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The switch problem that led to a complete service shutdown at Penn Station on the busiest travel night of the year has been resolved, Long Island Rail Road said.
The station — which was shut down due to overcrowding — was reopened.
Amtrak, NJ Transit and Long Island Rail Road were all still down for about an hour.
Expect delays on many lines, officials said.
On the busiest night of the commuting year, I give thanks I did not have to witness this debacle. For those that did, I give thanks that you have off tomorrow... most of you, at any rate.
Let's remember, as the LIRR has it's fare increase hearing on Tuesday, with a sharp 9.5% increase for some lines, that the MTA will keep on sucking our pockets dry until we wake up and say enough is enough. Moderator cut: language removed
poor service at champagne fares... the LIRR... not going anyone's way.
Last edited by nancy thereader; 11-22-2012 at 01:02 PM..
I was caught in that last night. Never bothered to go to Penn. Just took the subway to the NICE bus.
Of course they blamed it all on Amtrak. Never stop to think maybe they better light a fire under Amtrak's butt to improve things. Oh no. Just pay the rent for the tunnels to Amtrak and shut Penn Station down whenever anything goes awry.
I was caught in that last night. Never bothered to go to Penn. Just took the subway to the NICE bus.
Of course they blamed it all on Amtrak. Never stop to think maybe they better light a fire under Amtrak's butt to improve things. Oh no. Just pay the rent for the tunnels to Amtrak and shut Penn Station down whenever anything goes awry.
Most mission critical systems are mirrored, one fails, you failover to the stand-by. Maybe it takes a little time, but you have overlapped power grids, mirrored switching systems, etc. Funny thing is our friends at every level of the LIRR don't view their operation as mission critical. The money that could go to hardening the infrastructure winds up in management bonus' and union wages and benefits.
And now the problem is the cat's out of the bag. It feels like institutions like LIRR, LIPA and our less than honest politicians are out to churn and burn... make as much as you can today, so when everything blows up (and it will), you get out pretty and plushly. All on our dime.
And you heard what the LIPA Chairman said.... if you want a storm hardened power grid, the rate payers will see 60%-70% increases in their rates. There's no excuse for that, but that's the mentality, the entitlement mentality shared by LI's captain's of industry. It'll be same thing with the MTA, where fares will just keep on rising. Yet, Jamaica will continue to be a bottleneck, the switches will fail system-wide and the tubes under the river will continue to slow and stop service.
Most mission critical systems are mirrored, one fails, you failover to the stand-by. Maybe it takes a little time, but you have overlapped power grids, mirrored switching systems, etc. Funny thing is our friends at every level of the LIRR don't view their operation as mission critical. The money that could go to hardening the infrastructure winds up in management bonus' and union wages and benefits.
And now the problem is the cat's out of the bag. It feels like institutions like LIRR, LIPA and our less than honest politicians are out to churn and burn... make as much as you can today, so when everything blows up (and it will), you get out pretty and plushly. All on our dime.
And you heard what the LIPA Chairman said.... if you want a storm hardened power grid, the rate payers will see 60%-70% increases in their rates. There's no excuse for that, but that's the mentality, the entitlement mentality shared by LI's captain's of industry. It'll be same thing with the MTA, where fares will just keep on rising. Yet, Jamaica will continue to be a bottleneck, the switches will fail system-wide and the tubes under the river will continue to slow and stop service.
Tuesday is the fare increase hearing.... Lovely.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Freeze and seize upper management's pensions and restructure union pensions (not sure about the RR pension though, I believe that is federally protected). Liquidate the fund over time and pump it into the infrastructure.
I was caught in that last night. Never bothered to go to Penn. Just took the subway to the NICE bus.
Of course they blamed it all on Amtrak. Never stop to think maybe they better light a fire under Amtrak's butt to improve things. Oh no. Just pay the rent for the tunnels to Amtrak and shut Penn Station down whenever anything goes awry.
