(The following article by James Goodman was posted on the Democrat and Chronicle website on January 18.)
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — James Cerniglia usually walks about two miles once a week from his home off Monroe Avenue to the Amtrak station, then catches a train to visit relatives in Schenectady.
But when the 63-year-old retired teacher arrived at Amtrak’s station Wednesday, he realized something was wrong. No other passengers were at the station for the 11:42 a.m. eastbound train.
The train had been canceled — a casualty of the derailment Tuesday evening of a CSX Corp. freight train in East Rochester.
Two of the eight passenger trains scheduled to go through Rochester on Wednesday were canceled.
CSX reopened one of the two tracks that go through East Rochester on Wednesday morning, said CSX spokesman Maurice O’Connell.
That allowed the other six trains to get to their destinations, but with delays and a rerouting.
While Amtrak had nothing to do with the derailment, the national passenger railroad depends on CSX tracks in western New York.
“I guess you have to be flexible,” said Cerniglia, who is accustomed to Amtrak delays and always takes a supply of food and newspapers with him.
Amtrak officials, who were unable to estimate how many travelers were affected Wednesday, were hoping for a return to normal today and had not posted any cancellations.
But they didn’t know when CSX would reopen the second track in East Rochester.
“We’re trying to squeeze everything on one track,” said Cliff Cole, an Amtrak spokesman based in New York City.
O’Connell said CSX was putting down track Wednesday and hoped to have the second track through Rochester reopened today.
Passengers wanting to ride the 5:47 a.m. train on Wednesday had to go to Buffalo to catch it. That’s because the train avoided Rochester — and East Rochester — by taking CSX’s West Shore freight track through the southern part of Monroe County.
The best that Cerniglia could do was catch the 2:27 p.m. eastbound train, and that one ran late. The first westbound train of the day was at least an hour late in arriving.
Greg Dillon, 22, of Brockport was thankful that Amtrak at least gave him a call to let him know he would have to take a later train to Albany.
But Jamar Speight, 19, of Rochester said that Wednesday’s delays were not unusual. “It happens all the time,” Speight said.
Finding an alternative form of transportation seemed to be a hassle for Dolores Parlato of Irondequoit.
After she learned that her morning eastbound train was canceled, she checked into taking a bus to Utica.
But Parlato said she couldn’t find a bus that took her beyond Syracuse, so she ended up taking the 2:27 p.m. train.