NEC Service Restored 6/10/12

[jis]

For the record, this is the second catenary issue this weekend. On Saturday, trains stacked up in Trenton, NJ after the wires went either down or otherwise out, somewhere between Princeton Jct and Trenton.

I don't think Amtrak can afford to wait another second on replacing catenary that is failing with such regular occurrence.

Neither of the two were really catenary issues, in the sense that the root cause of neither was the failure of the catenary structure.

The Bush River incident was a power control issue, and it is not clear that replacing every inch of catenary would cause power control issues to go away. It is as likely that this was a "pilot error" as that it was a equipment failure. We will probably never know for sure specially if it was the former.

The incident on Saturday was also not a catenary issue. It was the issue of a PSE&G HT line falling on the catenary. Again replacing all the catenary in the world is not going to prevent PSE&G's cables falling on top of them. The incident was just east of Trenton.

That is not to say the catenary does not need to be replaced. My friend Al Fazio tells me that the catenary that will be replaced between Trenton and New Brunswick is way past its useful life and is in dire need for replacement. He is the Chief Engineer of the NEC High Speed Rail project that is rebuilding the segment between New Brunswick and Trenton.

 

[afigg]

For the record, this is the second catenary issue this weekend. On Saturday, trains stacked up in Trenton, NJ after the wires went either down or otherwise out, somewhere between Princeton Jct and Trenton.

I don't think Amtrak can afford to wait another second on replacing catenary that is failing with such regular occurrence.

Can't afford to wait another "second"? Substitute "another second" with "more than a couple of decades" might be more realistic in terms of getting the funding and then doing the catenary upgrade and replacement work. The good news is that the catenary between Trenton and Brunswick NJ will be replaced with constant tension by 2017. The bad news is when the rest of the catenary between WAS and NYP might get replaced or renewed is anyone's guess.

The problem in this case was the Bush River movable bridge which resulted in a major interruption of service on the NEC. The incident may get replacing the Bush River bridge with, one would hope, a higher level fixed span bridge moved up the NEC priority todo list. The problem is that the NEC project priority list is very long and crowded at the top.

 

[jis]

Can't afford to wait another "second"? Substitute "another second" with "more than a couple of decades" might be more realistic in terms of getting the funding and then doing the catenary upgrade and replacement work. The good news is that the catenary between Trenton and Brunswick NJ will be replaced with constant tension by 2017. The bad news is when the rest of the catenary between WAS and NYP might get replaced or renewed is anyone's guess.

Though not all CT, some amount of catenary replacement has been going on piecemeal for some time now. For example the catenary between Swift and Bergen on the High Line (between Newark and New York) is pretty much all new. They were replaced when the Swift interlocking was built and the Secaucus Jct. track realignments took place. Of course when the Portal Bridge replacement takes place everything involved there will be brand new yet again. Quite a bit of catenary has also been replaced in the territory of Dock interlocking specially at the eeast end of it, during the construction of the new track 1 connections and the pocket tracks between tracks 1 and 2 for RVL trains.

The catenary on the entire New York Connecting Railroad (CP Harold to CP216 on the Hell Gate Line) is now completed. Harold restructuring will substantially replace all catenary through Harold when done. So Boston to New York will be all new catenary in a couple of years.

Keystone Corridor catenary has been substantially replaced except for the part that is now about to be t replace between Philly and Paoli.

NEC South Main Line catenary will be replaced as part of a significant speed enhancement project in steps.

 

[NE933]

Ask the passengers who waited 2+ hours.

Better yet, the next time it happens to a major sports league, or NJ Chamber of Commerce, or other powerful and high profile group, perhaps that will get the fire in the balls rolling.

Every inch of catenary is like every inch between Earth and the Sun; no one knows exactly how much that is nor does it really matter. Do we know how many times we've been intimate with our spouses or partners? How many meals we've had by the moonlight? How many times I've cut my fingernails?

What we know is that replacement of these wires must begin soon. Count inches do not, do miles at a time to get started.

 

[brandon02852]

I was talking to the conductor of the 94 Regional yesterday and he said that the downed wire was in Baltimore and that it made some trains delay by 3-4 hours.

Not good...but atleast it is fixed.