There are approximately 23 Amtrak Amfleet 1 cars parked here in New Or

[Save Our Trains Michigan]

All Concerned,

There are approximately 23 Amtrak Amfleet 1 cars parked here in New Orleans

on tracks 2, 7 & 8, all supposedly cleaned and ready to roll in the event of

a hurricane before this season's end. I have been by NOUPT and seen them

myself parked on these 3 tracks. I have not been in a position to count

them, but an Amtrak clerk says there are 23. I am told that the city/state

paid Amtrak to deadhead and store them here for this hurricane season in the

event of a possible hit.

This is the plan I have been told. 3 days before the storm is due to make

landfall, people wanting to ride the train out of town are to report to City

Park for processing and plasitc bracelet issuing. Greyhound will provide 3

shuttle busses for these people to ride. The busses will take them to this

train and there will be assigned seating. There will be an Amtrak official

and a police officer in each car. This train will go to where ever at the

time it is felt safe to go, be it Baton Rouge, Jackson, or Merridian, or

elsewhere. The train will go to the destination and unload the passengers,

then deadhead back and repeat the process with as many roundtrips as

possible before the railroad they are using. shuts down for the hurricane.

I have not been told a plan of return after the storm, however, even if the

track is useable.

As info....

OVER&OUT.....

 

[Yerry]

Yup, dead-on; there are 23 of 'em. Go here:

http://www.on-track-on-line.com/amtkrinf-runaway.shtml

OTOL reports that the cars are stored 84-seat Amfleet I coach, some requiring FRA waivers because their COT&S (Clean, Oil, Test & Stencil, an air brake maintenance requirement) dates are over four years old. No in-service cars were used.

 

[RailFanNebraska]

Is the city of NO paying amtrak to store the cars there i wonder.

I thought when the NO's mayor ask amtrak about this they basically laughed him out the window because they didnt have the spare fleet to do such a thing. I guess that is where the FRA waivers come into play.

 

[jamesontheroad]

This is very encouraging news, especially since it has demonstrated that someone is capabale of putingt two and two together for the mothballed Amfleets. Seeing Katrina strike the USA last year from the UK, one of the most poignant and shocking images during the aftermath was shown on the high profile ITV network news. The reporter pulled no punches in showing a yard full (acres) of bright yellow school buses parked up under a few feet of water in New Orleans. No-one had thought to use these iconic vehicles to save the people who needed help the most.

Let's hope that they don't need them this year. And maybe that someone will find a more permanent use for them on the rails of Louisiana and neighbouring states ^_^

*j*

 

[George Harris]

The reporter pulled no punches in showing a yard full (acres) of bright yellow school buses parked up under a few feet of water in New Orleans. No-one had thought to use these iconic vehicles to save the people who needed help the most.

This is actually incorrect. The mayor (Nagin) refused. In essence, he said we are not going to cram people into school busses. "They" should send us enough Greyhounds to haul people out. It is not that no one thought about it. The powers that be would not use them. I think the reality is that no one though it would be as bad as it was until it was too late to get out. The usual hurricane situation is that there is flooding for a day or so and then the water starts running off. Unfortunately below sea level does not run off, and Nagin of all people should have known it.

 

[1702]

This is very encouraging news, especially since it has demonstrated that someone is capabale of putingt two and two together for the mothballed Amfleets. Seeing Katrina strike the USA last year from the UK, one of the most poignant and shocking images during the aftermath was shown on the high profile ITV network news. The reporter pulled no punches in showing a yard full (acres) of bright yellow school buses parked up under a few feet of water in New Orleans. No-one had thought to use these iconic vehicles to save the people who needed help the most
*j*

IIRC, pre-Katrina the mayor of New Orleans had no authority whatsoever over the Orleans Parish School Board & could only request that they provide buses for evacuation, not order them to do so. Very probably another factor was that many of the school bus drivers, along with other essential personnel (including hundreds of police officers) fled the city.

The premiere of Spike Lee's documentary, "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts", is tonite at 9PM ET/PT on HBO. The first two hours are tonite, the rest tomorrow nite same time. It'll be shown in its entirety Aug. 29 at 8PM ET/PT. From what I've read, it's a stunning indictment of everyone from Nagin on up.

