(The following story by Jeff Platsky appeared on the Press & Sun-Bulletin website on June 30.)
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — Freight traffic on railroads across the Northeast is stopped dead because widespread flooding has either blocked or undermined tracks and bridges along rail corridors from Binghamton to Philadelphia and from Binghamton to New Jersey.
“This has affected all rail lines across the Northeast,” said Thomas V. O’Neill, spokesman for the Cooperstown-based New York Susquehanna & Western Railway. “This causes ripples into Canada and into Chicago.”
Canadian Pacific, which runs a line between Binghamton and Philadelphia, said there is damage throughout the line, but they have been unable to assess the full extent of the damage because the floodwaters have yet to recede.
“The whole network down there is frozen,” said Michel Spenard, spokesman for Canadian Pacific in Montreal.
Spenard said that by Thursday morning the company was aware of at least seven sections of track that were either weakened or undermined by the flooding. Canadian Pacific couldn’t determine the amount of mileage that may have been washed out because damage-assessment crews have been unable to get to the locations.
“There are washouts where rails are just hanging in the air,” Spenard said. He said part of the Binghamton yard was under a foot of water.
A spokesman for the Norfolk Southern Railway, which runs a Southern Tier line between Binghamton and Buffalo, said there are no reports of damage on its track. However, floodgates placed across the track have halted rail traffic since at least Tuesday.
There were no reports of freight trains or locomotives swamped by the flood.
“Binghamton is pretty isolated,” O’Neill said. “There’s a real fear that the worst may not be over.”
Railway representatives were unable to say when the railroad could be running on a normal schedule.
Spenard said Canadian Pacific is bringing in rock, rails and track to the area to begin reconstruction of the line when possible.