InsideTransit

Amtrak has announced cancellations for Sunday February 7th due to the massive snow that fell between Washington and New Jersey. I can only imagine what a zoo Penn Station must be with all of the canceled trains! Here’s a partial list of the canceled trains – view all of the changes on the Amtrak website.

• Carolinian trains 79 and 80 will operate only between Raleigh and Charlotte with no alternate transportation between New York and Raleigh. 
• Palmetto trains 89 and 90 are canceled in their entirety between New York and Savannah.

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The NYC MTA has posted a pdf of the latest version of their proposed service cuts. The major changes are:

• W eliminated – replaced partially with Q and partially with N – I think this is a good change although I would route the N through the tunnel
• M eliminated – replaced with V – this is a railfans dream I think – I think this is a good change as well as it will provide M and J/Z riders with access to midtown
• elimination of the Staten Island Rail special train to the ballpark
• too many bus changes to note – see the PDF below 

Here’s the guiding principles the MTA used to determine the proposed cuts:

• Affect the fewest number of riders;
• Minimize the negative effects to riders (e.g., longer waiting time);
• Maintain network coverage (even if it requires lower frequency or altered routings);
• Operate service within existing service and capacity guidelines (except where otherwise noted); and
• Improve the cost-efficiency of the service provided.

You can download the service cuts pdf here.

Earlier this week a runaway train crashed through the bumpers and into a Holiday Inn Hotel in Helsinki, Finland. Helsingin Sanomat has the details on the crash which happened on Monday, January 4. Reports are that no one was seriously hurt in the crash although some Ernst & Young workers who were in inside the hotel were able to get away just before the crash.

The four coaches had escaped from an empty Intercity train that was scheduled to leave for the eastern city of Kajaani at 8.12 a.m. The brakes on the coaches should have automatically engaged.

From the Sanomat news brief, “The scope of the damage to the hotel building is not known yet, but material damage is estimated to amount to millions of euros. On impact, the hotel’s sprinkler system went off and water also flowed into the pedestrian tunnel underneath the railway tracks. A shop in the tunnel was forced to close. The four coaches had escaped from an empty Intercity train that was scheduled to leave for the eastern city of Kajaani at 8.12 a.m.”

For 9 years the Improv Everywhere group has completed a train ride they call “No Pants!” Basically what they do is have a bunch of people ride the subway with no pants on. It’s a hoot! And no pervs, the people aren’t naked down there – they just ride in their underwear. You can read the history of the No Pants! movement here. Last year about 20 cities participated including Atlanta, Amsterdam, Sydney and Seoul.

It’s not just a few people running the mission but a load of people. The 2010 edition will take place on January 10th. More details on the Facebook signup page. So far they show about 5,000 registered attendees but I doubt that many will actually show up. The requirements for participation are:

1) Willing to take pants off on subway
2) Able to keep a straight face about it

Here’s a video from last year’s No Pants! event.
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Everyone moans and complains about how late the subways are here in NYC. But are the subway lines really that late? Subchat has posted the latest stats for on-time performance in the New York City subway system by line.

Here’s the breakdown:

1 Line: 91.7%
2 Line: 81.9%
3 Line: 85.2%
4 Line: 82.5%
5 Line: 89.2%
6 Line: 92.0%
7 Line: 96.3%

A Line: 84.5%
B Line: 91.8%
C Line: 94.6%
D Line: 89.2%
E Line: 87.0%
F Line: 76.2%
G Line: 95.6%
J/Z Line: 98.6%
L Line: 97.0%
M Line: 99.1%
N Line 91.0%
Q Line: 95.8%
R Line: 92.4%
V Line: 91.7%
W Line: 96.6%

Grand Central Shuttle: 99.6%
Franklin Shuttle: 99.8%
Rockaway Shuttle: 98.6%

It looks like the longer the line, the more often the train is late. Also, lines that share the track with other lines also seem to have poor on-time performance. Sorry to those F train riders! For reference, a train is considered late if it arrives or departs more than 5 minutes 59 seconds past the scheduled time.

Passengers on a NJ Transit bus were lucky to exit the bus before a New Jersey Transit train struck the bus and carried it down the tracks. A driver saw the bus stuck on the tracks and rushed to the bus to let the driver and passengers know to get off the bus immediately. The weather was near full whiteout conditions.

NJ Transit spokesman Dan Stessel says an engineer had minor injuries. The 26 bus passengers evacuated before the Atlantic City line train hit it.

Here’s a video from 6 Action News in Philly:
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“We were treated like animals”, said one passenger stuck on a Eurostar train. Passengers stranded for hours – some calling it a “death trap”. The BBC video shows passengers who made it out of the tunnels who have some choice words for the Eurostar management.

The Eurostar trains broke down as they left the cold air in northern France and entered the warmer tunnel en route to London.

John Keefe from Eurotunnel, the operator of the Channel Tunnel, said the situation was “absolutely extraordinary and unprecedented”.

“There’s never actually been an evacuation of a Eurostar train in the 15 years that the tunnel has been opened and last night we evacuated two whole trains to get people off.”

The BBC notes that five trains were stuck in the tunnel. Apparently it was freezing in the carriages and very little water or food was provided to the passengers. They continue, “Director of communications Mary Walsh said the company was “extremely sorry” for the delays and refunds would be available for all those affected.”

I’ve been on the Eurostar once in 2006 and overall enjoyed the trip.

It’s a hard world out there for Mickey Mouse and crew. First there was a horrible crash of the Disney monorail that killed the operator of the monorail. A week later there was a bus crash that injured 12 passengers. Today we’ve learned that 300 Disney monorail passengers were stuck for about three hours in the middle of the night last night. Apparently the cause of the delay was due to a power outage.

Bo Jones of the Reedy Creek Fire Department says firefighters used ladders to assist some visitors aboard one train “more out of customer service than as an emergency situation.” Other passengers disembarked later when the trains were towed to nearby stations.

I am thinking on my next trip to Disney World, I might just walk.

This story was sent in by Mark, our German transit reporter. Apparently the passengers on the bus seen below didn’t want to wait in the ATM line to get their cash and make their deposits. Instead the bus driver decided to go above and beyond and just drive the bus directly into the bank. That’s what I call “door to door service”!

More photos are available on Der Tagesspiegel.

The woman in the video below is VERY lucky to be alive this morning. The woman stumbles and falls onto the tracks at a subway station in Boston.  She fell at the worst possible point – the entry point for trains into the station. Other passengers waved for the oncoming train to stop. Luckily the train operator was able to stop the train just a second before it would run over the passenger. The train operator and other fast-reacting passengers saved this woman’s life.

Please note that this video is very dramatic and could be considered frightening.
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