Isidore Effects 3 Amtrak Trains

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Viewliner

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Freight railroads and Amtrak prepare for Isidore

Railroads serving New Orleans are bracing for the arrival of Hurricane Isidore, which was projected to come ashore in Louisiana sometime Thursday.

 

 

 

Floodgates around New Orleans – which sits below sea level – were closed early this morning, cutting off rail access to the city. As a major gateway between the big Eastern and Western railroads, more than 100 trains operate in and out of New Orleans daily.

 

 

 

Some of the traffic is being diverted via Memphis and St. Louis, while other traffic is being held until the hurricane passes, projected flooding recedes, and any damage is repaired.

 

 

 

Amtrak’s City of New Orleans, Crescent, and Sunset Limited stopped serving New Orleans today, spokesman Howard Riefs said.

 

 

 

The Crescent will not operate between New Orleans and Meridian, Miss., for the duration of the storm. The City of New Orleans will not run between New Orleans and Hammond, La. And the Sunset Limited will run only between Los Angeles and San Antonio, Texas, until the storm passes.
 
Amfleet said:
Well the forcast is showing that the storm should blow out tommorrow, but is on a head-on course into the Northeast.
That's not good. Do you think isidore has the potential to disrupt Northeast Service?
 
Amfleet said:
I hope not but do you remember Floyd. Trenton was like a seaport. I think the had up to 1-2 feet of water. :(
Sort of, I remember how by the time it reached North New Jersey it became Tropical Storm Floyd, but in the South part it was still a Hurricane.
 
We're actually praying for it to come up here and bust our drought...by the time it gets through the mountains it'll be knocked out -- as y'all know, hurricanes get their energy over water, and the NEC isn't really on any big coasts.
 
The NEC does sometimes experience tropical storms/hurricanes, Gloria in 1985 (we got a snow day for that one), Bob in 1991 I was at a camp near Providence when that came up Narraganset Bay and a tropical storm two years ago that I can't remember the name of. Watching the Weather Channel though by the time it gets up to the NE it'll just be just rain.
 
I think the Northeast will be ok from Isidore....we will get it in Atlanta before you and they are predicting "stormy " weather tonight(Thursay) clearing out Friday. A lot of punch should be knocked out of it before it gets to you. I know you have storms also, I have been there during one, but they usually approach you from the Atlantic...rather than the ones which follow roughly The Crescent's route. I remember arriving NYC during the remnants of hurricane-somebody years ago and it was ugly and stormy and the next day the sky could not have been more beautiful.
 
Bill,

Reminds me of when I lived in Alabama when Hurricane Georges came up Mobile Bay in 1998 then promptly reversed direction and left. I lived in Tuscaloosa and we were waiting for the rain that never came.
 
Beleve it or not, I was caught up on the outskirts of the infamous hurricane Camille in 1969...my trip plans were partially screwed up....was a frightening night I spent in New Orleans--and New Orleans actually only got the edge of it...but that was close enough.
 
TP49, your mention of Tuscaloosa brings back memories...my sister went to school at the University of Alabama, graduated about 1958 or 59, I think. Of course today's Atlanta train, The Crescent, goes through there..so I am aware of it. Has a fairly nice and clean railroad statrion, I have visited the city very briefly in recent years.
 
Bill, like your sister I too am a Bama alum. I always wanted to take the train back to NY when I was a student there but because of time constraints I always had to fly. I tried to take it from Tuscaloosa to Birmingham on a couple of occasions to get to the airport but the umpredictability of the train's arrival always made it difficult. My friends from New Orleans used to ride down on weekends and enjoyed it a lot.

If I remember right the station is on Greensboro Avenue and was a very nice old building with a NS office in it. The other thing I remember is because of its location ina triangle the platform was very short. Someday soon I hope to get back there as its been a few years and I need to see a game on campus :)
 
tp49, I do not know the name of the street where the station is located in TUscaloosa but it is just as you describe, sits on a triangle, with a short platform, etc.. In my sister's day there were actually TWO routes to NY---the route today used by Amtrak on a train which was then called The Southerner. THe other route was via BHM, Chattanooga(where we lived)Knoxville,Bristol,Roanoke, Lynchburg, Washington, etc to NYC.
 
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