lots of delays on south lines/north lines

Ron Newman wrote:Why is the rail on the Worcester Line of so much lower quality than the rest of the system, so that it needs a speed restriction in hot weather?

I think that's a precaution on the part of CSX. A few years ago there was an Amtrak derailment on a CSX line down south that was caused by a heat kink in the rails. Since then CSX has made liberal use of speed restrictions during hot weather.

MBTA3247 wrote:

Ron Newman wrote:Why is the rail on the Worcester Line of so much lower quality than the rest of the system, so that it needs a speed restriction in hot weather?

I think that's a precaution on the part of CSX. A few years ago there was an Amtrak derailment on a CSX line down south that was caused by a heat kink in the rails. Since then CSX has made liberal use of speed restrictions during hot weather.

CSX does this nationwide, not just here.

And they'll be doing it today as well, it's supposed to be 100 degrees today, so all Framingham/Worcester trains will be delayed along with Amtrak P449/P448 and P145 to SPG-HFD-NYP-WAS.

Diverging Route wrote:

MBTA3247 wrote:

Ron Newman wrote:Why is the rail on the Worcester Line of so much lower quality than the rest of the system, so that it needs a speed restriction in hot weather?

I think that's a precaution on the part of CSX. A few years ago there was an Amtrak derailment on a CSX line down south that was caused by a heat kink in the rails. Since then CSX has made liberal use of speed restrictions during hot weather.

CSX does this nationwide, not just here.

I think it also used to be a 20 mph speed limit, not 40. I think that VRE and MARC had a hand in pushing CSXT to up that, since they get hit with this a lot more often than the MBTA.

VRE has a good description of the issue here.

Robert Paniagua wrote:And they'll be doing it today as well, it's supposed to be 100 degrees today, so all Framingham/Worcester trains will be delayed along with Amtrak P449/P448 and P145 to SPG-HFD-NYP-WAS.

Only should affect 448 & 449 -- Springfield Line isn't CSXT's.

More issues this AM, especially with locomotive failures:

This AM's Transit Updates 7/18 wrote:Worcester train # 506 (638a) trip running with 25 minute delay due to engine problems.

Worcester train #508 (707a) trip will be delayed 15 minutes.

Providence train # 806 (710a) trip will be running 60 minutes late, due to engine problems.

S.Attleboro train # 808 will be 30 minute delay due to the disabled train.

All Other Commuter Rail service is on or near schedule.

So there you have it, and as you can see, it's creating a bit of a ripple effect on the trips immidiately following the affected one.

Actually CSX imposes this on all of there lines when the temp goes over 90 degrees this is system wide. and because CSX controls the line to Worcester the limit the track speed. this is because of the derailments they had several yrs ago when the track bowed due to the heat. The MBTA has no control over this......

I'll add my own morning update.

P518 Worcester 45 minutes late. Engine problems. No A/C or lighting.

yea it was a mess in Mansfield yesterday mornign, 7/18, i was in Mansfield when train 806, 808, didn't show up, there must have been 300 pple waiting for the trains, then train 810, all single leveled, came 15 min. late to pick up the pple, but it was packed and had to skip all stops along the rest of the line, then the double draft came and picked the rest of the passengers up, the T has been having a lot of problems latley w/ equipment, MBCR has to start gettting on their game

Yeah, it's been a brutal probelm for MBCR with those engines dying in the heat. Plus MBCR gave out free bottled ice cold water to those commuters who had to endure the hot cars. Now, CSX has taken away the 39.9Psgr/Frt25mph restriction on the Framingham/Worcester Line since it's a lot cooler today thankfully.

The water that was handed out Tuesday at North Station was warm bottles of water! I was wondering if they were giving out tea bags too

Did the cooler break down?

The cooler? Yes it did. It blew a traction motor! LOL

The trip out of South Station this evening was horrible.

While I was waiting for the 6:05pm Worcester
5:45 Stoughton delayed 5+ minutes
5:5? Needham delayed by 10-20 minutes
6:05 Worcester left 15 minutes late
6:06 Fairmont ( Cancelled )
6:10 Providence ( was 10 minutes late when we left, but they were boarding`
6:20 Framingham ( Had annouced it would delayed when we left ).


Then we hit the broken switch in Ashland ( 2nd time switch was broken in the past week ). We picked up all the passenger from the 5:30.

I was waiting by the dispatcher screen at the info desk for P529 (6:05 to Worcester). Various crews were laughing at the dispatcher screen, since at one point there was only one train set ON THE ENTIRE SCREEN (Cove to Tower 1 to the Station). Talk about equipment shortage!

As we watched a train set come into the station, it was eventually renamed P529 on track 4. The announcer promptly announced that the 6:10 Providence would board on track 4. Whoops.

Meanwhile, P529 on track 4 was lined all the way through Back Bay, while the Providence train on track 6 was lined through Back Bay - can't do it the other way around since the trains would have to cross. After a few minutes, the announcer corrected himself, stating that the 6:05 Worcester was on track 4 and the Providence train was on track 6. By this time, hundreds of people bound for Providence had boarded the Worcester train, and now had to move to track 6. Quite a fiasco, and playing musical trains with hundreds of people only added to our delay.

The asst conductor related this story after Back Bay: a woman approached him and asked him 3 times if our train was the Framingham local (after he had been screaming that our train was the Worcester express). Dismayed at his answer, the woman appraoched ANOTHER conductor to get a "second opinion"!