Amtrak would love to upgrade the entire Northeastern Rail Network but Congress keeps holding them back...with an average budget of 1.8 Billion compared to the Roads&Highway & Private Budget which varies year to year from 70 to 80 billion.... The Northeastern Upgrade and Expansion will cost 151 billion....when compared to the GDP of the Northeast which is almost 3 Trillion that's less then 4%.... Funding should go by Regional economies...and population density... Some Good News for the Northeastern Upgrade or Master Plan , New England should complete there network by 2035....same with Maryland , Delaware and Virgina leaving New Jersey , New York and PA stalled due to broken funding streams. Amtrak is seeking Private investors to help but Congress seems to have mucked the waters up on that.... Of course if the outdated Regulations were removed then you would see alot of Private investment.... The European Regulations are followed by everyone accept the US , they allow for cheaper expansion and safer rail operations...
The Major New York Area Rail Projects include...
New Hudson River Tunnels by 2025
New East River Tunnels by 2035
Hell Gate Regional Rail Service & Upgrade by 2018
West Side line Regional Rail Service & Upgrade by 2018
New Portal Bridges by 2025
Sunnyside Yard Upgrade by 2020
New Signal System by 2020
New Harold Interchange by 2015
New Catenary (Wires) From Trenton to New Rochelle by 2017
Replaced Substations by 2017
Replaced Amtrak Rolling Stock by 2015
Amtrak would love to upgrade the entire Northeastern Rail Network but Congress keeps holding them back...with an average budget of 1.8 Billion compared to the Roads&Highway & Private Budget which varies year to year from 70 to 80 billion.... The Northeastern Upgrade and Expansion will cost 151 billion....when compared to the GDP of the Northeast which is almost 3 Trillion that's less then 4%.... Funding should go by Regional economies...and population density... Some Good News for the Northeastern Upgrade or Master Plan , New England should complete there network by 2035....same with Maryland , Delaware and Virgina leaving New Jersey , New York and PA stalled due to broken funding streams. Amtrak is seeking Private investors to help but Congress seems to have mucked the waters up on that.... Of course if the outdated Regulations were removed then you would see alot of Private investment.... The European Regulations are followed by everyone accept the US , they allow for cheaper expansion and safer rail operations...
The Major New York Area Rail Projects include...
New Hudson River Tunnels by 2025
New East River Tunnels by 2035
Hell Gate Regional Rail Service & Upgrade by 2018
West Side line Regional Rail Service & Upgrade by 2018
New Portal Bridges by 2025
Sunnyside Yard Upgrade by 2020
New Signal System by 2020
New Harold Interchange by 2015
New Catenary (Wires) From Trenton to New Rochelle by 2017
Replaced Substations by 2017
Replaced Amtrak Rolling Stock by 2015
I really hope to be retired by the time these projects even start... too bad.
Amtrak would love to upgrade the entire Northeastern Rail Network but Congress keeps holding them back...with an average budget of 1.8 Billion compared to the Roads&Highway & Private Budget which varies year to year from 70 to 80 billion.... The Northeastern Upgrade and Expansion will cost 151 billion....when compared to the GDP of the Northeast which is almost 3 Trillion that's less then 4%.... Funding should go by Regional economies...and population density... Some Good News for the Northeastern Upgrade or Master Plan , New England should complete there network by 2035....same with Maryland , Delaware and Virgina leaving New Jersey , New York and PA stalled due to broken funding streams. Amtrak is seeking Private investors to help but Congress seems to have mucked the waters up on that.... Of course if the outdated Regulations were removed then you would see alot of Private investment.... The European Regulations are followed by everyone accept the US , they allow for cheaper expansion and safer rail operations...
The Major New York Area Rail Projects include...
