Amtrak Empire Service Suspended due to Metro North Derailment

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PRR 60

PRR 60

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All Amtrak Empire Service between New York and Albany has been suspended due to the Metro North derailment at Spuyten Duyvil, in the Bronx, New York City. There is no word when service will be resumed.

Discussion of the derailment has been moved to the commuter trains forum here.
 
Thanks for moving it for me. I wasn't sure which train had derailed when I started that thread.
 
Amtrak on Facebook:

Empire Line Service is being held btwn NYC/Albany due to an early morning derailment of a Metro-North commuter train in Spuyten Duyvil, NY. No estimate for restoration of Empire Line service is available at this time. Amtrak Northeast Corridor service between Washington and Boston is not affected.
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Well Amtrak did release the Maple Leaf from Penn, but it looks like it's sitting at CP Inwood waiting to cross the bridge at Spuyten Duyvil.

Nothing else has been sent northbound, but there are several Amtrak trains enroute going southbound. Looks like 2 are in the Peekskill area at present, I believe still moving. Whether they will stop at Croton Harmon or not is unclear.
 
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I'm betting the NTSB told MN to not open the railroad. They may not want the signal system worked until all the post-accident settings can be inspected and recorded.
 
PRR 60 said:
I'm betting the NTSB told MN to not open the railroad. They may not want the signal system worked until all the post-accident settings can be inspected and recorded.
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My guess is that it's already too late for that Bill. If Amtrak got the go ahead to release several trains through the area, MN would have already changed signals for that.

And I'm seeing 283 running north of the site on the Amtrak status site, approaching Croton-Harmon, meaning that at least one train has gone through the interlocking north of the Spuyten curve. So unless Amtrak has something keyed off wrong in its system, again at least 1 train has gone through.
 
AlanB said:
PRR 60 said:
I'm betting the NTSB told MN to not open the railroad. They may not want the signal system worked until all the post-accident settings can be inspected and recorded.
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My guess is that it's already too late for that Bill. If Amtrak got the go ahead to release several trains through the area, MN would have already changed signals for that.

And I'm seeing 283 running north of the site on the Amtrak status site, approaching Croton-Harmon, meaning that at least one train has gone through the interlocking north of the Spuyten curve. So unless Amtrak has something keyed off wrong in its system, again at least 1 train has gone through.
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Maybe they turned a train at Croton-Harmon to protect #283? The Maple Leaf #63, which leaves NYP before 283, is still sitting south of the derailment site. Unless they ran #283 around #63 (why would they do that?), there is no way it could be north of the site with #63 south of the site.
 
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I don't know Bill, it's all a bit confusing. Train 283 has no departure time from NYP listed, yet it is expected to arrive into Albany on time. And they couldn't have turned another train at Croton to 283, as 283 was south of CRT. If they had turned something at Tarrytown or Yonkers then that would explain what I'm seeing.

Interestingly, Amtrak status is reporting that the Adirondack will now depart at 2:30 PM right as I'm writing this, so it remains to be seen what will happen with that. A few other trains are currently listed with a 3:30 PM departure, which would be impossible, unless the consists have been combined into one longer train.
 
Further update, train #63 is now showing north of the bridge meaning that it has made it past the accident scene if this is correct. Update time was listed as 2:31 PM.

Hopefully this is a good sign.
 
And now train #69, the Adirondack, is showing as having been released from NYP at 2:31 PM to start its journey.

So it would appear that traffic is starting to move, albeit rather slowly as the Leaf is showing a speed of 1 MPH, through the accident area.
 
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AlanB said:
Further update, train #63 is now showing north of the bridge meaning that it has made it past the accident scene if this is correct. Update time was listed as 2:31 PM.

Hopefully this is a good sign.
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#63 is north of the bridge, but it is south of the interlocking with MN and sitting. Wonder if they are going to walk it through the interlocking with the signals dark?
 
I don't know what they did to get it through the interlocking Bill, but clearly with an arrival time at Yonkers it did get through the area finally.
 
Ok, Amtrak must have a GPS in wrong, as #283 is now heading south approaching Yonkers. #69 is approaching Inwood and other trains are also on the move southbound at this time.

So it would appear that Amtrak is resuming service on the Empire corridor, even if trains will continue to encounter further delays as they move through the Spuyten Duyvil area.
 
RyanS said:
With fatalities and cars all over the ground, I would be surprised with service returning so quickly.
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Metro North is not resuming service, only Amtrak is resuming service. And Amtrak while very close to the derailment site at that point, isn't yet on Metro North tracks. Therefore technically but for all the emergency services people running all over, there was no reason to stop Amtrak from running. Passengers on an Amtrak train might be able to see a few of the derailed cars as they cross the bridge, but at that distance they would not be able to see any bodies lying on the ground. Besides, they've all been removed anyhow.

As for the overall story, lets keep that discussion in the Commuter Rail forum as it is a Metro North story.
 
#63 is now north of Croton; #69 is holding at CP Inwood. It would appear that Amtrak is going to bring whatever train is being mis-reported as #283, as well as train #254 through the Spuyten area first, before they let the Adirondack go north. Interesting decision. :rolleyes:
 
Do they really consider shutting down entire rail corridors simply because a passenger with a weak constitution might see a dead body from an unrelated accident?
 
No, but if there is any signalling North of the interlocking that is shared with Amtrak and MN, then I am sure they would want to sterilize the scene to test the circuitry.

Viewing dead people, as so compassionately stated, is simply mitigated with a tarp. Keeping rescue/maintenance/officials/Cuomo off the active mainline is another issue.
 
I can understand the forensic and verification aspects. That makes perfect sense. Maybe I simply misread the situation. Then again I was recently surprised that a local police search was apparently able to prevent a Cascades train from continuing its journey until the police released it again.
 
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