(The following report appeared at Trains.com on September 24.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — As much as the railroads in the path of Hurricane Isabel would like to return to normal service, flooding and electrical outages are still spiking schedules.
Amtrak was still experiencing delays between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore owing to high water at Landover, Md. As of this morning, the water had receded to a level that enabled Amtrak to restore full service on two tracks. Maryland’s MARC commuter agency, which also uses the line, was also running behind schedule.
On its Harrisburg Line, Amtrak reported several downed trees blocking tracks and affecting overhead power lines. Passengers have been notified that they may expect significant delays between Philadelphia and Harrisburg until further notice.
Local power outages have played havoc with scheduling and train operations because of concerns about grade-crossing protection and freight carriers Norfolk Southern and CSX have placed hundreds of portable generators in North Carolina and Virginia to power crossing gates and flashers. CSX has managed to reopen all of its lines with the exception of the one from Garysburg, N.C. to Portsmouth, Va., which it hopes to have in service sometime today.
Washington area commuter operations are not as fluid as Virginia Railway Express and Maryland’s MARC agencies would have hoped. VRE commuters on the Manassas Line probably arrived at their destinations late this morning as Norfolk Southern, the owner of the tracks, issued a flash flood warning until track inspections could be made. NS restricted train speed to no more than 15 miles per hour, and at least one inbound commuter train was canceled.
MARC was not doing much better, with all Frederick, Va., service on its Brunswick Line canceled owing to a sinkhole between the Frederick station and Monocacy. At least two other trains experiencing delays due to a mudslide and downed trees east of Brunswick. Camden Line trains were operating about 45 minutes late due to high water along the tracks.