This morning, Police Chief Dale Call was on duty at the Westport train station. He and a number of officers — many with high rank — made sure traffic flowed smoothly, and that buses bringing riders from points east had room to move.
Westport Police Chief Dale Call, on closed-to-passenger-cars Railroad Place this morning.
A few minutes ago, passengers arriving from Grand Central and points west spent a 2nd day boarding shuttle buses that would drop them at stations all the way to New Haven.
Those are scenes we figured would be repeated all week — if not far into the future — following Friday’s train derailment and wreck a few miles from here.
But Metro-North has announced that limited train service to New Haven begins at 3 p.m. today — right about now.
And the 1st train from New Haven to Grand Central leaves at 4:23 p.m. today.
Tomorrow (Wednesday), regular service resumes up and down the line.
That’s astonishing. In less than 4 days, Metro-North crews have completely cleaned up the huge mess from a mammoth train crash.
The next time there’s a hurricane, windstorm or other natural disaster, we’re hiring those guys.
I wanted to head over there with a bunch of cases of cold beer and place them where the crews might enoy them as they head off site. 🙂 I don’t commute (so I have no dog in this fight outside of commuting 25 years ago)but it appears they busted butt to reassemble those tracks (it’s not exactly like pieces of Lionel track). Bravo to the Metro-North crews/people.
My hat is off to everyone who got the work done so quickly! Amazing!
I am on the 3:33 out of Grand Central “Making ALL stops” up to New Haven.. With a reminder to get off wherever we left our cars this morning!
Really remarkable. Great work by Metro North.
Great work by all …. METRO NORTH ROCKS! @ Matt, if we could only find out who they are and all pitch in a nice cold one for them …. that would be awesome – and I am in.
That’s why I figured to buy a bunch, sit them on some ice, place them near the access points, and let nature take it’s course. Betcha the MTA PD and others on the job might step away for a second and let the repair crews grab one. 🙂
Congrats … Westport PD ….
Truly amazing that Metro North restored practically normal service after 3 rush hours. Especially considering that a derailment and collision has to be a railroad’s worst nightmare.
So, why can’t they restore service after a snow storm? I can guarantee that there will be a snow storm this coming winter; and the weather people can predict when it will occur and how much snow will be dropped. All unlike a derailment.
Phil — the new M8 cars (of which a few were unfortunately damaged in the collision) were specifically designed to perform better than the old cars in snowstorms. With about half the fleet now new M8s and remainder of the fleet to be replaced over the next couple of years, it should get better. However, nothing could have prevented a shutdown in our record-breaking February blizzard, IMO, and Metro North did the right thing in keeping trains out of service during the blizzard. If they had not there would have been a lot of stranded trains and travelers on the tracks.
Historically any alcoholic beverage would be against “Rule G” which all railroads in this country have observed – zero tolerance in railroading! That’s as it should be, this is a risky trade!
A party for all at Compo, (with permission) should be fine, Barring that a donation to the represented unions might show our gratitude.
I was never a commuter yet I still believe in railroads and railroaders.
@AB: That’s why I suggested it be placed where the workers could grab a “cold one” as they left and headed off site. 🙂