LSL Lake-Effect Snow Cancellations (Was: Tuesday 11/18 LSL cancelled)

[neroden]

Buffalo is, of course, famous for the heaviest lake-effect snows in the US. (It gets 'em from both north and east winds.)

This is a particularly high snow level. But a real railroad would have been able to clear a path by running its rotary plows back and forth. Instead, we have CSX. Hmmph.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Actually the Rochester area gets more Annual Snowfall than Buffalo contrary to popular belief!

And the NFL Network just announced that Sundays NFL game between the Bills and the NY Mess was being to moved to Ford Field in Detroit and will be played on Monday night!

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

Actually the Rochester area gets more Annual Snowfall than Buffalo contrary to popular belief!

And the NFL Network just announced that Sundays NFL game between the Bills and the NY Mess was being to moved to Ford Field in Detroit and will be played on Monday night!

Last year on the Lake Shore someone told me 'Cuse also averages more snow than Buffalo.

 

[JeffW]

Interesting that the four heaviest average snowfalls in the US all happen along the LSL route. In order:

1. Syracuse, 126 in

2. Erie Pa, 101 in

3. Rochester NY, 100 in

4. Buffalo, 96 in

Source: http://www.weather.com/storms/winter/news/20-snowiest-large-cities-america-20140130#/17

From my experience in Rochester, everything happens so gradually. We get a nice pile of snow, and move it out of the way. It melts, and soon after, we get more snow... But Buffalo always seems to get slammed, and being in an unfortunate economic situation, they don't have the infrastructure to move it easily. But this is still a particularly unusual situation.

One fun fact: Buffalo Bills asked for people to help shovel out the stadium, yesterday! They offered $10 an hour and a free ticket to Saturday's game in hopes of shoveling 220,000 tons of snow. But, the game was moved to Detroit.

Actually the Rochester area gets more Annual Snowfall than Buffalo contrary to popular belief!

And the NFL Network just announced that Sundays NFL game between the Bills and the NY Mess was being to moved to Ford Field in Detroit and will be played on Monday night!

Last year on the Lake Shore someone told me 'Cuse also averages more snow than Buffalo.

 

[afigg]

A Service alert was posted last night (Nov 20) about restoration of service on Nov. 21: Buffalo Area Service Restoration Continues

Modified Empire Service schedules and Lake Shore Limited trains operate this Friday, normal Saturday service planned

Amtrak service through Buffalo, N.Y., is continuing to be restored, with modified Empire Service schedules west of Albany-Rensselaer, N.Y., to and from Syracuse/Buffalo/Niagara Falls on Friday, Nov. 21. Full Empire Service schedules are expected on Saturday, Nov. 22.

In addition to New York-City-Toronto, Ont., Canada, Maple Leaf service restored on Thursday, Nov. 20, full New York/Boston-Chicago Lake Shore Limited service via Buffalo and Cleveland resumes this Friday, Nov. 21.

All trains in the affected area will operate subject to delay following the very heavy snowfall and resulting rail traffic congestion due to temporary railroad closures. Amtrak service north and south of Albany-Rensselaer has continued to operate during this period.

Amtrak thanks CSX railroad for its work to restore service for the start of the very busy Thanksgiving holiday travel season.

 

[acelafan]

I was curious about how many trains had cancellations or service disruptions so I did a little querying on the Status Maps Database:

Monday Nov 17 to Thursday Nov 20 there were 9 service disruptions or cancellations for the Empire Service:

http://juckins.net/amtrak_status/archive/html/history_file.php?date_start=11%2F17%2F2014&date_end=11%2F20%2F2014&train_num=2**&sort=origin_date&sort_dir=DESC&sd=1&oper=OR&c=1

And system-wide during the same dates, Amtrak had 68 service disruptions or cancellations:

http://juckins.net/amtrak_status/archive/html/history_file.php?date_start=11%2F17%2F2014&date_end=11%2F20%2F2014&train_num=&sort=origin_date&sort_dir=DESC&sd=1&oper=OR&c=1

The total number of trains scheduled to run during the those dates was 1152.

http://juckins.net/amtrak_status/archive/html/history_file.php?date_start=11%2F17%2F2014&date_end=11%2F20%2F2014&train_num=&sort=origin_date&sort_dir=DESC&sd=-1&oper=OR&c=-1

So 68 out of 1152 means 5.9% of all Amtrak trains during that period had a service disruption or cancellation.

In case anyone wanted to know.

 

[VentureForth]

Hmmm - makes you wonder if it's statistically better to cancel a train than for it to run late!