Capitol Ltd service suspended (8/2/17) CSX Derailment in PA; restored

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Railroad Bill

Railroad Bill

Buckeye Train Watcher
AU Supporting Member
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Jun 28, 2007
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Capitol Ltd 30 &29 service was suspended today due to major train derailment near Hyndman, Pa this morning. LPG gas and other hazardous chemicals in derailed cars. Town was evacuated. Buses taking passengers between WAS & PGH. Service may be suspended for several days while reconstruction of track and car removal takes place.

wjactv.com/news for more information
 
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A preliminary estimate was around 5 days for service restoration, of course that can and probably will change. New ticket sales for probable effected dates were halted.
 
My family and I were on 30 in PGH this morning, arrived just after 06:00. I was up already, but it was quite the scene as the announcement was made and the attendants rousted everyone out of their rooms. We were headed for PHL anyway, so we just boarded 42 - no reprocessing of tickets, the conductor just looked at my ticket from 30 and waved us into Business Class. The people being bussed were allowed to have breakfast in the diner, as the busses weren't going to show up for another 1.5 to 2 hours. The diner staff was kind enough to throw some fruit and croissants into a bag for us to eat on 42.
 
Perhaps one way to mitigate the situation for those traveling from NY and Philly via Washington on the Cap is to add an extra car to the Pennsy for this period and reroute them via the Pennsy with a change at PGH. Even passengers from Washington and other points south of PHL can be routed that way, though will involve two changes, one in PHL and the other in PGH.
 
If the Capitol Limited's equipment was stranded in Washington, I would suppose the Crescent could run using the Superliner equipment, and the Capitol Limited could run using the Viewliner equipment. But there's no way they would do that anyway, and add that many hours to the trip duration, and then equipment would be all out of place and it would be much harder to resume normal service once the derailment is cleared and the line is reopened.
 
Triley said:
If the Capitol Limited's equipment was stranded in Washington, I would suppose the Crescent could run using the Superliner equipment, and the Capitol Limited could run using the Viewliner equipment. But there's no way they would do that anyway, and add that many hours to the trip duration, and then equipment would be all out of place and it would be much harder to resume normal service once the derailment is cleared and the line is reopened.
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While the Crescent is terminating in WAS it doesn't make much difference in terms of the equipment. As for the duration, the CL takes 7:45 from PGH to PHL. The Pennsylvanian takes 7:25 from PGH to PHL and trains between PHL and WAS take around 2 hours. So you would spend about 2 hours longer. If you can get NS's approval (of course big if), it's a no brainer to add 2 hrs to the CHI-WAS trip to get direct CHI-PHL (and CHI-BAL train service). And as for right now, what's the alternative? Anyone from CHI to WAS having to be bustituted between PGH and WAS? Having to change trains and spend 5am-7:30am in PGH?
 
Triley said:
If the Capitol Limited's equipment was stranded in Washington, I would suppose the Crescent could run using the Superliner equipment, and the Capitol Limited could run using the Viewliner equipment. But there's no way they would do that anyway, and add that many hours to the trip duration, and then equipment would be all out of place and it would be much harder to resume normal service once the derailment is cleared and the line is reopened.
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I assume one CL set _is_ stranded in WAS. There's plenty of time at CHI and PGH to turn, clean & restock, so Amtrak should be able to run the CL with two sets until they can reach WAS again.
 
Philly Amtrak Fan said:
Triley said:
If the Capitol Limited's equipment was stranded in Washington, I would suppose the Crescent could run using the Superliner equipment, and the Capitol Limited could run using the Viewliner equipment. But there's no way they would do that anyway, and add that many hours to the trip duration, and then equipment would be all out of place and it would be much harder to resume normal service once the derailment is cleared and the line is reopened.
Click to expand...
While the Crescent is terminating in WAS it doesn't make much difference in terms of the equipment. As for the duration, the CL takes 7:45 from PGH to PHL. The Pennsylvanian takes 7:25 from PGH to PHL and trains between PHL and WAS take around 2 hours. So you would spend about 2 hours longer. If you can get NS's approval (of course big if), it's a no brainer to add 2 hrs to the CHI-WAS trip to get direct CHI-PHL (and CHI-BAL train service). And as for right now, what's the alternative? Anyone from CHI to WAS having to be bustituted between PGH and WAS? Having to change trains and spend 5am-7:30am in PGH?
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Passengers between PGH and WAS would still need service of some sort (or, I guess, cancel tickets, though that flies in the face of Amtrak being a carrier for those intermediate points.) With the current timetables you also couldn't connect the northbound Crescent to the Capitol Limited (though it looks like both directions of the Silver Meteor and the southbound Crescent would still work at PHL.) There's also the equipment issues, especially last minute. It's probably easier to just bus people to WAS, since you're needing buses for intermediate points anyways, and simply allow people the option to take the Pennsylvanian instead if there's room and their destination is along the NEC.
 
