NW mudslide season 2016-17

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rickycourtney said:
zephyr17 said:
They usually bustitute between Seattle and Vancouver when slides happen. Maybe because it happens so often, they are always prepped for it.
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There's actually been quite a few times this winter that Amtrak hasn't provided alternative service.
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The big difference between the SEA-VAC and the SEA-PDX segments is that there is already daily Thruway bus service running SEA-VAC. So while there might not be alternative service that specifically replaces the SEA-VAC trains, there would be existing buses to put people on, assuming there was enough capacity. For SEA-PDX there is no such fleet already in service, so it's (apparently) harder to scrounge up busses for weather-related cancellations.
 
Amtrak Service Disruption between Seattle, Wash. and Portland, Ore.
Train service suspended due to landslide

March 31, 2017

11:00 a.m. PT

Amtrak Cascades and Amtrak Coast Starlight service between Seattle and Portland is suspended due to a landslide near Vancouver, Wash. on Mar. 30. BNSF Railway, which own the tracks, has placed a 48-hour moratorium, suspending all rail traffic in the area until Saturday, April 1. Normal rail operations continue north of Seattle and south of Portland to Eugene, Ore.
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https://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?c=AM_Alert_C&pagename=am/AM_Alert_C/Alerts_Popup&cid=1251649986236
 
Amtrak Service Disruption between Vancouver, Wash. and Kelso, Wash.

Train service suspended due to landslide

April 7, 2017

12:30 p.m. PT

Amtrak Cascades and Amtrak Coast Starlight service between Vancouver, Wash. and Kelso, Wash., is suspended due to a landslide near Vancouver. BNSF Railway, which own the tracks, has placed a 48-hour moratorium, suspending all rail traffic in the area until Sunday, April 9. Amtrak is seeking alternate transportation. Normal rail operations continue north of Seattle and south of Portland to Eugene, Ore.
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A new guide for avoiding landslides in the Pacific Northwest

With all of its heavy rain and rolling hills, the Pacific Northwest is one of the most landslide-prone regions in the country. This is why the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI) released a new guide on Thursday to help homeowners avoid hazardous areas when buying property, identify warning signs of possible landslides and know who to call when they do.
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According to a post in Amtrak Cascades and Amtrak Coast Starlight Facebook groups, there's another mud slide somewhere between SEA and PDX. For the time being, just as usual north of SEA and south of PDX. This is interesting, as the CS for at least the next two or three days will be interrupted due to a derailment. Expect overnight bus bridge as well as the daytime bus bridge, if you are traveling on the CS for at least the next three days.

1. Proof of mudslide interruptions affecting both the CS and Cascades:

https://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?c=AM_Alert_C&pagename=am/AM_Alert_C/Alerts_Popup&cid=1251651018179

2. Proof of derailment interruptions affecting the CS only:

https://www.up.com/customers/announcements/customernews/allcustomernews/CN2017-27.html
 
So, I'm scheduled to travel from PDX to SEA to LWA (same-day connection) early next week. In the event of another mudslide (or if this one's not cleaned up by then), what should I know about my options? Cancelling the trip is not really an option at this stage, so if (for example) there's room for only a limited number of passengers on the bus, I want to do what I can to be first in line.
 
Johanna said:
So, I'm scheduled to travel from PDX to SEA to LWA (same-day connection) early next week. In the event of another mudslide (or if this one's not cleaned up by then), what should I know about my options? Cancelling the trip is not really an option at this stage, so if (for example) there's room for only a limited number of passengers on the bus, I want to do what I can to be first in line.
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The bus will take all passengers that should have been on that train (i.e. had reservations), and if there's not enough space, theoretically Amtrak will attempt to charter another one. Never had this happen to me, so I can only theorize on that.
 
Sorry for the foggy thinking...I guess what I had in mind was more the situation where Amtrak decides they can't offer any alternate transportation, and I'm stuck trying to get a seat on an existing bus service (e.g. BoltBus). There are plenty of bus seats available now, but if several trains' worth of people start buying them all at once, I can see them going quickly. Other options I might have (getting a last-minute flight to Wenatchee, or staying another night in Portland and taking the 28 the next day to join up with the 8 I'm booked to be on after one night in Leavenworth) are also things I'd want to take care of sooner rather than later. So if I do need to arrange my own alternate plans, I want to be able to know that as early as possible.

I guess my question is, what's the best source of up-to-the-minute information on whether my train is running or not? Is it amtrak.com? (Even though the service disruption announcement for yesterday's mudslide still says they're "seeking alternate transportation" - you'd think they'd know by now whether they'd found any or not.) 1-800-USA-RAIL? The station personnel at PDX? Some other source I don't know about?
 
Are these frequent mudslides a recent phenomenon, say within the last 15 years? What I'm wondering is whether frequent mudslides have always occurred in these areas or are they occurring just "recently". It seems to me that if they have always occurred, the owning railroad would have by now either fixed the problem at that location, or rerouted traffic to another line.

jb
 
As far as I know the problem is development near the line that is leading to unstable slopes along the rail line due to added weight on the soil.
 
Here is a video from a few years ago of why BNSF chooses to stop all passenger traffic for 48 hours...

 
Well that's a pickle. The obvious solution of cutting back the hillside won't work because there are houses up there. So what other solutions are being pursued? Putting up a monstrous wall? Reroute trains?

jb
 
These mudslides are a problem all along the west coast SFO - Vancouver, BC. California has been closing US-101 several times. Here is the latest.

Capitol Corridor <[email protected]>



Today at 2:45 PM

Due to continuing landslides on US 101, connecting bus service between Ukiah and Arcata will remain cancelled through Tuesday, May 2. The Martinez-Arcata buses will operate only between Martinez and Ukiah through this date.

Further Sound transit has done a fairly job of mitigating landslides with a large decrease north of line north of Seattle. However this rash south of SEA is new this year and WA DOT will probably take the 2-3 years to engineer and solve the problems south of Tacoma that it took Sound transit.
 
Mudslides along the coast line is a never ending story.

This is just north/east of Everett Jct. The same location as the slide in December 2012.

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The Everett-Seattle route is simply no good. It was basically built at the bottom of seaside cliffs... which is stupid. It's going to be flooded by sea level rise eventually. In the long run it needs to be replaced with an inland route. Unfortunately the inland route which used to exist (the NP route) has been severed in multiple places.

The mudslides between Vancouver WA and Tacoma are another mater, and are a newer phenomeon. That route's not bad. It ought to be possible to permanently fix them.
 
norfolkwesternhenry said:
John Bobinyec said:
So the problem is a long-standing one. One possible solution would be to build "mud sheds" much like the SP built snow sheds.

jb
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that would be a good idea, but I'm not sure they would be too cheap, and they would need to be extremely strong as dirt builds up where snow melts every summer
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I believe the technology is called "tunnel."
 

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