ALL THINGS HURRICANE MATTHEW

Florida may have a double hitter this time.

I wonder how train travel disruptions compare to air travel disruptions when facing incremental weathers. I would think train traveling would be less affected.

RR disruptions come from wash outs & the RR removing crossing gates to prevent damage as the wind guards do not do a good job. But the worse item are trees. Pine trees are especially vulnerable. with the track just east of the CSX "A" line we can expect hundreds of trees on track for each mile that Matthew follows. Giant clearing effort. Remember how long CSX took to restore some of the secondary lines earlier this year.

Mr. Denver, again thank you for locating the map in your originating post. To view that map, which has updated itself through this period, has been far easier than wading through the endless ads Weather Channel airs, interspersed with occasional content, to view Matthew's path.

I literally was "that close" to calling off my one week auto trip taking me to Detroit, Cleveland, Fredericksburg, and Greenwich; now I'm leaving on it today. I'm sure for the Fredericksburg-Greenwich leg. I'll wish I were aboard Amtrak. The rest of it; Amtrak?, a bit unreasonable and impractical.

To our Florida and Georgia and South Carolina members, it's time to bail out. I've been in a hurricane (Cat 3, Carol, Aug 31, 1954) on a 36' boat moored in Stonington Harbor. Unlike any experience I've had or would choose to have again.

First, click on this to the link.

Second, here is the current service notice:

Amtrak Suspends Service in the Southeast Region
Severe weather expected to impact East Coast

Oct. 5, 2016
4:30 p.m. ET

Amtrak is temporarily suspending services in the south due to severe weather impacting the east coast of Florida.

The Silver Star 91 & 92 (New York City - Miami), Silver Meteor 97 & 98 (Miami - New York City), and the Auto Train 52 & 53 (Lorton, Va., - Sanford, Fla.) are cancelled for Thursday, Oct. 6, and Friday, Oct. 7. No alternate transportation will be provided.

The Palmetto 89 & 90 (New York City - Savannah, Ga.) will operate between New York City and Washington, D.C.

This information is correct as of the above time and date. Information is subject to change as conditions warrant.

Passengers with travel plans can confirm their train's status, change their plans or review refund information using a range of tools – including Amtrak.com, smartphone apps or by calling 800-USA-RAIL. Service Alerts, Passenger Notices and other announcements are posted at Amtrak.com/alerts.
Follow @Amtrak on Twitter.

My pleasure, Mr Norman. Glad to be of service. As of now it looks your route will not be heavily affected if at all. I wish you a good trip, Amtrak or by other means.

CharlieK wrote:I flew into New Orleans for an EMS Conference on Tuesday. I've got a reservation for the trip back to NY on The Crescent leaving NOLA on Saturday morning. It doesn't look like the route is close to the coast until the Northeast Corridor. I wonder if the hurricane will have an effect on my trip.

I'd be surprised if the Crescent was affected ... it travels through Atlanta, then basically up through the Blue Ridge Mountains, towards the DC area.

All of this is not only well northwest of the affected areas, but significantly higher in altitude as well.

(a lot of people don't realize, but the ATL area is around 1000ft up from sealevel)

Any idea if amtrak ran/will run a dead head to get the equipment from yesterdays 91 97 and 53 out of the danger zone.

Click here to our sticky, linking you to the Current Amtrak official answer.


As far as positioning equipment in harms way out of the way, I'd move it to Atlanta under some form of force majeure reciprocity.

At about 5:45pm yesterday a Genesis loco appeared to be backing a full Silver set, ACS and all, into Race St. Coach yard in Philly. I couldn't tell exactly, but there were 2 or 3 viewliners.

Definitely hope those down south stay safe.

SERVICE ALERT UPDATE:

Now includes the 8 October. Don't be surprised if it goes to the 9th.

With regard to these parts, Florida, Florida East Coast has little damage between West Palm Beach and Miami. Between New Smyrna Beach and Fort Pierce they are still doing inspections and between Bowden (Jacksonville) and New Smyrna Beach there are trees down among other problems. MAYBE Saturday evening or more like Sunday before anything much operates. As for Tri-Rail they are talking not until Sunday, I don't quite understand why it takes them so long to fix up the crossings, stations etc when today was good weather all day. As for CSX north of West Palm Beach I do not have anything but that line north of WPB swings northwest and well away from the coast so it might not be badly damaged at least not south of Auburnddale. Of course if Jacksonville is bad nothing will run through in these parts anyway. It could have been a whole lot worse, we have a lot to be thankful to god for.
Noel Weaver

John_Perkowski wrote:SERVICE ALERT UPDATE:

Now includes the 8 October. Don't be surprised if it goes to the 9th.

Or the 10th and 11th.

Service Alert - 10/9/16 7:15 PM EDT

The following service plan will be in effect on Monday, Oct. 10, and Tuesday, Oct. 11:

In Virginia, service to Norfolk is restored with the arrival of Train 125 on Monday, Oct. 10. Service is expected in both directions on Tuesday.

In North Carolina, the Carolinian (Trains 79 & 80) will operate only between New York City and Richmond and between Charlotte and Raleigh, with no service between Raleigh and Richmond. Piedmont service between Raleigh and Charlotte will not operate

In Florida, the Silver Star (Trains 91 & 92), will operate only between Miami and Winter Park. Otherwise, the Silver Star is canceled between Winter Park and New York City, as is the Silver Meteor (Trains 97 & 98) between New York City and Miami and the Auto Train (Trains 52 & 53) between Lorton, Va., and Sanford, Fla.

Amtrak Thruway Bus Connections associated with the above routes are also disrupted.

As of today, Monday, October 10th, the Florida East Coast is back in operation between Jacksonville and Miami. They may have signal problems at the north end but at least the trains are running again.
Noel Weaver

Amtrak Service Alert, Tuesday 10/11, 5:25 PM EDT:

Amtrak Continues Suspension of Trains to Florida Outages due to track conditions

Amtrak continues to temporarily suspend some trains in the southeast for Wednesday, Oct. 12, and Thursday, Oct. 13, due to track conditions impacted by Hurricane Matthew along the Atlantic coast. The Auto Train (Lorton, Va. - Sanford, Fla.) and Silver Meteor (New York City - Miami) are cancelled. No alternate transportation will be provided.

The Silver Star (Miami - New York City) will operate between Miami and Jacksonville, Fla.

Edenver wrote:I wonder how train travel disruptions compare to air travel disruptions when facing incremental weathers. I would think train traveling would be less affected.

For some weather air is more affected, such as dense fog, and high winds. In this case air service to Orlando resumed Saturday, whereas I believe Amtrak is still annulled. In general, airports do not have a lot of vulnerable infrastructure.