 

[George Harris]

The premiere of Spike Lee's documentary, "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts", is tonite at 9PM ET/PT on HBO. The first two hours are tonite, the rest tomorrow nite same time. It'll be shown in its entirety Aug. 29 at 8PM ET/PT. From what I've read, it's a stunning indictment of everyone from Nagin on up.

And well it should. We have family scattered all along the gulf coast and have a lifetime of familiarity with hurricanes. Just watching from a distance, it appeared that Nagin and Blanco along with the FEMA director, who's name I forget, were playing a good case of the Three Stooges along with doing a lot of blame passing. The National Guard units that got involved seemed to be about the only ones that acted like they knew what they were doing. It had been generally known in the engineering community for a long time that the levees needed some upgrading and maintenance, but good engineering and maintenance work is invisible as long as it works, so the politicians neve coughed up the money to do it. Also, the levee system was oriented toward protecting the city from Mississippi River floods and pumping the water that fell on the city into Lake Pontchatrain. Flooding from storm surges in the Lake was not really in the design, at least not to the level that actually happened. Pumping water out does absolutely no good when you are pumping into the body of water that is the source of your flood.

Most of these guys were bureaucrats and and did not know how to think outside the box. I still blame Nagin for the school bus fiasco. If the parish would not cooperate, then go out there grab some guys that know how to hotwire a bus and get those things on the road. They were all so strait-jacketed by their rule book that they did not know how to deal with a situation that did not follow the book.

George

 

[Boxcar]

Most of these guys were bureaucrats and and did not know how to think outside the box. I still blame Nagin for the school bus fiasco. If the parish would not cooperate, then go out there grab some guys that know how to hotwire a bus and get those things on the road. They were all so strait-jacketed by their rule book that they did not know how to deal with a situation that did not follow the book.

George I agree with your thinking here. In fact if my memory serves me correctly, there was one guy that actually went into a school bus office, found the keys to a bus and hauled a bus load of people out to Houston. I also seem to recall that no charges were filed against him.

 

[AmtrakFan]

The premiere of Spike Lee's documentary, "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts", is tonite at 9PM ET/PT on HBO. The first two hours are tonite, the rest tomorrow nite same time. It'll be shown in its entirety Aug. 29 at 8PM ET/PT. From what I've read, it's a stunning indictment of everyone from Nagin on up.

And well it should. We have family scattered all along the gulf coast and have a lifetime of familiarity with hurricanes. Just watching from a distance, it appeared that Nagin and Blanco along with the FEMA director, who's name I forget, were playing a good case of the Three Stooges along with doing a lot of blame passing. The National Guard units that got involved seemed to be about the only ones that acted like they knew what they were doing. It had been generally known in the engineering community for a long time that the levees needed some upgrading and maintenance, but good engineering and maintenance work is invisible as long as it works, so the politicians neve coughed up the money to do it. Also, the levee system was oriented toward protecting the city from Mississippi River floods and pumping the water that fell on the city into Lake Pontchatrain. Flooding from storm surges in the Lake was not really in the design, at least not to the level that actually happened. Pumping water out does absolutely no good when you are pumping into the body of water that is the source of your flood.

Most of these guys were bureaucrats and and did not know how to think outside the box. I still blame Nagin for the school bus fiasco. If the parish would not cooperate, then go out there grab some guys that know how to hotwire a bus and get those things on the road. They were all so strait-jacketed by their rule book that they did not know how to deal with a situation that did not follow the book.

George

George,

The FEMA guys name was Mike Brown. Things might have been better if the Engineers didn't cut the cornors on Constructing the Levee.

 

[George Harris]

George,The FEMA guys name was Mike Brown. Things might have been better if the Engineers didn't cut the cornors on Constructing the Levee.

Thanks, I should have remembered that name. You can't blame the Corps only. They can only build what they have the money to build. I have known several of these guys over my working life, and they can be very frustrated with the difference between what the politicians will fund and what they perceive as needed. A lot of money goes into recreatioal related stuff that has very little or nothing at all to do with flood protection. Many times they end up building not what they want or even what they ought, but just try to get as close to what they ought as the money appropriated will permit.

George

 

[Rafi]

Just as a followup, I alerted my bureau chief to this story and we had our government affairs correspondent, Julia Malone, do a story (I'm too inundated with work this month, unfortunately). Julia mentioned to me yesterday how surprised she was at how cheap the trains were to lease and run as compared to the busses, which cost $33 million. The wire copy follows; the story was circulated to all Cox Newspapers and New York Times wire subscribers.

