The Vermonter South Bound (departing St. Albans and going towards Washington, DC) has been delayed for roughly an hour every day for the past week. I'm assuming it's due to the freight strike north of New Haven. Can anyone provide more detail on how long we expect the delays to occur? Is the train just crawling slowly when it leaves St. Albans because of the strike? And then it tries to make up time after New Haven?
Vermonter delays
- Thread starter SNJRider
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There was/is no strike.
They do have slow-orders (slow speeds) in place up that way. If you’re on Facebook there is a group for the Vermonter that probably can tell you why things have been slow.
One thing I think I read was a damaged culvert that needs to be repaired so they’re taking the trains slow through that area.
They do have slow-orders (slow speeds) in place up that way. If you’re on Facebook there is a group for the Vermonter that probably can tell you why things have been slow.
One thing I think I read was a damaged culvert that needs to be repaired so they’re taking the trains slow through that area.
Thank you for the clarification. Do you have a link to that Facebook group? The several “Vermonter” pages I looked at were about Vermont residents or were sparsely used.
Are these the same repairs that they were working on a few months ago? They were busing people from Springfield.
This is the name of the FB group
Perfect, thank you. Looks like it's speed restrictions due to trackwork.
not sure what busing you are referring to. Bussed a few days ago and that was due to work at Hartford CT station. Culvert that was mentioned is prob the one that was fixed over a year ago north of Brattleboro that still requires speed restriction when going through.
The busing, which I think occurred in May, was due to track work between Springfield and Berlin, CT. Several trains used buses. Vermonter just had a delayed schedule.
I spoke with a conductor and the current delays are due to track and railroad tie replacements in Vermont (leading to speed restrictions). He said it could take at least several weeks to complete. The good news is that despite the 30+ minute delay into NHV, the train made up the rest of the delay after it left NYP.
Thanks for the data. I wish Amtrak would provide some published information on these delays. I'm aware of the delays only because I use the various online apps. However, I'm sure there are passengers that rarely ride the Vermonter and are stuck waiting on the platform for an hour.
bratkinson
Conductor
As a resident of the Springfield area, I've ridden the line SPG-NHV countless times through the years, most recently, Tuesday this week, both ways.
I've read about trackwork in Vermont delaying the SB Vermonter. In 'watching' its progress on Transitdocs.com almost every day, it's been anywhere from a few minutes to over an hour late arriving in Springfield in the past month or so. So be it. As one who has passed through track repair areas around the USA while listening to my scanner, any train through the area has to stop and contact the supervisor of the work area and await their permission to pass through at slow speeds account freshly laid/balasted/lined/<whatever> track. Whether the work crew can make a safe, clear path for the train in 1 minute or 1 hour depends on the situation.
As for between Springfield and New Haven, nearly all trains were bused from June through September 11 account major trackwork being done as well as a new platform 'shed' at the Hartford station. I also saw a rail train in July on Virtual Railfan Springfield arrive from the west, then reverse direction down the line towards New Haven. Riding the 5:55AM train from Springfield in late August, the train was spotted with some rails still on it. They completed their work, and FINALLY fixed, after 20 years or more, the horribly over-banked/superelevated curve at the south end of Springfield that had a 10mph speed limit on it. Everyone, including myself, expected the train to tip over it was banked so far. As of this past Thursday, while out taking pictures, there is still brand new rail dropped along the westernmost track through Longmeadow, just south of Springfield. So they are still working on the tracks, just not with the 'full track gang' of 15-20 machines (seen from #141 in the AM several times). As of Tuesday, I only spotted 5-6 track machines in various places in groups of 2s.
The good news is that they have smoothed out the track south of Hartford, especially the new/restored 2nd track installed maybe 5 years ago prior to the startup of CTRail between NHV and SPG. It was getting a bit bumpy, especially at speeds above 80.
Hopefully, they're get all the trackwork finished before the snow flies. As we've been having an 'early fall' with overnight temps in the low 50s and even low 40s a couple of times in the past couple of weeks, I wouldn't be suprised if we see snow sometime before Thanksgiving! About 10 years ago, we had a Halloween Eve snowstorm that was supposed to be mostly rain but they were totally wrong. It was sloppy, heavy, very wet snow for about 10-12 hours that took out electricity for 7-10 days for a lot of people.
I've read about trackwork in Vermont delaying the SB Vermonter. In 'watching' its progress on Transitdocs.com almost every day, it's been anywhere from a few minutes to over an hour late arriving in Springfield in the past month or so. So be it. As one who has passed through track repair areas around the USA while listening to my scanner, any train through the area has to stop and contact the supervisor of the work area and await their permission to pass through at slow speeds account freshly laid/balasted/lined/<whatever> track. Whether the work crew can make a safe, clear path for the train in 1 minute or 1 hour depends on the situation.
As for between Springfield and New Haven, nearly all trains were bused from June through September 11 account major trackwork being done as well as a new platform 'shed' at the Hartford station. I also saw a rail train in July on Virtual Railfan Springfield arrive from the west, then reverse direction down the line towards New Haven. Riding the 5:55AM train from Springfield in late August, the train was spotted with some rails still on it. They completed their work, and FINALLY fixed, after 20 years or more, the horribly over-banked/superelevated curve at the south end of Springfield that had a 10mph speed limit on it. Everyone, including myself, expected the train to tip over it was banked so far. As of this past Thursday, while out taking pictures, there is still brand new rail dropped along the westernmost track through Longmeadow, just south of Springfield. So they are still working on the tracks, just not with the 'full track gang' of 15-20 machines (seen from #141 in the AM several times). As of Tuesday, I only spotted 5-6 track machines in various places in groups of 2s.
The good news is that they have smoothed out the track south of Hartford, especially the new/restored 2nd track installed maybe 5 years ago prior to the startup of CTRail between NHV and SPG. It was getting a bit bumpy, especially at speeds above 80.
Hopefully, they're get all the trackwork finished before the snow flies. As we've been having an 'early fall' with overnight temps in the low 50s and even low 40s a couple of times in the past couple of weeks, I wouldn't be suprised if we see snow sometime before Thanksgiving! About 10 years ago, we had a Halloween Eve snowstorm that was supposed to be mostly rain but they were totally wrong. It was sloppy, heavy, very wet snow for about 10-12 hours that took out electricity for 7-10 days for a lot of people.
Wow! Thank you for adding so much detail. So when the Vermonter approaches the work area, it almost comes to a complete stop until the tracks are cleared?
I didn't realize the tracks north of Hartford needed that much work for so many years. I don't make it past Hartford so I always thought the rails were in pretty decent shape in Connecticut.
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