  Flyingj Member Username: Flyingj Post Number: 285 Registered: 08-2006 |
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs .dll/article?AID=/20080808/NEW S01/80808092 | ||
Mackinaw Member Username: Mackinaw Post Number: 5242 Registered: 02-2005 |
And that's why Amtrak goes so slow through certain portions of track. Damn we need infrastructure upgrades. | ||
Busterwmu Member Username: Busterwmu Post Number: 513 Registered: 09-2004 |
I think the lead locomotive picked a switch and had two axles slide off the rails. No injuries, and probably not a lot of damage. Uncouple the locomotive, wye the train, and continue after 2 hours. At least the train was doing 12mph. Imagine picking a switch on a high speed line at 200mph! | ||
Ltorivia485 Member Username: Ltorivia485 Post Number: 3024 Registered: 08-2004 |
The Amtrak rail lines through southwest Detroit is just terrible and deteriorated. I would hate for outsiders to travel through the area -- it looks like a bombed out industrial war zone. | ||
Jcole Member Username: Jcole Post Number: 3192 Registered: 04-2005 |
I just took that train last week, and actually, it's fairly interesting to look around while going that slow. You see a lot that you never would at any other time. Not all of it's beautiful in the conventional sense, but it is beautiful in a sort of touching way. You can imagine a far gone past while on a train. | ||
Trainman Member Username: Trainman Post Number: 735 Registered: 04-2006 |
We have an awesome transportation system in southeast Michigan. Let industry rule and not government subsidies like a half per cent NEW county sales tax increase for SMART and DDOT. We put the World on wheels when it comes to cars. So, I'm sure we can also put the World on wheels when it comes trains and buses also. Our fathers before us ran trains and buses without handouts and illegal DARTA agreement and corrupt Livonia opt. outs. Or, maybe we should let the animals in the zoo vote for us. | ||
Rhymeswithrawk Member Username: Rhymeswithrawk Post Number: 1416 Registered: 11-2005 |
"And that's why Amtrak goes so slow through certain portions of track. Damn we need infrastructure upgrades." Sorry, buddy! We got a "just and noble" war to pay for! Yeehaw! How 'bout them dar oil! | ||
Thecarl Member Username: Thecarl Post Number: 1293 Registered: 04-2005 |
wow, a discussion on area amtrak infrastructure is an invitation to your geopolitical views, rhymes? hey, i think missions to the moon and mars are frivolous. so what. | ||
Mackinaw Member Username: Mackinaw Post Number: 5244 Registered: 02-2005 |
Jcole, I agree. How many places have beautiful neighborhoods near major freight/grand trunk-type rail beds, anyway? The skyline views are pretty cool. The rate of incidents like this is awfully low, though. This has to be the first in several years. I did a dozen or so Ann Arbor-Detroit trips in the last couple years and it was always smooth and predictable. This was on the portion past the station, right? Before or after Milwaukee Jctn? | ||
Ljbad89 Member Username: Ljbad89 Post Number: 34 Registered: 10-2007 |
The article said Clay and I-75, which would be east of the Detroit Amtrak station near Milwaukee Junction. But then the article stated that people were waiting at the Detroit station and people were bused to Pontiac, sounding like the accident occurred west of the station. Anyone care to shed some light? | ||
Dalangdon Member Username: Dalangdon Post Number: 156 Registered: 03-2006 |
"Our fathers before us ran trains and buses without handouts and illegal DARTA agreement and corrupt Livonia opt. outs." Not exactly... Passenger trains were heavily subsidized by the US postal service. When they pulled the mail cars, the railroads went whining to the government, and we got Amtrak. A prime example of corporate welfare, Nixon style. Transit systems across the country were rife with corruption in the teens and twenties - part of the reason why you don't see private ownership of them. I'm sure if you spent a few hours in the morgues of the freep or the news, you'd find many stories about problems, corruption, and consumer complaints against the transit system in "the good old days" Times change, but people don't. | ||
Gravitymachine Member Username: Gravitymachine Post Number: 2230 Registered: 05-2005 |
interesting, i saw an amtrak train on wednesday night approaching the milwaulkee junction southbound (as i pulled out of the russell industrial center), cross clay, then stop, then back up, as if the switch wasn't set properly or something, wonder if that incident was a precursor to this one (Message edited by gravitymachine on August 09, 2008) (Message edited by gravitymachine on August 09, 2008) | ||
Lmichigan Member Username: Lmichigan Post Number: 6194 Registered: 10-2003 |
Ljbad89, The article says that the train popped off the tracks near Clay and The Chrysler. It says they were able to move the train back to the New Center Station. Mackinaw, this sounds like this happened at the Milwaukee Junction. (Message edited by lmichigan on August 09, 2008) | ||
Ljbad89 Member Username: Ljbad89 Post Number: 35 Registered: 10-2007 |
Oh I see. Thanks Lmichigan. | ||
Jita1 Member Username: Jita1 Post Number: 12 Registered: 08-2008 |
Ltorivia485, I know what you mean. My wife and I took the train to Chicago in May. It took us about 7 hours to get home! When we rode through Southwest Detroit, the tracks were really bad and I kept thinking "If the train ever came through here going just a little too fast, it would derail". That area does look bad with the burned out and abandoned houses. If anybody came in from out of town, I wouldn't want them to think that all of the city was like that. | ||
Lodgedodger Member Username: Lodgedodger Post Number: 303 Registered: 05-2008 |
Trains were going through w/o a problem all day today... | ||
Ljbad89 Member Username: Ljbad89 Post Number: 36 Registered: 10-2007 |
Jita1, while the tracks aren't as in good condition as Norfolk Southern's tracks, from what I have learnt and seen, much of the slowdown in southwest Detroit is due to a massive 90 degree curve and a sharp slide from one track to one of the two tracks by the Amtrak station. However, by 2010, a shallow connection track and a tunnel will be in place and the time it takes to go between Dearborn and Detroit will be cut in half. | ||
Mackinaw Member Username: Mackinaw Post Number: 5246 Registered: 02-2005 |
Yeah I guess it was at Milwaukee Junction. Ljbad, they probably had to have the passengers walk the tracks back to the nearby station and then have them bussed to Pontiac. That's my theory. Where did you hear about a tunnel and higher speeds in the City? | ||
Ljbad89 Member Username: Ljbad89 Post Number: 37 Registered: 10-2007 |
In May, I emailed the head of the Detroit-Ann Arbor Commuter Rail Project, Carmine Palombo. One of the things I asked, "From what we hear, the new Detroit intermodal station will be located on the opposite side of the tracks from the current Amtrak station. To avoid the massive S-curve, we assume that the proposed West Detroit Junction connection track would be laid right next to the current single track there on left/west. Then the track would meet up with the double track between 24th and 25th Streets. That would be fine if the trains stop at the current Detroit station, but not the proposed intermodal station. How exactly would the connection work?" He replied back that "the concept would include the construction of a tunnel connecting both sides." Also, see: http://www.semcog.org/Corridor Studies_AADD.aspx Look at the April update and the map extension file next to it. It explains the connection a bit more. The last update after that was in July, but there wasn't much news... http://www.semcog.org/AADD_Add itionalMaterials.aspx It's the first link under "Project Update". | ||
Lmichigan Member Username: Lmichigan Post Number: 6196 Registered: 10-2003 |
Mackinaw, the article says that they were able to move the train back to the station. If they made the passengers walk back to the station, that would have been newsworthy and we'd have heard about it, most likely. |
