Signal outage on NE corridor Friday evening?

[BmoreFlyer]

Last night I had to come up to New Jersey on the Acela. Trains were all running late (we arrived 45 minutes late) but the reason that many people missed their train was that for stations like BWI, the N/B train was on the S/B track, and the S/B train on the N/B. Now I saw on the board that the tracks were switched, but no matter how many times they announced the track switch, people would scramble for the other track when their train arrived on the other track.

When we got going, we had to stop several times while enroute. I was sitting next to the conductor and could hear the engineer talking on his radio to (I presume) dispatch. He would get authorization to go some distance and then had to stop and ask again. Could this have been a signal outage? It seems to have been, but I didn't want to bother the conductor (he seemed busy with all of this) and I never found out the reason that the trains were on the opposite tracks either.

 

[jis]

Most likely this was due to one track being out of service in that area for tie replacement, and the desire to have the outbound trains from Washington DC to platform at a regular platform at BWI as opposed to using bridges across the out of service track to get to the platform. Because the southbound track is not dual-direction signaled the engineer had to copy Form Ds to get authorization to travel on it in the wrong direction, hence the stops.

 

[Rafi]

Most likely this was due to one track being out of service in that area for tie replacement, and the desire to have the outbound trains from Washington DC to platform at a regular platform at BWI as opposed to using bridges across the out of service track to get to the platform. Because the southbound track is not dual-direction signaled the engineer had to copy Form Ds to get authorization to travel on it in the wrong direction, hence the stops.

Bingo. Remarkably good call, Jishnu. You were spot on.

Rafi

 

[Ryan]

Not only BWI, but for MARC service to make stops at Seabrook, Bowie State and Odenton at a platform and not bridge plates. Odenton (my station) is particularly heavily travelled and during the evening rush it was taking the trains far, far too long to unload.