Minor BNSF Derailment in Madera Impacting San Joaquin Service

[desertflyer]

There is currently a small derailment in Madera, CA impacting the San Joaquin route. A bus bridge is in place for the time being. Unfortunate that things like this happen, impacting the reliability of regional passenger service.

Picture and report about it from local station CBS47.

 

[ParanoidAndroid]

In "affect"

People still can't get it right.

Oh well. Seems to be a lot of derailments on BNSF lately.

I'm actually amazed that Amtrak can organize a bus bridge that fast.

 

[MikefromCrete]

In "affect"

People still can't get it right.

Oh well. Seems to be a lot of derailments on BNSF lately.

I'm actually amazed that Amtrak can organize a bus bridge that fast.

It's the local California joint powers board that runs the San Joaquins that's probably taking the action. Not to mention but California has its own fleet of Amtrak Throughway buses.

 

[railiner]

. Not to mention but California has its own fleet of Amtrak Throughway buses.

.

Just to clarify, those California Thruway buses are not actually state owned...they are provided by various private contractor's for dedicated Thruway services.

 

[Texan Eagle]

As if this was not enough, a morning southbound San Joaquin hit a car at a railroad crossing just before Madera, rendering the train out of service. After a 2 hour wait, Amtrak called buses (likely the ones put in place for the BNSF bus bridge) to the accident location to transfer passengers and take them further. A friend of mine was onboard and is currently still having the train/bus/bus/something journey of his life, last known location was near Fresno about 5 hours later than if he was on the normally operating train.

 

[seat38a]

As if this was not enough, a morning southbound San Joaquin hit a car at a railroad crossing just before Madera, rendering the train out of service. After a 2 hour wait, Amtrak called buses (likely the ones put in place for the BNSF bus bridge) to the accident location to transfer passengers and take them further. A friend of mine was onboard and is currently still having the train/bus/bus/something journey of his life, last known location was near Fresno about 5 hours later than if he was on the normally operating train.

Sadly this is why when we go up to SF, we no longer take the train. If it isn't the engine breaking down, then its the train hitting something. I will fly or drive up on interstate 5. We have to drive to Bakersfield anyway, so now instead of taking the fork to the 99 from the 5, we just stay on the 5 and keep going.

 

[Asher]

When you come to a fork in the road,take it.☺

 

[railiner]

I get a chuckle of how Californian's call their highway's "the", instead of say, I-5, or C-99, or whatever....

 

[Karl1459]

These incidents point out to infrastructure consequences.

First (good), Frequent service on the SJ has the likelyhood of a trainset available on both sides of an incident.
Second (good), Having the alternate mode available (buses on contract) allows a quick response for a bus bridge.

Third (bad), single track can easily be disrupted. Double track less so. Separated double track (ie what the Erie built across Indiana years ago with tracks 100 foot apart to avoid a derailment fouling the other main) even more resilient.

Fourth (bad), At grade highway crossings. Too many auto/truck type drivers ignore the "law of lugnuts". Separation solves most of this (not all, refer to the darwin awards).

 

[TiBike]

I get a chuckle of how Californian's call their highway's "the", instead of say, I-5, or C-99, or whatever....

That would be southern Californians. It's how we can tell when one of them has wandered up north. Here, numbers are just numbers, except when we give our freeways proper names: the MacArthur, the Nimitz, the Warren...

 

[Blackwolf]

I get a chuckle of how Californian's call their highway's "the", instead of say, I-5, or C-99, or whatever....

Not Californians.

Southern Californians do that. Once you pass, say, Fresno/SLO, the "The" drops away.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Yep, it's an LA thing where people don't take themselves so seriously like the Snobs in the Bay Area do!( "THE CITY? Seriously!!)

 

[railiner]

"The City"? In the Bay Area? Seriously?

"The City", is what we "bridge and tunnel people" call Manhattan....

 

[Blackwolf]

"The City"? In the Bay Area? Seriously?

"The City", is what we "bridge and tunnel people" call Manhattan....

I'll put it in the perspective of the late and great Lieutenant Andrew Fredericks, FDNY Squad 18 (Greenwich Village, Manhattan; one of the 343 who died in the Line of Duty on 9/11/01) when he spoke of San Francisco.

"Reminds me of a smaller Manhattan."

YMMV.

 

[KmH]

My experience is that in the LA megalopolis they don't use the highway numbers.

It's the Ventura Freeway, the Pomona Freeway, the Santa Ana Freeway, the Pasadena Freeway, etc.

 

[seat38a]

My experience is that in the LA megalopolis they don't use the highway numbers.

It's the Ventura Freeway, the Pomona Freeway, the Santa Ana Freeway, the Pasadena Freeway, etc.

Those are the given names for the freeway but no one calls them by it except maybe on the traffic report.

Its the 101, 60, 5, and the 110 to the locals.

 

[PaulM]

Is that 5 in the last month?

 

[TiBike]

To quote John Steinbeck...

“When I was a child growing up in Salinas we called San Francisco “the City”. Of course it was the only city we knew, but I still think of it as the City, and so does everyone else who has ever associated with it. A strange and exclusive work is “city”. Besides San Francisco, only small sections of London and Rome stay in the mind as the City. New Yorkers say they are going to town. Paris has no title but Paris. Mexico City is the Capital".

 

[Pere Flyer]

My experience is that in the LA megalopolis they don't use the highway numbers.

It's the Ventura Freeway, the Pomona Freeway, the Santa Ana Freeway, the Pasadena Freeway, etc.

Ahem, I think you mean “Ventura Highway”…

 

[railiner]

To quote John Steinbeck...

“When I was a child growing up in Salinas we called San Francisco “the City”. Of course it was the only city we knew, but I still think of it as the City, and so does everyone else who has ever associated with it. A strange and exclusive work is “city”. Besides San Francisco, only small sections of London and Rome stay in the mind as the City. New Yorkers say they are going to town. Paris has no title but Paris. Mexico City is the Capital".

Not on my block...we say we're going into "The City", meaning Manhattan (even though we are in the actual city limits)...never heard anyone use the term, "going to town".

Now if we are already in Manhattan, we might say we are going "uptown" or "downtown", instead of North or South....

 

[cpotisch]

To quote John Steinbeck...

“When I was a child growing up in Salinas we called San Francisco “the City”. Of course it was the only city we knew, but I still think of it as the City, and so does everyone else who has ever associated with it. A strange and exclusive work is “city”. Besides San Francisco, only small sections of London and Rome stay in the mind as the City. New Yorkers say they are going to town. Paris has no title but Paris. Mexico City is the Capital".

Not on my block...we say we're going into "The City", meaning Manhattan (even though we are in the actual city limits)...never heard anyone use the term, "going to town".

Now if we are already in Manhattan, we might say we are going "uptown" or "downtown", instead of North or South....

Same here. Manhattan is "The City," uptown means North when you're already in Manhattan, downtown means south when you're already there. There's obviously downtown Brooklyn and stuff like that, but that's the jargon I've always known as a "New Yawker."