Commuter Rail Delay/Cancellation Thread

[octr202]

Sounds like a signal meltdown at North Station this morning impacting everything still running all the way in. (Congrats, Eastern Route, saved by bustitution!)

On the Fitchburg, 404 inbound and 405 outbound seem to have taken 25-35 minute hits. 406 apparently dumped everyone off at Porter before starting its crawl inbound.

[Commuterrail1050]

Major delays on the northeast corridor today due to signal and switch issues in canton and Attleboro due to lightning strikes. Multiple trains delayed hours or cancelled altogether.

[MBTAVideoClips]

My friend was on 177 and was stuck in Attleboro for 2+ hours (ended up getting into NYC after midnight, scheduled at 9:30 PM). I was also railfanning at Readville with friends & saw numerous outbound trains stop at the station (Stop Signals @ Transfer). Most of them waited for overtaking amtrak/express mbta's, though I also saw a few getting stop signals for seemingly no reason. I'm dissapointed in myself for not bringing my scanner LOL.

[Commuterrail1050]

Another major delay on the northeast corridor. Not even a week later after a double whammy last Friday, Amtrak’s catenary wires goes down at Hyde park. As I’m typing this, I’m not sure which single track is open. Most if not all Franklin, foxboro, providence, and stoughton lines are operating express via fairmount line.

[charlesriverbranch]

What happened today? I arrived at South Station in time to catch the 9:15 Needham train, but it wasn't posted, nor did either of the trains outside say Needham on them. So, I waited for the 11:15. When the 11:15 was announced on Track 11, I boarded it, only to discover that it was actually a Middleborough train. So, I got off, found no Needham train posted, and decided to wait for the 1:15... which was cancelled. Rumor had it that there weren't enough crews to staff it. I eventually took a Worcester train to Wellesley Farms and walked home from there. What a colossal waste of time. You'd think they'd at least make an announcement of some sort. Oh, and tracks 1 through 6 were completely empty; what's up with that?

[chrisf]

What happened today? I arrived at South Station in time to catch the 9:15 Needham train, but it wasn't posted, nor did either of the trains outside say Needham on them

All of today's Needham trains were cancelled due to "a crew availability issue" according to Keolis posting on Twitter, and this isn't the first time that's happened in the past month or so.

[Commuterrail1050]

The only lines that weren’t affected were the Worcester, Kingston, and providence. Fairmount and needham took the most cancellations. Not enough staff to run the trains it looks like.

[charlesriverbranch]

Huh? I was on the 6:10 am train out of Needham Heights; that's how I got into town in the first place. And no one on that train said anything about the rest of the trains not running.

I love the smell of incompetence in the morning.

[Red Wing]

Hate to tell you but the folks running the train wouldn't have known unless told. Don't blame the crew here blame management who does the assignments.

[charlesriverbranch]

Up to now, I've been pretty happy with commuter rail service. They're usually on time, and if there is a problem, it's typically because some piece of equipment has failed, which they do from time to time.

But canceling service because you can't find people to run it, that's sheer incompetence. If there were some sort of "blue flu" walkout over wages or working conditions, I'd understand, but this sounds like someone in charge failing to do his or her job. Keolis is owned by SNCF; would that sort of thing be tolerated in France?

[chrisf]

Covid is up quite a bit currently too, so that may be a factor here. I know there are several people with whom I work who have it.