:45 p.m.) was delayed more than three hours by "mechanical problems." It finally left NYP at 1:57 a.m. and arrived into ALB by the dawn's early light at 4:55 a.m.
 
Today Monday it appears that there is a CAT problem at 1500h in one of the north river tunnels. However cannot confirm with any veracity. Maybe CAT problems on M&E Monday afternoon also. Sunday afternoon maybe CAT problems at Hoboken, Why are mostly NJ Transit trains involved although the North River tunnel is still unknown to this poster???
 
I believe a Facebook commentator (so, no better veracity than "it was revealed to me in a vision, by my cat") said there was a batch of bad pantographs received by NJT, who installed them anyway.

While that fits much of the observed pattern - SEPTA not regularly ripping down wires, for example - I certainly can't confirm it myself.
 
Lake Shore 449, due out of Boston at 12:50p, was delayed by an unspecified "equipment issue" yesterday (6/24) and didn't depart till 3:12 p.m. It lost more time going across Mass., arriving at Albany at 9:01p (due 6:10).

The Ethan Allen also ran into a "mechanical issue" almost immediately after departing New York at 2:19p. Another locomotive was dispatched to tow it back into NYP, from which it finally departed about 1:40 late. It went through Albany a bit after 7p (due out at 5:04p) and arrived in Burlington at 11:35p (due 9:50p).
 
Stuck on 29 in Sebring OH at 04:09 EDT. I was awakened by lack of movement about half an hour ago. Turned on the scanner, and all I've heard so far is someone asking if "the people we hit were inside the crossing gates," so sounds like a Trespasser Incident. Nothing on the app or website except "service disruption. Nothing on X or Dixieland.

So no idea if we're waiting on a police investigation, engine damage, or what. I'm in the H-room downstairs and really don't want to try climbing those stairs to look for a conductor, so I'm stuck in the dark. They probably wouldn't want to talk at this point anyway.

I switched my ticket from the Cardinal to 29 hoping to make a 10:30 am tour in CHI. Looks like that was a mistake. And nothing but Flex food on board! 😱

ETA: On scanner: released by state police, local authorities, and NS @ 4:39. Someone said "Released class 2.". Just started moving @ 4:45.

As of 4:50, next stop at Alliance OH is just 4 miles away. We're still moving slowly. If we're able to move at normal speed, looks like we're 3 hours and some minutes late.
 
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IMO it appears that Amtrak is slowly sinking into the mud of incompetency. The NEC power failures, CHI unable to get most trains out without maintenance delays, Now cancelling short haul and LD trains on whole routes as 19 & 3 as examples, the inability to turn southbound trains arriving WAS within scheduled times as a check today only showed 2 trains on the status map that made the turn under scheduled times. Now if the rehabbing of the switches at WAS into the 1st street tunnel is not complete maybe that is a reason however that work was supposed to have been completed before now.

Then we have the problem of crew shortages when trains are even mildly late. It is too Late for this year but maybe Amtrak needs to get a spare engineer or 2 located at crew changes with those engineers qualified both directions. If Amtrak has to use same then reduce number of conductors and pay the premium. It is time to reduce conductors to allow for more closer to schedule operation on these extreme delay trains..

Now I suspect that many mechanical delays are due to the lack of spare parts. The OIG report goes into this in detail. Will congress and the board make reforms ? Doubt it but still maybe have hope.
 
1721115294133.png

Currently 2:35 AM Central time. I'm wondering if theres anyone on these trains still and if they're still even operating. Hasn't been an update from Amtrak in hours.
 
BlackDiamond said:
I wonder how yesterday's 49 lost almost 4 hours at Albany.
Unfortunately I can't get into X/Twitter for some reason to look at the alerts.
Click to expand...
_ 07/16/24 8:15pm EDT
_ Service Update: As of 8:13 PM ET Train 49 remains delayed
_ in Hudson (HUD) due to downed trees on the tracks ahead.
_ Crews are diligently working to clear the route and resume
_ operation. We will continue to provide updates as more information
_ becomes available. We sincerely apologize for the delay.
_
 
Since RRs are a national necessity somehow the RRs including Amtrak and commuter RRs need to be required to remove trees that can blocks tracks if the trees or other vegetation will block tracks.
 

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