Suspensions

Due to the weather:

VRE Will Not Operate Service on Monday, February 8
As a result of power outages and concerns about treacherous road conditions leading to our stations, VRE will not operate service on Monday, February 8, 2010.

On Monday, February 8, 2010, MARC will operate an "S" schedule on the Penn Line only. There will be no service on the Camden or Brunswick Lines. Please exercise extreme caution when arriving at your station, parking your car, walking to and boarding your train.

After the December blizzard, they were able to run S service on Monday. Is this storm that much worse than the last?

Amtrak7 wrote:Due to the weather:

VRE Will Not Operate Service on Monday, February 8
As a result of power outages and concerns about treacherous road conditions leading to our stations, VRE will not operate service on Monday, February 8, 2010.

On Monday, February 8, 2010, MARC will operate an "S" schedule on the Penn Line only. There will be no service on the Camden or Brunswick Lines. Please exercise extreme caution when arriving at your station, parking your car, walking to and boarding your train.

After the December blizzard, they were able to run S service on Monday. Is this storm that much worse than the last?

Yes, it is that much worse.

Most of the Mid-Atlantic got 20"-40" of heavy wet snow. This has weighed down trees and power lines, causing them to fall ( around 600K without power ). While major roads are at least passable( and I'm sure will be down to bare pavement by Monday ), the secondary roads and parking lots in many cases haven't even been touched.

I'd say service might be not fully restored until the end of the week ( on account of another storm impacting the Mid-Atl and NE Wednesday ).

Any ideas on when all lines in both agencies can operate S service?

I'm going to gamble Friday or Saturday. Mainly based upon the very good prospect of Ice/Snow Wednesday.

There will be no service on the Camden and Brunswick lines on Monday. The transit administration says conditions are poor with multiple downed trees on those lines.

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0210/703909.html

The major difference between this and December's Blizzard is that December's snow was dry, light powdery snow. The February storm is heavy and wet and dumped allot more snow

There's also been lots of power outages, and that affects their yard. I'm down here by the Crossroads yard and it's a safe bet that if we lose power, so do they. And the roads are naaasty...Most secondary and access roads haven't been plowed or treated, let alone the commuter lots.

Interesting this was exactly what I guessed would happen. The two CSX MARC lines and VRE shutdown, and the Penn Line on an S schedule. The Penn Line is critical since it connects the 2 major cities in the area, as well as BWI Airport. Plus, I'm sure Amtrak has done a better job of keeping the NEC clear, than CSX has their lines.

I'm sure that the Brunswick and Camden Line will get S schedules on Tues., if the federal govt. decides to open.


EDIT: my prediction was again right All 3 lines will be operating on an S schedule on Tues.

No word yet on VRE service for Tuesday. They were supposed to make a decision by 6PM. The website hasn't been updated and I've not received email from them yet

davinp wrote:No word yet on VRE service for Tuesday. They were supposed to make a decision by 6PM. The website hasn't been updated and I've not received email from them yet

They updated at 6:30pm saying they haven't made a decision yet, but that one will be made by 4:30am.

From VRE:
We are still assessing the state of the railroad at this time. A decision on service will be made as soon as we have some definitive answers on a variety of issues.

In light of the decision of the Federal Government's closing on Tuesday, VRE has chosen not to operate

With the upcoming snow storm Tuesday instead Wednesday, I suspect it may not be until Thursday or Friday until normal operations resume.

I stopped by the MARC Dorsey Station this afternoon - the parking lot, platform, and Northbound track was clear. The southbound tracks were still completely snow covered.

Great pictures! I don't think snow is really too much of a problem though. The downed trees and frozen switches were the major reason for the service cancellations. A diesel locomotive could probably plow it out of the way.

I took a regional to Kingston yesterday morning and just returned - here's two from BWI while I was waiting for the train yesterday morning:

davinp wrote:In light of the decision of the Federal Government's closing on Tuesday, VRE has chosen not to operate

With the upcoming snow storm Tuesday instead Wednesday, I suspect it may not be until Thursday or Friday until normal operations resume.

Friday most likely they'll have limited service, with full service restored for Mondays rush.

Based on the possibility of MD/VA getting an additional foot of snow on top of the 30", and any additional cleanup that need be done.