MARC Woes Plague Amtrak

[PRR 60]

With both the Maryland Secretary of Transporation and the Maryland Transit Chief on board MARC train 538 speaking to commuters about service problems on the Amtrak-operated Penn Line, the train blew through a scheduled stop at Odenton. Odenton passengers had to detrain at BWI. The MD secretary was on the phone to Amtrak CEO Joe Boardman even before the train got to BWI. Boardman had a southbound Acela make unscheduled stops at BWI and Odenton to take riders back to their stop.

By the way, MARC 538 was the very same train that made news last week when it got stuck for two hours with no power in the heatwave.

From the Baltimore Sun, 6/29/2010:

Calling the service on the Amtrak-operated MARC Penn Line "unacceptable," Maryland's top transportation official demanded that the national passenger railroad conduct a "top to bottom review" of its MARC operations to prevent a recurrence of lapses that have plagued the service in recent weeks.

The rest of the article is HERE.

 

[ALC Rail Writer]

Ha! I would pay a fortune to have eavesdropped on the conversation with the crew on that Acela when they had to do that stop.

 

[Ryan]

That ain't the half of it. She was on the train because of the 2 hour bake-fest from the previous Monday. While the string of apologies was flying into my inbox this afternoon (in short order we got an announcement that there was going to be a special meeting of the Rider's Advisory Council, a "meet the managers" session at Union Station w/ Mr. Boardman and the MTA brass, an apology from Amtrak for overrunning Odenton and a statement from SecTreas saying that this stuff was unacceptable), the train that I was riding on blew past Bowie State. We were able to make the backup and get the pax off, but talk about an embarrassing 2 weeks.

Tomorrow's going to be an interesting day...

Edit: And I forgot the train into DC yesterday morning that got stuck at New Carrollton - after being told that they were going to have to take the train out of service, and that a MARC train following us would be through shortly to pick us up to get us the rest of the way to DC the MARC train jammed right on through the station without stopping. Fortunately there was a regional behind that that we were all able to catch, but more miscommunication.

 

[Guest]

WOW! Tough week in the DC Area for sure! Glad I dont have to commute anymore although I must say the DC Metro was one of the finer subways I ever rode and that includes Europe! :excl:

 

[MikefromCrete]

Pretty bad timing for all these goof-ups, with Amtrak interested in taking over the CSX-operated portion of MARC's service. VRE is looking pretty good with its switch over to Keolis. Of course, we haven't seen what Keolis will be doing with its operations.

 

[AlanB]

VRE & Keolis isn't looking all that good at the minute. Keolis was supposed to have taken over operations and VRE had to approach Amtrak and ask them to keep running the trains for at least another 2 weeks because Keolis wasn't ready to actually run the trains.

 

[Ispolkom]

Wow, to miss a stop with the state Secretary of Transportation on board and then lie about the reason for the missed stop.

This is Washington! Don't they know that the cover-up is always worse than the crime?

 

[Acela150]

Video of that Acela stopping at Odenton can be seen

.
Steve

 

[jis]

Hmm. Well someone at least apologized.

Fat chance up here to get NJTransit to even admit they made a mistake, let alone apologize for anything They are a fiefdom unto themselves and passengers are just necessary nuisance for maintaining the same.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

I've personally never understood why it works this way. I mean, I know it does. And I accept that I have to work around it in the pursuit of my goals. But I always thought the key concept behind a democracy (and one of its likely failings) is a need to keep the people that elect you happy. Including those of us who use transit.

 

[jis]

Yipee! NJTransit actually apologized after this last week's fiasco. Notice that it is only NJTransit that fully keeled over, and various other outfits that have as new or newer equipment as NJT, had relatively few problems of equipment just dieing. And NJT still wants us to believe that the only problem is that their special new equipment has this special feature to keel over at 102 deg F ambient, and that special new feature did not get activated until this particular heat wave!

GML. NJTransit management has more or less ceased to care what happens to their customers. The top management is just too busy doing other more important things, like cooking up fantastic stories to explain away their own various failures, and blocking all attempts at getting any transparency at all. They would make good old Comrade Brezhnev proud. And this in the land of the free. 'Tis truly sad.

 

[Ryan]

The MTA published their final report on Train 538's breakdown:

http://mta.maryland.gov/train_538_incident_final_report.pdf

I've only skimmed it, but there doesn't appear to be anything too earth shattering. They are considering running shorter trains more frequently to ease the load on single locomotives pulling a heavy train. I'm not sure what it'll do for reliability, but the increase in flexibility provided my more trains would be a net win, I think.

There still doesn't seem to be an answer as to why the rescue locomotive wasn't able to get the A/C systems back on line when it arrived. I understand that brake problems stopped them from moving the train, but at least they could have gotten the A/C back up and running. It also would have allowed power to be restored to the PA system, which would have helped greatly with crowd control.

 

[acelafan]

The MTA published their final report on Train 538's breakdown:

http://mta.maryland.gov/train_538_incident_final_report.pdf

I've only skimmed it, but there doesn't appear to be anything too earth shattering. They are considering running shorter trains more frequently to ease the load on single locomotives pulling a heavy train. I'm not sure what it'll do for reliability, but the increase in flexibility provided my more trains would be a net win, I think.

There still doesn't seem to be an answer as to why the rescue locomotive wasn't able to get the A/C systems back on line when it arrived. I understand that brake problems stopped them from moving the train, but at least they could have gotten the A/C back up and running. It also would have allowed power to be restored to the PA system, which would have helped greatly with crowd control.

Thanks for posting the report. I know it's probably dry to some (or a bunch!) but I found it interesting and I hope the incident is a good wake up call to both Amtrak and MTA. I'd be in favor of additional MARC trains, albeit shorter, mainly for more choices in departure times.

 

[HoosierStater]

Thanks for posting the report. I know it's probably dry to some (or a bunch!) but I found it interesting and I hope the incident is a good wake up call to both Amtrak and MTA. I'd be in favor of additional MARC trains, albeit shorter, mainly for more choices in departure times.

Having lived in the Chicago area for some years, I was quite surprised at how sparse the MARC (and VRE) schedules were.

 

[Ryan]

Interestingly enough, there is no mention of replacement of MARCs electric motors with the new units that Amtrak is buying - quite disappointing.