Trouble on the tracks: Collision hurts 60, tears up rails between NY and Boston
There’s big trouble on the tracks today.
A collision between two Metro-North Railroad commuter trains in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on Friday sent 60 people to the hospital and tore up the rails used by Amtrak to carry passengers between New York and Boston.
Amtrak’s Acela Express and Northeast Regional trains between New York Penn Station and Boston were suspended completely—and likely will stay that way for some time. So was Metro-North service from New York to New Haven, Connecticut.
Much of that traffic is likely to spill onto Connecticut’s highways.
Limited train service is available between New Haven and Boston, and things surely will be hectic for rail travelers on both lines. Amtrak is offering ticket holders the option of cancelling.
"There is no estimate on service restoration," the Amtrak website says. "Additional service updates will be provided when available."
About 700 people were aboard the two trains involved in the accident. One train, traveling from Grand Central Station in New York to New Haven, derailed at about 6 p.m. local time Friday night, and sideswiped a second train, headed in the opposite direction.
Even as investigators complete their assessment of the scene, cranes have been brought in to move the trains. But the extensive damage to the rails and overhead wires will have to be repaired and inspected before service is restored.
Metro-North Railroad is the second largest commuter railroad in the nation, according to the MTA website, carrying 281,331 passengers on an average weekday.
Train accidents of this magnitude are relatively rare. In the last big crash, in 2008, a head-on collision between a Union Pacific freight train and a Los Angeles Metrolink commuter train killed 25 passengers.
Congress has mandated the adoption of equipment designed to stop a train before it hits another, but the railroads have asked for an extension of the deadline until 2015.
By Cheryl Rosen
Cheryl
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