Happy New Year from NJ Transit .... I mean Amtrak

[mhnj]

I have an 8:00 Township committee meeting tonight, so I'm leaving a bit earlier than I normally would and hope for the best.

[Ripper]

I have to be home by 7.  I'm leaving now.

Good luck luck everyone.

I have an 8:00 Township committee meeting tonight, so I'm leaving a bit earlier than I normally would and hope for the best.

[Ripper]

So it only took 16 minutes...

Due to earlier mechanical problem in Dover. M&E Line train #0656, the 3:45pm departure from Dover is operating 25 minutes late.

I give it an hour.  Disasters are awaiting us tonight, my friends.

And NJT most definitely watches this site.

They just changed the Alert page too! Westbound trains are no longer delayed. Everything is back to normal. Which means rainbows, unicorns, and daisies!

[beammeup]

I'm actually dawdling at the office tonight because I dread another NJ Transit disaster... I have post traumatic train disorder!  Plus the guilt about taking the 7:13 am train this morning and arriving at my office at 10am...although they know by now that I'm not making this stuff up!

[slavetothecommute]

What is with the transit armageddon when the weather changes?!?!?!

I just love the concept of a "transit armageddeon". It makes me visualize NJT making something along the lines of those airplane in-flight safety cards with cartoons of commuters preparing for imminent doom.

No safety cards, but in the event of said transit armageddon, the "bad apple" conductors come flying through on horseback, cracking sass and telling you your monthly isn't good on this train and you need to be stepped up to a one way fare.  (yeah, you read that right...my vision, remember!)

If you think this armageddon is an express, nope, it's a local.  And all the platforms from here to hell are packed with people waiting to get on too.  And you're going to be stuck at a stop signal for 40 minutes when the train is packed.

Finally, when you get to your final destination in transit hell (not capitalized...not crimping Ripper's style), all the escalators are moving in the opposite direction, and they're boarding your train (switching to outbound) and the one across the platform while you're trying to get upstairs.


All that makes me think I wanna start a stay at home business.

[yellowbird]

501pm nyp-tr was on time...

another problem today wasnt just the wire down, but the ripple effect, most train sets and train crews were all out of normal position, and mgt has been trying to play catch up all day.

[Chathamite]

Let's see . . . the lines running through Newark Penn were delayed yesterday morning.  Mine was supposedly fine until I got to the train station and it was announced that my train was 28 minutes late.  It was 45 minutes late by the time it got into Hoboken, then the PATH was out.  I was on the first PATH train out of there once service resumed.  My 1.5 hour commute took 2.5 hours.

On the way home, the 5:31 out of Hoboken was canceled because of mechanical problems.  I got on the 6:04, which made extra stops to make up for the ones the 5:31 would have made, except that nobody who would have gotten off at South Orange or Maplewood was on it, because it left Hoboken before the dispatcher decided to tell them to make the extra stops.  We weren't even told per se that it was canceled.  We were just told "they're working on it, but it's not looking good, so I suggest you look at the train schedule and find another option."

Four and a half hours round trip for what should have been a three hour commute.  Sheesh.

[mhnj]

Finally, when you get to your final destination in transit hell (not capitalized...not crimping Ripper's style), all the escalators are moving in the opposite direction, and they're boarding your train (switching to outbound) and the one across the platform while you're trying to get upstairs.

A personal pet peeve of mine. Last night I took the 5:30 (much earlier than usual in order to make sure I got home in time). They announced it for track 12. Both of the upper level escalators (in the 8th Avenue concourse at NYP) were coming up. So I went downstairs. On one side, the escalator was also running up. Which left only one stairway option on the other side, and people were walking up that one off an Amtrak train. So unless someone upstairs turned one of the escalators down while I was downstairs, we were loading a rush hour train from half a stairway.

[CrudeBoy]

My commute home was perfectly fine last night. My wife's commute home, however, was anything but.

She was on the 6:54 PM M&E out of NYPS. Just short of Summit, her train rolls to a stop at a stop signal as the train in front of hers had broken down in the Summit station. While NJT was trying to figure out what to do and was in fact about to start backing her train back to a switch so they could bypass the train in front, and Eastbound train ground to a halt next door, apparently broken down. In fact, the eastbound train broke down on the switch. So, after about 45 minutes, they got the trains rolling again. My wife's total commute home was 2 hours as opposed to 45 minutes.

Corzine needs to get his ass in gear and fix this situation quick or there will be hell to pay. 

[lyra]

On the way home, the 5:31 out of Hoboken was canceled because of mechanical problems.  I got on the 6:04, which made extra stops to make up for the ones the 5:31 would have made, except that nobody who would have gotten off at South Orange or Maplewood was on it, because it left Hoboken before the dispatcher decided to tell them to make the extra stops.  We weren't even told per se that it was canceled.  We were just told "they're working on it, but it's not looking good, so I suggest you look at the train schedule and find another option."

I was on that one too, and I bailed to the 5:43 Boonton line train to Hackettstown as soon as I heard the announcement. What a crap day.

[craps]

This is my regular train. Are you always on this one?

501pm nyp-tr was on time...

another problem today wasnt just the wire down, but the ripple effect, most train sets and train crews were all out of normal position, and mgt has been trying to play catch up all day.

[Ticket_Whore]

"“We’re hopeful,” Cliff Cole, an Amtrak spokesman, said at noon."

This gives me no confidence. Also, I love the fact that there was a 'drunk passenger' at 8:45am.

Leftover from New Years Eve I suppose.

[yellowbird]

This is my regular train. Are you always on this one?

nope.  just yesterday, and i was acting as a passenger...they tell me its usually a DD, but with all the screwups, any train that runs is a good one.