Empire Service Halted Due To M-N Derailment

Amtrak Empire Service is disrupted due to a Metro-North train wreck in the Bronx.

The accident is pretty bad, with 4 deaths confirmed.

No word on the Amtrak website about empire service as of this posting.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/12/01/ ... en-duyvil/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ken

Amtrak is reporting that they will be restoring Empire Service trains between New York and Albany shortly.

The Times has an article, including photos and multimedia, now posted at their site:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/02/nyreg ... lment.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It would appear that the incident occurred TT South (compass East) of the junction with Amtrak trackage. Possibly the delay to Empire service was simply to collect evidence if for some reason the debris field included the Amtrak trackage.

Discussion of this serious incident should appropriately move forth at the Metro North Forum.

NEC wasnt affected right? I have a 4pm BOS to Metropark train, and I got an email from Amtrak telling me to call ASAP. Ive been on music hold for 20+ minutes now waiting to talk to someone.

This shouldn't affect NEC at all.

jamesinclair wrote:NEC wasnt affected right? I have a 4pm BOS to Metropark train, and I got an email from Amtrak telling me to call ASAP. Ive been on music hold for 20+ minutes now waiting to talk to someone.

No, this isn't impacting the NEC at all.

Greg Moore wrote:

jamesinclair wrote:NEC wasnt affected right? I have a 4pm BOS to Metropark train, and I got an email from Amtrak telling me to call ASAP. Ive been on music hold for 20+ minutes now waiting to talk to someone.

No, this isn't impacting the NEC at all.

Then I wonder what this is about...still on hold

Edit: Just spoke to someone, email was an error

More coverage on the derailment:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25176496

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/02/nyreg ... ml?hp&_r=0

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/new-york-c ... -1.2446921

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc ... -1.1533963

http://nypost.com/2013/12/01/metro-nort ... the-bronx/

According to press reports, the Metro-North derailment occurred at 7:22 am, about 100 ft north of Spuyten Duyvil Station. This should be far enough south of CP 12 (point where Amtrak's Empire Line diverges from the Met's Hudson Line) to not affect Empire Service. But, it did.
MAPLE LEAFT #63 was the first train north, leaving NY's Penn Station at 11:49 am (3'34" LT). The first train to leave Albany-Rensselaer was #236 at 11:47 am (3'32" LT). What I don't understand is why Empire train #250, which arrived Croton-Harmon on time at 7:55 am, could not have been advanced at tt speed to Yonkers and authorized to operate at restricted speed to CP 12 for a visual inspection. Once at CP 12, the TE crew could have advised the Met's RTC (dispatcher) that CP 12 was not fouled and the RTC could have displayed a signal for the Empire Line, allowing the Amtrak's to run after that.
I know this is Monday morning (dah - I mean Sunday afternoon) quarterbacking, but you can see the logic of my question,

Andy

FYI, there's a long discussion thread in the Metro-North forum, with some impressive pictures.

AMTRAK- related question:

Does anyone know where on-line to get up-to-date Amtrak status? The service alert on http://www.amtrak.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; still says NYP-ALB service is suspended, but when my son called the Amtrak telephone number, they said trains are running again, but with delays.

twropr wrote:What I don't understand is why Empire train #250, which arrived Croton-Harmon on time at 7:55 am, could not have been advanced at tt speed to Yonkers and authorized to operate at restricted speed to CP 12 for a visual inspection. Once at CP 12, the TE crew could have advised the Met's RTC (dispatcher) that CP 12 was not fouled and the RTC could have displayed a signal for the Empire Line, allowing the Amtrak's to run after that.
I know this is Monday morning (dah - I mean Sunday afternoon) quarterbacking, but you can see the logic of my question,

Andy

The Federal Railroad Administration has detailed requirements for railroad track inspections, and railroads themselves do as well. I'd think that both a walking inspection and a hi-rail inspection (to check for track geometry and damage) would need to be done before a passenger train could come through.

I just got word from a source that I am not at liberty to disclose that Amtrak just got the OK to resume service between Albany and New York. At least they have saved the busiest part of their day.
Noel Weaver

SouthernRailway wrote:

twropr wrote:What I don't understand is why Empire train #250, which arrived Croton-Harmon on time at 7:55 am, could not have been advanced at tt speed to Yonkers and authorized to operate at restricted speed to CP 12 for a visual inspection. Once at CP 12, the TE crew could have advised the Met's RTC (dispatcher) that CP 12 was not fouled and the RTC could have displayed a signal for the Empire Line, allowing the Amtrak's to run after that.
I know this is Monday morning (dah - I mean Sunday afternoon) quarterbacking, but you can see the logic of my question,

Andy

The Federal Railroad Administration has detailed requirements for railroad track inspections, and railroads themselves do as well. I'd think that both a walking inspection and a hi-rail inspection (to check for track geometry and damage) would need to be done before a passenger train could come through.

As the area of the derailment is a decent distance from CP 12, I suspect it's more a factor of "lot's of emergency personal, reporters, equipment, gawkers in the area". It's probably far safer to disrupt rail traffic for a few hundred (or even more) Amtrak passengers than risk someone else getting injured, etc.

That said though it's still probably close enough that they want to make sure the switch points didn't cause something to go wrong that wasn't evident until 1000' later.

This is an area where being conservative is probably a GOOD thing.

If the "Train Status" from Amtrak's website is to be believed, (entering the form looking for morning departures from New York to Albany, the first train left at 11:48 AM today (the scheduled 7:15 AM departure), and 6 others have left since then (all after 2:30).
The first one took over 5 hours to make the trip (arriving just after 5:00 PM), so either is didn't leave at 11:48, or else it sat waiting to get through the site. All of the other departures have trip durations only slightly longer than normal, so they seem to be more or less back to normal. The scheduled 5:15 PM is the only one which still hasn't left, but it is set to go at 5:45. So all in all a very good recovery for Amtrak (and a lot of happy passengers - or at more likely unhappy passengers who should be happy that they are getting anywhere at all). JS

If the Empire corridor had been completely disrupted could the adirondack operate via Vermont back to NYP? Also, given the current situation, would anything prevent amtrak from adding revenue stops at Poughkeepsie and CH during peak hours for customers wiling to pay to avoid the bussing scenario?