(The following article by Peter J. Howe was posted on the Boston Globe website on August 24.)
BOSTON — Extending a summer of woe for its riders, Amtrak canceled nearly 40 percent of its train service from Boston to New York today, as it continues to recover from a freight-car derailment that snarled service all day yesterday.
All six Acela trips between Boston and New York and four Metroliner trips are canceled today, Amtrak said. The railroad is expected to operate all 18 of its regional trains, which normally take 4 to 4 1/2 hours for the South Station-New York Pennsylvania Station run. But Amtrak said to expect delays of at least 30 to 45 minutes along the New Haven-New York stretch. Those delays could affect service between Boston, Providence, and New Haven as well.
Yesterday’s derailment in New York’s South Bronx shut down service between New York and New Haven for much of the day, forcing hundreds of Boston passengers to make a Manhattan cab ride and commuter-train crawl to get to and from Pennsylvania Station.
Asked whether service interruptions could extend into tomorrow or the weekend, Amtrak spokeswoman Tracy Connell said, ”We don’t know yet.”
Coming at the end of a summer when the high-speed Acela was taken out of service because of brake problems, Amtrak passengers yesterday grumbled but took things in stride.
”What can you do?” said Mike Giambra, an insurance underwriter who lives outside Trenton, N.J. His trip to Boston, normally a 4 1/2-hour ride by Acela from Philadelphia, wound up taking close to 8 hours and forced him to cancel a long-planned lunch with a client in Providence. To make it to Boston, Giambra had to take a New York taxicab from Penn Station to Grand Central Terminal, then take the Metro-North commuter line to New Haven, then get back on Amtrak for the rest of the ride into Boston.
Kenneth A. Field Jr., a senior architect with the Leo A. Daly firm who lives in White Plains, N.Y., said he considered flying or even renting a car to get back home from a business trip to Boston after learning of the trouble south of New Haven.
”It’s not the end of the world,” Field said as he prepared to get on the 1:40 p.m. train yesterday. ”I travel quite a bit on Amtrak, so I am used to the problems.”
The latest troubles began when four cars of a CSX Corp. freight train derailed at the Oak Point Yard in the South Bronx at 7:15 a.m. yesterday, damaging the overhead electric wires that serve Amtrak trains in the area. CSX uses Amtrak-owned lines to serve freight customers along the Northeast Corridor.
As of late yesterday, the freight train had not been cleared. Even once it is, Amtrak still has to fix several hundred feet of damaged electric wires to restore service, said Connell, the Amtrak spokeswoman. The CSX accident did not affect any Metro-North lines.
On an average summer day, about 6,100 riders travel Amtrak between Boston and New York, Connell said.
Spokeswomen for Delta Air Lines and US Airways, which operate $253 one-way Boston-New York shuttles, said they saw no big increase in travel yesterday and did not have to add extra flights, but were waiting to see if there’s a possible influx today.
Robert Schwarz, executive vice president of Peter Pan Bus Lines Inc., said as of late yesterday, ”We’re prepared for it, but we haven’t really seen any big increase yet.” Peter Pan charges $28 one-way for the trip between the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York and South Station, or $18 for tickets bought on the Internet, compared to Amtrak Regional fares of $66 off-peak and $82 during peak periods. When running, Acela costs up to $109 one-way during peak times, and $164 for first class.
After suspending operations for three months because of brake problems, Amtrak resumed limited Acela service July 11, focusing chiefly on the New York-Washington route. Nine of the 15 Acela round-trips between New York and Washington have been restored, but only three of the 10 Boston-New York runs have been restored. Connell said as of yesterday Amtrak did not know how soon it might be able to restore more Acela service, which can make the trip to New York in as little as 3 hours and 20 minutes.