New Hudson River Tunnels by 2025
New East River Tunnels by 2035
Hell Gate Regional Rail Service & Upgrade by 2018
West Side line Regional Rail Service & Upgrade by 2018
New Portal Bridges by 2025
Sunnyside Yard Upgrade by 2020
New Signal System by 2020
New Harold Interchange by 2015
New Catenary (Wires) From Trenton to New Rochelle by 2017
Replaced Substations by 2017
Replaced Amtrak Rolling Stock by 2015
Amtrak said that it can be done over the next 30 years , but congress is dragging its feet on that.... That means instead of the lump sum of 151 billion $$ it would be 5-10 Billion $$ a year for 30 years which is very doable.... If they wouldn't siphon off the 1.9 Billion in revenue that the Northeastern Routes bring in we would have a slightly better system. The Northeastern Division in a way subsidizes the rest of the US , hence the high fares of this region vs lower long distance fares. Long Distance lines do not make money , but everytime Amtrak has tried to reduce or end the routes Congress has blocked it. The Fares would be reduced by much as 60% if we didn't have to subsidize the rest of the US. Its kinda of like how the Northern States subsidize the Southern States....its another sad reason this country is dying. We can't even invest in densely populated areas yet have no problems spending in isolated areas...
The Air Market in this region is strained beyond capacity and expanding that Network would cost over 200 billion , The Highway Network from Northern Virgina to Maine will be over capacity by 2030 and Expanding that will cost upwards of 370 billion....both costs are high due to the large amounts of land needing to be seized... The New High Speed lines and Intercity routes take very little land about the size of a 2 lane road with no shoulders....in most cases... The Rail Network is already eating away at the Air market , Amtrak owns 54% of the Travel market up from 30% in 2000...its projected to hit 80% by 2020....so not investing in rail whether it would be High Speed or Intercity Rail or Regional or Urban Rail is stupid...its not like you can expand the other forms of Transit easily.
The Updated Estimated Travel Times for the Completed Northeastern Network by 2035 , speeds increased up to 240mph south of Newark,NJ to DC and up to 135mph in NYC and Westchester and 140mph in Connecticut....theres also a Regional Rail network under construction in New England and Delaware , NJ , NY , MD , VA which will provide connecting service. So most Major and Secondary towns by 2035 should be connected by Rail to the larger cities... New York Penn Station - Market East Philadelphia - 37mins
Boston South Station - DC Union - 3hrs
New York Penn Station - DC Union - 94 Mins
New York Penn Station - Boston - 94 mins
New York Penn Station - Harrisburg - 80 Mins
New York Penn Station - Albany - 60mins
New York Penn Station - Rutland/Burlington - 2hrs
New York Penn Station - Buffalo - 3hrs
New York Penn Station - Montreal - 4hrs
New York Penn Station - DelMarva Coast - 2hrs
Hoboken Terminal - Harrisburg via Allentown/Reading - 2hrs
Hoboken Terminal - Scranton - 85 Mins
Hoboken Terminal - Binghamton - 2hrs
Mineola - Stamford - 60Mins
I don't know if you noticed, but the LIRR is now hanging up posters in their trains claiming that they are the biggest engine of economic growth on Long Island. How arrogant. I thought the economic engine of growth was supposed to be the private sector, or what is ever left of it? The ever escalating fees and the money the MTA is sucking out of the economy through the general fund, and the taxes on income & small business that never use the service, seems to me to be harming the economy, not helping it. How much does a one way ticket from Penn to Ronkonoma cost, if you remove all the subsidies? Imagine if a dysfunctional airline ran like this with sky high prices and absolutely abysmal service? The entire system needs to be entirely scrapped. Rip up all the track, fire all the lousy so called "workers" who double dip and collect sky high pensions for doing nothing. Model the new system after BART in the San Francisco area. System is fullly automated so you don't need drivers, and the machine takes care of tickets at the entrance so you don't need all those lousy ticket punchers, who collect pensions that we can't afford. Imagine if we spent all that "stimulus" on projects like this, not do nothing make work jobs where unionized mafia officials stand around the LIE, digging up and filling in holes. The dividends would pay off for generations.
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