Mt Rainer blows?/Amtrak resources?

Strictly hypothetical here...Witnessing the grounding of thousands of planes in Europe due to the Icelandic volcano eruption, how would Amtrak be able to cope with a likely rapid increase in passengers in the event that one of the monster Northwest volcanoes, Rainer, Adams etc erupted big time and the ash blew Eastward across many of the lower 48 and grounded most passenger airlines? Could they lease some unused commuter coaches from various cities? How much functional rolling stock does Amtak have in storage for such an event and let's hope this doesn't occur any time soon!

The short answer is that there is no significant reserve fleet of passenger equipment available in the US. Commuter carriers typically have spare cars only on weekends, and Amtrak already limits the length of long distance trains due to its chronic equipment shortages. The most that could be hoped for would be a few extra trips on the various West Coast, Chicago, and Northeast corridor routes.

simply put, the US would not have enough resources other than Hertz-Enterprise- budget- etc and a lot of car pooling.
even right after 9/11 transportation was in chaos.

There is a topic on this in Worldwide forum.

http://railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=149&t=71014

European long distance trains are fully booked. John Cleese took a taxi from Oslo to Brussels When he arrives he will find that Eurostar is fully booked, probably with no scope to add extra trains. The ferries are turning people away, too.

I have since learned that on Saturday Eurostar operated eight extra pairs of trains to clear some of the extra demand.

This seems like a "reach" topic to me, not really an Amtrak topic so much as its a railroad operations topic.

Have we already forgotten the eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980? Burlington Northern and Amtrak service through the area were disrupted for weeks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_erupt ... St._Helens

The May 18, 1980, event was the most deadly and economically destructive volcanic eruption in the history of the United States. Fifty-seven people were killed and 200 homes, 27 bridges, 15 miles (24 km) of railways and 185 miles (300 km) of highway were destroyed.

The ash fall created some temporary but major problems with transportation, sewage disposal, and water treatment systems. Visibility was greatly decreased during the ash fall, closing many highways and roads. Interstate 90 from Seattle to Spokane was closed for a week and a half. Air travel was disrupted for a few days to 2 weeks as several airports in eastern Washington shut down because of ash accumulation and poor visibility. Over a thousand commercial flights were cancelled following airport closures. Fine-grained, gritty ash caused substantial problems for internal-combustion engines and other mechanical and electrical equipment. The ash contaminated oil systems and clogged air filters, and scratched moving surfaces. Fine ash caused short circuits in electrical transformers, which in turn caused power blackouts.

-otto-

Otto nailed it.

To this day, as you ride the Cascades or the Coast Starlight north of the Toutle River, you'll see huge mounds of gray ash that was piled up after the May 18, 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens. It's all still there (and sadly, there are many places that'll CHARGE you for authentic Mt. St. Helens eruption ash, when you can dig it up yourself for free.) Of course today it's more a favorite for quad riders to ride up and down, right next to the busy mainline...

In the event of an eruption, you would have a large plume of ash, plus snowmelt and glaciers melting rapidly causing flash flooding. Much of this ash and floodflow will go west, right into the path of the BNSF mainline (and I-5, for that matter). Just like in 1980 - EVERYTHING will shut down. No planes, no trains, no cars or trucks.

Amtrak resources? Best thing Amtrak would do is tie everything together, and get the equipment out of the way - IF there was warning. Of course, hundreds of evacuated residents thought that they'd be able to go in the morning of May 18th to gather the last of their belongings. And Harry S. Truman looked up, probably uttered some words not appropriate for this forum, and gasped his last breath of air.

I'm wondering how much longer trains and automobiles will be able to operate in GB and continental Europe if the ash fallout continues. Any electrical or mechanical system requiring air flow may become clogged with fallout and have to be shut down. Even on a railway system operating with electic traction motors there is the possibility that the system will have to be shut down, for much the same reason Eurostar was knocked out by the snow last Christmas. Except that instead of snow, the cause will be fine volcanic ash clogging the ventilation systems.

