AndyPatterson

Yesterday afternoon/evening (July 3), the NEC had a meltdown with "signal problems" between Metropark and Philadelphia, and trains were delayed by 3 to 5 hours on that stretch. The Acela I was on left NYP 2 hours late, and really had to dawdle in most of New Jersey. When we got to PHL, we were told to disembark and board the adjoining regional train! Fortunately, I was able to grab one of the few vacant seats, but there were a number of standees. Have to wonder if they blocked a few seats in the NER business class car for the Acela first class customers? Anyway, we were supposed to arrive at 7:55 pm, and ended up arriving at 11:55 pm. At least there were a lot of cabs at Union Station, because all the earlier trains were also delayed, with some not arriving until 1 am.

Key question -- why doesn't Amtrak have redundant / backup signals so that if one set goes out, it automatically switches over to the other set?

Also, looking at the train status shows all the Acela trains, including 2167, as arriving late at WAS, but we had to leave 2167 at PHL for the regional train. Did 2167 then make its way empty to DC?

fatmac70

Unfortunately I was caught up in yesterday’s Signal failure as well. I was on Acela 2165 from Boston to PHL. We were on time into NYP, left NYP almost 2hrs late and crept through New Jersey very slowly (not much more than 10 mph) finally arriving in Philly just after 9pm four hours late. The 2165 did continue onto Washington.
Some of our train crew were Boston based not sure how they fared after they arrived in WAS.

Certainly a very poor performance from Amtrak - the US Govt (inc US taxpayer) and Amtrak do need to see how we can all agree to invest more in rail infrastructure.
The current NEC signaling seems so antiquated compared to what I see in Europe and Japan. This comes from a Brit living in US where we are well known at moaning at the state of UK railways!

Long Train Runnin

Got caught up in this mess yesterday as well.

Was just trying to take NJ Transit from NYP to Princeton Junction.

Thanks to almost 90 minutes waiting for a gate at T4 at JFK I missed a train that my friends ended up grabbing that left at 1018pm.

I waited for the 11:06 which eventually just disappeared from the screens with no announcement or official cancelation.

I gave up on NJ Transit at that point and took PATH to Newark Penn Station via Hoboken and a transfer at Grove Street.
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Scheduled a Lfyt for a 12:30 pick up from there home. Got home around 1:15.

Whats crazy is I beat my friends back on the ill fated 10:18 train. It took them almost 3 hours to get to Princeton Junction.

The signal system does have redundancy from what I've learned talking to some Amtrak signal folks I've met over the years. The issue yesterday was a power failure to the entire system. I'll try to get some more info on this later in the week. Although, I think this was one of those "worst case scenario" moments.

Definitely very disappointing that the nations busiest stretch of rail had this kind of long term disruption for sure. It looks like things didn't fully resolve until about 6am today. I guess on the bright side today was set up on a holiday schedule versus a full rush hour situation scheduled for this morning.

AndyPatterson

"The signal system does have redundancy from what I've learned talking to some Amtrak signal folks I've met over the years. The issue yesterday was a power failure to the entire system. I'll try to get some more info on this later in the week. Although, I think this was one of those "worst case scenario" moments."

Thanks for that info -- I guess what is needed is a workaround for when there is a power failure?

Also, seemingly unrelated is why my Acela (2167) had to disembark in PHL and we all had to get on a regional train which made additional stops in Maryland but did get us finally to Union Station.

ND76

Not only do we need to invest in passenger rail infrastructure along the lines with proven demand for service, such as the NEC, but we need to turn the operation of the railroad over to a company like First, NS or DB. I think the popularity of rail travel and the quality and reliability of the trains would markedly improve if that happened. Unfortunately, there are a lot of powerful players (read: the US3 airlines) that don't want this to happen.

fatmac70

I received an apology e-mail from Amtrak this morning that I will be receiving a full refund for my Acela trip on the 3rd July. E-mail mentioned expect the refund to hit my credit card in 2-3 weeks.

I assume other posters impacted received a similar e-mail.

I have had delays in the past and depending on the length of delay (Acela only) have received reward points.

I was hoping there would be some form of compensation following the events on Monday, also good it was proactive as well.

AndyPatterson

Also got that same email this afternoon! The last time I had an Amtrak delay (due to the tragic death of the two kids on the track near Chester, Pennsylvania), I got reward points.

A319 V2500

Overhead power issues this morning. NEC having a rough week it seems.

fatmac70

Ouch! Just glad I am at home this morning!

good luck to those impacted- hope it gets resolved quickly.

AndyPatterson

Apparently resolved by 10 am, but resulted in cascading delays for the rest of the day -- https://www.amtrak.com/alert.html#

Hopefully everything will be fully caught up on Friday!

WeekendTraveler

It�s Amtrak management that doesn�t want anyone else operating passenger trains that Amtrak currently operates. Airlines couldn�t care less.

Look at Indiana: Amtrak did everything that it could to block Iowa Pacific from operating the Hoosier State (and note that Iowa Pacific significantly upgraded the train, although IP isn�t the best example given its collapse).

Amtrak hasn�t done a thing to help private operators run long-distance trains (despite Federal law).

There are more examples of Amtrak not playing nice with anyone who might take over its operation of passenger trains.

Amtrak is a government-funded monopoly. That�s never best for the consumer. Time to have EU-style support for a range of operators, not just one.

schriste

My 1:00 pm departure from BOS was affected by the July 6th issue. It finally left about 1 hour late. Fortunately, the train remained 1 hour late for the entire journey to NYP... so at least we did not lose more time. Yesterday I received an email apologizing for the delay and 2000 points.

AndyPatterson

Good news: the Hudson River Tunnel project is finally back on track: https://www.washingtonpost.com/trans...eway-new-york/

Bad news: lots of other problems on the rest of the NYP-WAS route, including the Metropark signal/wiring snafu of the past week, the crooked tracks around Frankford (North Philadelphia), and the slow transit through the Baltimore tunnels.

wxguy

It's quite possible your engineer and/or conductors "timed out," meaning they ran up against their Federally-mandated on-duty limits. There's no getting around that. They have to stop where they are (even if between stations) and wait for a relief crew. So dispatchers watch that carefully, and if there's any risk of a train being stopped between stations for that reason, they'll annul the train at a station in advance.

fatmac70

My refund hit my credit card account this morning.