Derailment and Crash on Metro north at Bridgeport Ct

[Dutchrailnut]

you guessed wrong on concrete ties, at location it had wooden ties.

Look at the series of pictures posted by CHamilton. Both types were in that area. One picture shows a pile of broken concrete ties.

The track that train 1546 derailed on had wooden ties (track 4)track 2 Has Concrete ties but was damaged by 1546's last 4 cars derailing ito path of train 1581

So again the track involved in derailment had wooden ties.

 

[CHamilton]

UPDATE: AMTRAK RESUMES SERVICE BETWEEN NEW YORK AND NEW HAVEN, CONN.
by Amtrak (Notes) on Tuesday, May 21, 2013 at 12:23pm ET



Amtrak will resume service between New York and New Haven, Conn., later today, Tuesday, May 21. Regularly scheduled operations will commence with the departure of Acela Express train 2171, leaving Boston at 3:15 p.m., and Acela Express train 2166 departing New York at 4 p.m.
Amtrak applauds the tireless efforts of Metro-North Railroad to quickly repair the tracks and other pieces of critical infrastructure, providing a vital transportation service to the region.
Amtrak service between New Haven, Conn., and New York was suspended indefinitely following an incident involving Metro-North Railroad trains near Bridgeport, Conn., on Friday, May 17.
Reservations for these restored trains will be available on Tuesday, May 21.

 

[jis]

From Metro North:

Limited Metro-North Railroad and Amtrak train service will resume this afternoon between New York and New Haven, followed by regular service on Wednesday, MTA Metro-North Railroad, the Connecticut Department of Transportation and Amtrak announced.
With one of the two damaged tracks rebuilt and returned to service, beginning with the 3:07 p.m. departure from Grand Central Terminal, Metro-North will operate about half of the regular eastbound PM peak service and regular hourly westbound service with the 4:23 PM train from New Haven. Metro-North will continue to operate on a regular schedule between Grand Central and South Norwalk in both directions.

On Friday, May 17, a Metro-North train derailed in Bridgeport and was struck by another train going in the opposite direction.

“We recognize the critical importance of both Metro-North Railroad and Amtrak to the regional economy,” said Metro-North President Howard Permut. “Although reconstruction and testing of the second track will not be completed until late tonight, enough work has been completed to allow us to operate this limited service in advance of resuming our regular schedule on Wednesday.”

The operation will require a reduced speed of 30 miles per hour, standard for all new track installations. Trains will only be able to use a single track for a distance of seven miles in the area around Bridgeport, CT. Metro-North expects there will be delays as a result.

Metro-North will reinstate regular weekday service to-from New Haven on Wednesday morning.

The track has been rebuilt from the ground up to current Federal Railroad Administration standards using all new materials. After the track was rebuilt, it underwent rigorous testing. The track was subjected to a stabilizer machine, which simulates heavy rail traffic using vibrations. This machine compacts the stone ballast and stabilizes the new track. All signal testing was conducted by Metro-North forces and observed by the FRA and the National Transportation Safety Board. Metro-North is actively supporting the NTSB, which is conducting a thorough investigation of the derailment and subsequent collision Friday night in Bridgeport.

The new track also was subjected to ultrasonic testing designed to detect internal defects in the running rail with no exceptions. In addition, the track geometry car was utilized over the new track to verify that the track is in the proper vertical and horizontal alignment.

The speed of the rebuilding effort was the result of the extraordinary efforts of hundreds of skilled people in multiple crafts working around the clock since Saturday night.

Service Plan

Limited train service resumes to New Haven at 3 PM on Tuesday, May 21 and for the remainder of the day. Customers should expect delays.

To New Haven

Regular train service from Grand Central Terminal (GCT) to South Norwalk station; with limited service to New Haven Station (representing 50% of regular service)

The first train is the 3:07 PM train leaving GCT and arriving in New Haven at 5 PM

To Grand Central Terminal

Regular train service from New Haven Station to Grand Central Terminal

The first train is the 4:23 PM train leaving New Haven and arriving in GCT at 6:17 PM

Regular train service continues on the branch lines.

For train information on which trains will run through to New Haven and which will terminate at South Norwalk, please refer to the schedules page at mta.info.

 

[afigg]

So the New Haven Line is now a 1 track line for 7 miles with 30 mph max speed. "Metro-North expects there will be delays as a result". Can't they simply say that there WILL be delays? When the second track is restored tonight, it will get better, but the On-Time Performance between BOS and NYP is going to take a hit for a while.

I wondered what the status was of the 7 mile segment that has been down to 2 tracks total for several years. Found an April 30, 2013 status update on the CT DOT website. The good news is that it looks that the segment could be back to 4 through tracks by early 2014. With the 4th track added at the New Haven end for the new West Haven train station, Amtrak may finally be able to trim some time off of the schedule for NYP to BOS trains.

 

[anir dendroica]

Not to be too hard on Amtrak and the NTSB, but a five-day closure seems unnecessarily long for what is arguably the busiest rail line in the US. BNSF usually manages to clean up messes of that magnitude in about 24 hours.

 

[leemell]

NTSB held repair until their investigation was done. They released the track for repair Monday.

 

[jis]

Not to be too hard on Amtrak and the NTSB, but a five-day closure seems unnecessarily long for what is arguably the busiest rail line in the US. BNSF usually manages to clean up messes of that magnitude in about 24 hours.

