Posted on 02/26/2019 2:27:43 AM PST by blueplum
a private railroad would have had the track cleared in a matter of hours
That and the Donner party had NO cell reception.
Amtrak is not responsible for clearing or maintaining the track, though. UP is.
If Union Pacific could not clear the track, then the track was very badly blocked, imo.
It is Union Pacific track....their freight trains are also blocked.
My dad used to run that track as an engineer. There are places it is in the middle of nowhere and the recent snows makes it impossible. Surprised they couldn’t bring another train up to move the people though.
I worked with a nurse whose husband worked for Amtrak. She used to call it “Slamtrack”.
“...and while replanted trees are starting to get large enough for harvesting, finding young men who are willing to take the risks inherent in lumbering is harder, all the time.”
I grew up on the Oregon Coast went to a small (400ish) high school - several friends fathers died in the lumber industry...
Tough work.
One of my senior classmates was killed by a falling tree (he was topping it) just a week before graduation, I confess I did not know him as he transferred from California earlier in the year for the surfing in our area.
As I stated, tough work.
One of worst problems is that the crappers are all full by now.
Most of the roads were closed in central Oregon yesterday. I had several trucking companies tell me their trucks were stuck in Madras, etc. They got 2’ of snow in a very short time and it was still snowing.
The Union Pacific does not get paid if the trains are not moving on their tracks. They will have an engine there today to pull the train out of way. There may not be roads to get to the location of this train. It is stuck on the way into the mountains. This location is east of the I5 corridor/valley. The mountains right around there are over 5000’ in elevation.
You should be able to surmise from the story, the rail line the Amtrak train is using there in Oregon is owned and maintained by the Union Pacific railroad.
That is one of the issues Amtrak has altogether. It does not own or maintain most of the rail beds it uses. It pays to use the rail beds owned and maintained by rail freight companies in most cases.
When the private rail businesses (most ran both passengers and freight) were heading towards bankruptcy Amtrak got their passenger services and the private companies (20 of them altogether) kept the freight services AND IN MANY CASES THE TRACKS AS WELL.
All this happened (1970s under Nixon) as both air travel and the Interstate Highway system were diminishing the need for many passenger train stops, and many routes as well. Amtrak - the taxpayers - got the financially losing part of the business, and the railroad companies got the financial room to concentrate on freight.
“an environmental impact statement on placing any felled tree parts on either side of the tracks”
A wind storm hit my county many roads blocked.
Waiting to remove all the debris would have taken forever.
So they left much of it on the right of way.
That was a BIG decision!
Now if you get a mouse in your house, you know who to sue.
Amtrak is not responsible for clearing or maintaining the track, though. UP is.
If PG&E is responsible for trees NEAR the wires...
Then Oregon or why not California should nationalize the railroad.
Mussolini made the trains run on time!
Well said.
Great. I can wait for my only travel options to be (a) walking or (b) taking amtrak. What 1800’s idiocy!
They’ll probably have to clear the roads just to get to it. Lots of trees down in Oregon. I’m in Southwest Oregon and on day 3 with no power due to fallen trees across the lines. I’ve got a half dozen down on my property that’ll need to be cleared when it thaws. Prayers for the people on that train.
This is reminding me of a scene from Lawrence of Arabia. The arabs had won and taken over administration of Damascus. They made a mess of it. They had no idea how to manage and didn’t want to. All they wanted was the power and none of the responsibility that came with it.
If more one person on the train can associate cause and effect It will be a rarity.
I was afraid of that... reminded me of the cruise ship situation....
OR route 58 from I5 Springfield to Gilchrist( highway 97 ) is still closed. This train is stuck in the Willamette National forest. So, the road the runs along the is UP line is still closed too.
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