83 replies to this topic

[KevinKorell]

Unless this trestle gets fixed in time for our trip, looks like we, who are on 50 may have a bit of bustitution in our future in the middle of the night.

... or they try to reaccommodate some of us on the Lake Shore or Capitol Limiteds.

[steve4031]

They will have the bridge fixed long before then, im sure. Its not a big one.

[KevinKorell]

I just looked at my road atlas so I could see what towns I won't see in the dark along I-74 between Indianapolis and Cincinnati.

[NJCoastExp]

OK those recollections are from my NoCal return. Line is stick rail, with track warrant blocks and Cardinal passed 1 train between IND and CIN. Yes I was awake, thanks to combination of mechanical condition of the sleeper and track quality.

[jis]

I am thinking that I will monitor the situation until this coming Wednesday and then make a decision. I will be biased towards staying on the 50 as much as possible, but will have to bail if things look like they are not coming together. Of course given that a bus will probably get to Cinci from Indy faster than the train, probably a bustitution will not cause any significant additional delays. If everything falls apart then it would be worth figuring out what Amtrak's plan B would be for us. One thing I would like to avoid is a Coach ride back to NY from CHI. If that materializes then I will bail in CHI and fly back. OK enough rambling and free flow of consciousness for now.......

[KevinKorell]

I have time on my side, as I don't have to be back at work until the following Saturday. So I lean towards just waiting things out and seeing what will happen closer to the time. We may leave on the trip next Sunday and still not know what will be happening 6 days later with the Cardinal.... unless of course CSX did a blitz and got the line reopened.

[KevinKorell]

Interestingly, Amtrak's site shows that Train #51 departed today from New York on time, and they forecast an on-time arrival into Indianapolis, which would be west of the problem. AND they expect the train to arrive 30 minutes early into Chicago! No service advisories indicating the train isn't running over any part of its route. Train #50 is shown to have originated in Chicago last night (Thurs 7/7) 3 minutes late, and got to Indianapolis 2 minutes late around midnight. It then arrived into Cincinnati 17 minutes late, which is not bad considering there is no bridge nor track for it to run on in Morrisville, IN right now. Either it detoured and somehow incurred a very minimal delay, or the train managed to speed up, fly over the bridge outage, and land on the track on the other side. Furthermore, this train is expected to arrive in Washington, DC this evening 20 minutes early. That is far better than I've seen for this train with the data from the 2 people tracking its performance over the past few months!

[jis]

Well if they are doing a bus bridge from Indy to Cinci and count it as train for the purposes of reporting, it is quite likely that the bus takes less time than the 3 hours and 44 mins the train takes to cover the 123 or so miles (or less) .

[KevinKorell]

123 or so miles (or less)

Road mileage (via I-74, the quickest route the bus will travel) is 115 miles, just 8 miles less than the train route. The track basically follows US 52, but it deviates somewhat north of US 52 to go through Connersville, as we know since it's a station stop on the Cardinal. The bus will most likely be going 65 mph or better for most of its travel, which when we factor in slower speeds through the cities and suburbs to get to and from the freeways, should put the trip at about 2 hours.

[KevinKorell]

I just updated the chart once more, as I received the first person switching off that train to the Cardinal. And it looks like we're all going to have to do the same, as while I was posting this, I just got the dreaded call from Julie that the train was cancelled.