Environment & Energy

hatrack

(59,587 posts) Sun Nov 18, 2012, 10:07 AM Nov 2012

Warned By Forecasters That Sandy Would Flood 2 Railyards, NJ Transit Parked Trains There Anyway

(Reuters) - New Jersey Transit's struggle to recover from Superstorm Sandy is being compounded by a pre-storm decision to park much of its equipment in two rail yards that forecasters predicted would flood, a move that resulted in damage to one-third of its locomotives and a quarter of its passenger cars. That damage is likely to cost tens of millions of dollars and take many months to repair, a Reuters examination has found.

The Garden State's commuter railway parked critical equipment - including much of its newest and most expensive stock - at its low-lying main rail yard in Kearny just before the hurricane. It did so even though forecasters had released maps showing the wetland-surrounded area likely would be under water when Sandy's expected record storm surge hit. Other equipment was parked at its Hoboken terminal and rail yard, where flooding also was predicted and which has flooded before.

Among the damaged equipment: nine dual-powered locomotive engines and 84 multi-level rail cars purchased over the past six years at a cost of about $385 million.

"If there's a predicted 13-foot or 10-foot storm surge, you don't leave your equipment in a low-lying area," said David Schanoes, a railroad consultant and former deputy chief of field operations for Metro North Railroad, a sister railway serving New York State. "It's just basic railroading. You don't leave your equipment where it can be damaged."

EDIT

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/18/us-storm-sandy-newjersey-railway-idUSBRE8AG0K220121118

3 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Warned By Forecasters That Sandy Would Flood 2 Railyards, NJ Transit Parked Trains There Anyway (Original Post) hatrack Nov 2012 OP

Where else do you park them? FogerRox Nov 2012 #1

They had a couple of days warning, they could have moved the rail cars someplace happyslug Nov 2012 #2

AEM7 & AEM8 electric locos FogerRox Nov 2012 #3

FogerRox

(13,211 posts)

1. Where else do you park them?

Reply to hatrack (Original post)

Sun Nov 18, 2012, 04:56 PM

Nov 2012

Morristown? Dover? Summit?

1100 rail cars, 260 were damaged, find me a storage yard in NJ where they could have been stored., Could they have done a better job ...sure.

I read the Reuters article, no where do they give a hint at what should have been done.

happyslug

(14,779 posts)

2. They had a couple of days warning, they could have moved the rail cars someplace

Reply to FogerRox (Reply #1)

Sun Nov 18, 2012, 05:13 PM

Nov 2012

Remember these are rail cars that interconnect and can be driven from one location, not one location in each car, one location on the whole train (and while I would have preferred a full crew, one engineer is all you need to move the whole train, not matter how long it is).

You could have connected the cars together (something railroads do ALL THE TIME) and move them to Pennsylvania. if worse came to worse, you have extensive rail yards in Altoona and Johnstown, through I suspect they are places to store such trains While East of Harrisburg (which also has extensive rail yards).

No, whoever was in charge, just parked the rail cars where they had always been parked and did NOT even think that it was a bad location. Lack of leadership and planning (the Transit provider should have a contingency plans for Hurricanes, Sandy is NOT the first Hurricane to hit New Jersey).

I do not know if these are Electric or Diesel rail cars, but if Electric, the Electric lines go as far west as Harrisburg PA. If Diesel, no real restriction.

FogerRox

(13,211 posts)

3. AEM7 & AEM8 electric locos

Reply to happyslug (Reply #2)

Sun Nov 18, 2012, 06:45 PM

Nov 2012

Last edited Sun Nov 18, 2012, 07:22 PM - Edit history (1)

cars can be pulled by diesels. NJ Transit has the SD-40, about 3,000 horsepower, less than half the AEM7 (7,000 hp).

I'm not defending NJ transit, but the rueters article finds it easy to find fault, but offers zero on what could have been done to prevent the problem.

These car and engines were being used the day Sandy hit, could have Transit asked for rights on another line, say CXS, to store cars. Would CXS even allow NJ transit to take 4.4 miles of track for storage? OR would those 260 cars be in the way of CSX?

The damaged 260 cars are IIRC 90 ft long, thats 4.4 miles of storage track, and some kind corporation has to have room where those cars wont paralyze their operations.......

Plus NJ transit doesnt own any track, so they cant move the cars west without permission, freight trains would have priority over unscheduled movement.

Which someone could have done something about.

Reply to this discussion