BC-FEMA-AMTRAK22-COX

Posted By: New York Times

Date: Monday, 21 August 2006, at 6:11 p.m.

^BC-FEMA-AMTRAK22-COX<

<

AMTRAK BRINGS OUT OLD RAIL CARS AS PART OF STANDBY EVACUATION PLANS

By JULIA MALONE

Cox News Service

WASHINGTON- When Hurricane Katrina was bearing down on New

Orleans a year ago, Amtrak's offers to help evacuate citizens went

unheeded, as the last passenger train departed the city nearly

empty.

Federal officials are trying to make sure that won't be repeated

if there is a new emergency.

Under a $700,000 contract, Amtrak has refurbished 24 mothballed

rail cars and brought them to the New Orleans train station, where

they are now on standby for the current storm season, said Brian

Turmail, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Transportation. The

arrangements are part of an evacuation program financed by the

Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Turmail said that if a hurricane threatens, FEMA will provide

buses to bring evacuees to the train station. The 24 restored cars

plus 23 more cars now used for Amtrak's regular passenger service

in the region would be mobilized for the effort, he said. A single

train can take as many as 1,600 passengers out of the danger zone.

In addition, the Transportation Department has a contract with

Dallas-based Coach America for $33 million to keep 200 buses in the

Gulf region ``pre-staged'' for immediate rescue services. The

contract gives the government access to as many as 1,800 more buses

if needed. Turmail said the bus costs are greater than the train

contract because the buses have been taken out of regular service.

Asked whether residents would be allowed to take their pets - a

major issue for many New Orleans residents who refused to leave

their homes during Katrina - the Transportation Department

spokesman said that decision will be made by local officials and

FEMA.

Julia Malone's e-mail address is [email protected]

ENDIT

 

[Save Our Trains Michigan]

OFF the UTU web site:

Old Amtrak rail cars part of evacuation plan WASHINGTON -- When Hurricane Katrina was bearing down on New Orleans a year ago, Amtrak's offers to help evacuate citizens went unheeded, as the last passenger train departed the city nearly empty, according to this Cox News Service report by Julia Malone.

Federal officials are trying to make sure that won't be repeated if there is a new emergency.

Under a $700,000 contract, Amtrak has refurbished 24 mothballed rail cars and brought them to the New Orleans train station, where they are now on standby for the current storm season, said Brian Turmail, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Transportation. The arrangements are part of an evacuation program financed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Turmail said that if a hurricane threatens, FEMA will provide buses to bring evacuees to the train station. The 24 restored cars plus 23 more cars now used for Amtrak's regular passenger service in the region would be mobilized for the effort, he said. A single train can take as many as 1,600 passengers out of the danger zone.

In addition, the Transportation Department has a contract with Dallas-based Coach America for $33 million to keep 200 buses in the Gulf region "pre-staged" for immediate rescue services. The contract gives the government access to as many as 1,800 more buses if needed. Turmail said the bus costs are greater than the train contract because the buses have been taken out of regular service.

Asked whether residents would be allowed to take their pets -- a major issue for many New Orleans residents who refused to leave their homes during Katrina -- the Transportation Department spokesman said that decision will be made by local officials and FEMA.

(The preceding Cox News Service report by Julia Malone was filed on Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2006.)

August 23, 2006

 

[Yerry]

Why the duplicate post?

 

[Chuck]

New Orleans media also reported there also has been a contract let (for quite a substantial amount of money) with US Coach to have a number of busses "available" on call. It's pretty clear that FEMA has learned some lessons. Not sure what having busses "available" means, but hopefully it's not sitting idle in an airport at Hope, Arkansas with nobody to drive them, or no thought as to where to obtain fuel to run them. One of the big issues and challenges with any evacuation operation is how to provide refueling services once that first tank in the bus or in the locomotive runs dry.

 

[battalion51]

Well Locomotives can run for approximately 1000 miles without needing to refuel. So a train can be able to be staged about 500 miles away make it in and make it out without needing to be refueled. Also the tanks in New Orleans would need to be emptied, so one could really make it all the way out to Carbondale or so without needing to take on fuel.