(The following article by David Patch was posted on the Toledo Blade website on February 28.)
TOLEDO, Ohio — Schedule-keeping on Amtrak’s passenger trains between Toledo and Chicago, hardly exemplary during the best of times, has taken a beating in recent weeks because of freight train congestion in Indiana.
“There have been significant congestion issues with Norfolk Southern across Indiana,” Marc Magliari, an Amtrak spokesman in Chicago, said yesterday to explain hours of delays the Chicago-New York Lake Shore Limited and Chicago-Washington Capitol Limited have experienced since at least mid-February.
For six straight nights, starting after freight trains collided and derailed Feb. 21 at Goshen, Ind., the passenger trains used alternate routes to get around part of the Norfolk Southern logjam.
Mr. Magliari said Amtrak was prepared to do so again last night if necessary and, in any case, planned to combine the two trains into one in each direction between Chicago and Toledo to improve their odds of getting through.
“We’re prepared to use the detour route across Michigan,” the Amtrak spokesman said. “We won’t really know until we get there. [Norfolk Southern] may tell us to just come on through.”
Rudy Husband, a spokesman for Norfolk Southern, said the Goshen accident was no longer a factor in freight-train congestion, but the busy main line west of Toledo remained clogged with trains that he said ended up parked when icy weather over the weekend kept them from completing their trips within a 12-hour federal limit on how long train crews may work.
Hazardous road conditions during that time not only kept replacement crews from getting to those trains, Mr. Husband said, but also kept the timed-out crews from getting off the trains and to places where they could rest, as also is required before they may start new work shifts.
“If this goes on for an extended period of time, we run out of crews,” he said. “We have to get them rested, then get them back out to run the trains.”
Ralph Johnson of Ottawa Hills was aboard Amtrak’s eastbound Capitol Limited out of Chicago on Monday night. The train’s departure was delayed an hour so it could be combined with the Lake Shore Limited, he said, then made a fitful run across northwestern Indiana before diverting onto an Amtrak-owned line toward Detroit.
“I thought they made pretty good time in Michigan,” Mr. Johnson said, though the train was delayed in Niles, Mich., while police took an agitated passenger off in handcuffs.
Mr. Johnson arrived in Toledo about seven hours late.
Mr. Husband offered no estimate of when the train jam may clear. The railroad has curtailed train departures so crews can focus on moving those parked on the main tracks, he said. “Things are quickly improving between Elkhart [Ind.] and Toledo, but we still have a problem between Elkhart and Chicago,” he said. “We’re doing it as quickly and as safely as we can.”