Amtrak is not involved in the track repair at all, so being hard at all on Amtrak would be misguided in this case.

Of course BNSF does not have to deal with catenary and a sophisticated signaling and ATC system either. It took Metro North less than 48 hours after NTSB released the track to their charge to get the first track up and running.,

How often does BNSF have a mess involving over 70 human injuries BTW?

 

[ALC Rail Writer]

Just shows AGAIN how the country is paying and will ...

Here, have one of these:

Office Space, yes!

 

[RRUserious]

Saw a TV show on the Acela Express. The train seems to have some nice engineering, but I'm wondering about the tracks and the bed on which it runs. Looks pretty old school to me. My impression about train speeds in the US is that they are limited by the poor condition of our track infrastructure. Naturally, I expected a high speed line to have replaced the tracks with state of the art. Is that true? How advanced are the tracks the Acela rides on?

 

[George Harris]

What I see in the picture is a broken joint bar. Looks like it may have been a temporary joint awaiting a weld, as the bolt nearest the rail end is missing, which means there was probably not a hole through the web. Normally with a temporary joint the end hole is not drilled as it is too close to the weld position. Why it broke I will not guess. There is simply not enough to be seen in the pictures I have seen to make a guess.

People start arm waving and shouting obsolete when they don't know what else to say. For the speed and axle load the track as it was should not be a problem. There is nothing wrong with using wood ties. A good wood tie will last over 30 years. It is much less finicky than a concrete tie about the condition of its support. Whether wood or concrete is as much a matter of economics and opinion as anything. Yes a concrete tie track is a little heavier. However, a wood tie embeds better into the ballast. Look at pictures of the French TGV. The track under it has ties. Concrete ties, yes but then so does most track in Europe due to the cost of timber and that the railroads are political animals. Most of the more recently built Shinkansen track is on concrete slab. One primary advantage of concrete slab track is that it stays where it is put rather than walk around like ballasted track, but either type works fine under the speeds and traffic volumes that exist where this happened.

Yes the track centers are much closer than they would be built today, or any time within the last 75 years or so, but that is the most difficult thing to change, and while may have been a factor in the accident events, it is highly unlikely to be any part of the cause.

I saw a post several back from a retired train service man about problems with the new-fangled insulated joints. I really don't know how to answer it as his statements were somewhat strange. The type of insulated joints used now and for over 30 years are commonly called glued joints. That is, the joint bar - insulation - rail - insulation - joint bar sandwich is epoxy bonded and the bolts are there primarily to squeeze everything together while the glue sets and function as a backup in case of bond failure. Usually these things will last as long as the rail.

 

[Ryan]

What do you mean by "advanced"? It's steel rails, riding on wood or concrete ties. Not must "state of the art" about it, the technology was perfected 100 years or more ago.

 

[jis]

Two points ....

1. The track around Bridgeport is not "high speed track" using any reasonable definition of the term. MAS is 70mph there.

2. Track on which MAS is 125mph or higher on the NEC is pretty much state of the art concrete ties on ballast mostly, with wood ties only at a few remaining interlockings which are scheduled to be completely replaced with higher speed moving frog switches on concrete ties in the next two or so years.

 

[PRR 60]

Two points ....
1. The track around Bridgeport is not "high speed track" using any reasonable definition of the term. MAS is 70mph there.

2. Track on which MAS is 125mph or higher on the NEC is pretty much state of the art concrete ties on ballast mostly, with wood ties only at a few remaining interlockings which are scheduled to be completely replaced with higher speed moving frog switches on concrete ties in the next two or so years.

MAS = ????

 

[Ryan]

Maximum Authorized Speed?

 

[George Harris]

What do you mean by "advanced"? It's steel rails, riding on wood or concrete ties. Not must "state of the art" about it, the technology was perfected 100 years or more ago.

"State of the art" means the current best practice appropriate to the service. How long it has been best practice is not part of it.

Perfected 100 years ago? Let's see: Wood tie size, species limitations, treatment processes and substances have had considerable development over the last 100 years. Concrete ties are considerably stronger than those first introduced into the US nearly 50 years ago. Shapes have also been modified to improve embedment in the ballast. Ballast, changes in rock specifications for materials, gradation, etc. Rail? AREMA has a list of rail sections in use since around 1900. It has over 400 rail section shapes in it. There are even a few missing from the list. And this list is just North America. Go to other parts of the world and there are others. Do you think that the people who work with this stuff don't look over each other's shoulders? Of course thy do. Over the last several years the list of shapes in use in North America has gotten relatively short. There are several things to shape, by the way: Proportion of section, head, that is wheel contact area, head to web, primarily internal stress distribution issue, base shape, etc, then there are metallurgical and hardness issues. There have literally been books written on the subject, although they have not exactly been best sellers. Then there are rail to tie fastener issues, appropriately zero-stress temperature, and more. There have been studies and full scale test installations of various forms of concrete based track, and there are currently several types of concrete base track in widespread use. There is a lot going on in this subject. Just because you do not see it does not mean it is not there. One factor that makes it less obvious is the longevity of most track components. A good wood tie will last over 30 years, concrete ties will/may last longer. the current designs have not been around near that long. Depending upon traffic and curvature, rail can go up to 100 years.