On May 18, 1980 Seattle and Portland were very lucky that the prevailing winds were blowing west to east. This might be a bad time to set out on a Eurail tour of Europe.

The air is filtered by spinn filters, the problem with snow is it gets in locomotive and melts causing shorts.
the Ash actually spills out with waste air, the Spinn filters in normal use prevent dust , sand, etc from getting into fans and air intakes.
The vulcanic ash should not be a problem.

Here is how a spin filter works, each filter is made up out of 256 plastic units as seen below:


the air spins, sending particles to outside with clean air leaving filter via a tube, the articles blow out the bottom of the filter.

Vincent wrote:I'm wondering how much longer trains and automobiles will be able to operate in GB and continental Europe if the ash fallout continues. Any electrical or mechanical system requiring air flow may become clogged with fallout and have to be shut down. Even on a railway system operating with electric traction motors there is the possibility that the system will have to be shut down, for much the same reason Eurostar was knocked out by the snow last Christmas. Except that instead of snow, the cause will be fine volcanic ash clogging the ventilation systems.

On May 18, 1980 Seattle and Portland were very lucky that the prevailing winds were blowing west to east. This might be a bad time to set out on a Eurail tour of Europe.

On the ground there is hardly anything visible. In the Shetlands some people have noticed a slight sulphurous smell. In the south of England the sky is a little hazy. So far I have not detected any dust. All the problem is in the atmosphere at the level where jets fly.
The trains are crowded at present and you can't always get a reservation.
BBC report http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8627545.stm

Lorna Gordon, BBC News, Iceland

In some small areas the volcanic fallout has been significant. It is clogging car engines, turning grass grey and reducing visibility to just a few metres.

The police say driving conditions can be very difficult in these places. I heard one tale recounting that the moment you drive into the ash cloud it can feel as if you are driving into a wall.

The affected area is remote with only a few hundred people, most of them living in isolated homes and many of them farmers. They have been advised to stay inside with the windows and doors shut and if they do venture out to wear goggles and a mask.

Despite the hazards the volcano and its column of smoke are drawing visitors. They are also triggering lightning. The authorities are having to remind people they should not consider the volcano a tourist attraction. In fact, they have closed the country's ring road in the area affected to all but locals and the emergency services.

That is, there are dust problems at ground level in parts of Iceland (but Keflavik is still open) but not anywhere else.

wigwagfan wrote:And Harry S. Truman looked up, probably uttered some words not appropriate for this forum, and gasped his last breath of air.

You killed the wrong Truman:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Randall_Truman

Oddly enough, Mt. St. Helens was Burlington Northern property when it blew. Wonder how you write off that loss? "Sorry, we don't cover volcanoes," said their insurance company.

-otto-

Vincent wrote:On May 18, 1980 Seattle and Portland were very lucky that the prevailing winds were blowing west to east.

Yakima and the Tri-Cities, not so much!

Otto Vondrak wrote:You killed the wrong Truman:

Grrr, thanks for the correction.

In the Pacific Northwest, we sometimes experience the downwind ash cloud from Alaskan eruptions. I don't think local aviation is affected by those clouds, but we do get gorgeous JMW Turner-esque sunsets when there is an ash cloud passing overhead. The 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philipines affected the earth's climate for more than a year. In Seattle, 1992 was the summer of no sun.

The BBC map shows a finger of the Iceland volcano's cloud touching Newfoundland. So, it may be coming the way of North America. However some airports are re-opening on Tuesday in Scotland and the north of England.

Pardon me if I sound a bit ignorant here... were there such massive cancellations and shut-down of the airlines because of volcanic eruptions in the past? I remember a few volcanic eruptions in the news in the past 15 - 20 years but no massive airline shut-downs.

On a more on-topic note, are there any spare coaches from commuter railroads that can be leased in an emergency, or loan historical train cars like old Pullmans or something?