They can always reroute and bustitute, isn't that what they did with a Texas Eagle reroute? (and that involved bustitution with DAL? vs. a tiny number of passengers who board/depart between PGH and WAS) You're forcing a lot of people onto a bus vs. forcing them to spend an extra 2-3 hours on a train. Sure running a train and all of the hassle will cost more money but if CHI-WAS passengers are forced onto buses (and forced off at 5:05am) consider their future business too. Keep the CHI-WAS passengers as happy as possible.
 
If I was travelling CHI-WAS, or anywhere else along the NEC, I'd much prefer changing to the Pennsylvanian at PGH than a bustitution. Even if it added hours to the trip. I might feel differently if my destination was COV, CUM, MRB, HFY etc.
 
All the more reason to permanently convert the Capitol back to single level equipment, if they could get enough for the purpose...'Viewliner' coaches someday, perhaps?

Then they could simply reroute the Cap from Pittsburgh to Washington, via the Port Road, or thru Philly, and down the NEC....

Edit: Before Philly Amtrak Fan gets excited, I only sugggest that for emergency detours.... :)
 
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Does anyone know when Amtrak is allowing pax on/forcing pax off the CL at PGH? The day I rode (day of the derailment), pax were awakened at 6AM, but with the exception of those changing to 42 or leaving at PGH everyone was locked into 30 (and the diner was serving breakfast) until the buses showed up around 08:00. If pax are allowed to remain on board until 08:00 and board at, say, 11:00 PM it would actually be an improvement for PGH-CHI passengers!
 
Since 29 is likely sitting in PGH waiting for its official departure time, it would be nice for those leaving 43 to board their sleepers on 29 and get some early rest. But I suppose the crews are not being called until closer to departure and there would be no one on board to service passengers. Still a long wait in the PGH station?
 
There are some logical scenarios presented here as to rerouting the CL. IMO none of them will happen because CSX may not be able to offer an alternate route to PGH. The Pennsylvanian runs on NS tracks and on that busy route they are not anxious hosting another Amtrak train. The only solution looks like WAS-PHL then west on the Pennsylvanian to PGH, then a wait for 4 hours for the CL at midnight (or its bus time).
 
I'm just surprised there still isn't a service alert posted on Amtrak.com for this.
 
dlagrua said:
There are some logical scenarios presented here as to rerouting the CL. IMO none of them will happen because CSX may not be able to offer an alternate route to PGH. The Pennsylvanian runs on NS tracks and on that busy route they are not anxious hosting another Amtrak train. The only solution looks like WAS-PHL then west on the Pennsylvanian to PGH, then a wait for 4 hours for the CL at midnight (or its bus time).
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While they might not be anxious to host another Amtrak train, if this had been a planned disruption they might have been willing to temporarily host the CL (there would have been time to work out scheduling, etc). Is the infrastructure even in place for a transfer in Pittsburgh back to the CSX line?
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bretton88 said:
dlagrua said:
There are some logical scenarios presented here as to rerouting the CL. IMO none of them will happen because CSX may not be able to offer an alternate route to PGH. The Pennsylvanian runs on NS tracks and on that busy route they are not anxious hosting another Amtrak train. The only solution looks like WAS-PHL then west on the Pennsylvanian to PGH, then a wait for 4 hours for the CL at midnight (or its bus time).
Click to expand...
While they might not be anxious to host another Amtrak train, if this had been a planned disruption they might have been willing to temporarily host the CL (there would have been time to work out scheduling, etc). Is the infrastructure even in place for a transfer in Pittsburgh back to the CSX line?
Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk
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If you came from the east on NS (as on the route of the Pennsylvanian) why on earth would you transfer to CSX at Pittsburgh? The Cap runs on NS west of Pittsburgh, or did you not realize that? The Pittsburgh Amtrak station is on NS. The Cap transfers from CSX to NS east of the station.
 

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