Replies

RE: Amtrak for pre-hurricane evacuation.

Amtrak equipment is already stretched thin nationwide. What you are suggesting is that somehow, by Friday morning at the earliest, Amtrak could have freed up usable cars to send to the NO region in less than 24 hours, then move thousands out before the storm hit Sunday. That scenario is just not possible; even the freight railroads had no ability to move all of their cars and cargo out of the area.

Right now, the railroads are in the same boat as every other form of land transportation in NO. The rail lines into and out of the delta are on bridges and causeways; those that may have survived are not usable at any rate until, as a previous poster mentioned, they have been checked for structural safety. We can't even get the most basic supplies to sustain human LIFE into this area yet, let alone repair rail services for evacuation.

The only viable rail alternative for any passenger movement would have been localized rail transit services that stretched out to unaffected areas - ie in NYC, this would be to Croton Harmon/New Haven. In other words, only the North East Corridor and its immediate commuter service providers would be capable of moving people in this fashion (and, I might add, would need to undamaged to be usable). NO,LA has NONE of that. As far as I know, the only local rail transit was the trolley line that begins and ends on Canal St.

This is a horrible situation. Again, any hindsight judgment must rest on shoulders of local and state government who had NO PLAN to deal with this, and any idea that the feds should have had a detailed plan without state/local understanding is shortsighted and ridiculous. What has happened to our fellow Americans stranded in that hell hole right now is criminal in every sense of the word...

Amtrak is coming, but like everything else, it takes time.
Amtrak lines could be used to evacuate NO residents

An evacuation plan via Amtrak train for New Orleans residents trapped by Hurricane Katrina's devastation and floodwaters is being worked out by Amtrak president David Gunn, Meridian Mayor John Robert Smith said Wednesday.

Smith, who is former Amtrak chairman, said the plan also would possibly use three national freight lines to evacuate New Orleans residents.

If the plan can be worked out, New Orleans residents trapped by the storm could be evacuated to the west by lines operated by Union Pacific Railroad and Canadian National-Illinois Central Railroad - or to the north by freight lines operated by Norfolk Southern Railroad.

Gunn also is considering using Amtrak's Crescent line from New York to New Orleans. That line is clear to Slidell, LA, Smith said, but Amtrak officials will have to evaluate the bridge just south of Slidell over Lake Pontchartrain, Smith said.

Smith said he's discussed Gunn's plan this morning with U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and Bill Gottshall, chief of staff for U.S. Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss.

Smith said they will present the plan to Federal Emergency Management Agency officials through the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.

Amtrak spokesmen said Wednesday there is no formal plan to use its trains to evacuate Katrina's victims from New Orleans.

"I can't confirm personal conversations between a current Amtrak president and a former Amtrak president," said Amtrak spokeswoman Marci Golgoski. - Sylvain Metz, The Jackson Clarion-Ledger, courtesy Larry W. Grant

Like I have said at least 3 times, I never thought of using them for after storm evacuations. In fact, I was one of the ones that said the roads and bridges have to be recertified.

As it is, if people wanted to do trains in advance, they would have to have it organized in advance. Nobody could just say, duh! but the planners and organizers if they wanted to use rail as an option could have certainly had it planned in advance with Amtrak. But, and this is a valid point, people outside of the NE corridor don't think about train travel. When I last took the train back about 85, the Crescent ran one train a day from NO to DC, and one the opposite way. I suspect schedules like that could have been worked with.

I do understand how train schedules work and such. I was thinking why hasn't this become part of a master plan? And I think the answer is, no body thinks about it, so there are no contingency equipment or ways to use the trains, and considering their ability to move people easily and in number it's a shame. Ah well.

It's like leaving the school busses in the bus barn. Why didn't they put that into the master plan as well?

Could have been done, if someone thought about it and was prepared for it, and hadn't tried to wish the storm away a whole extra day.

Thank God we don't have to evacuate large cities often. The experience here in NO shows how hard it is to do it on short notice, and how many things nobody's going to think about doing cause their contingency plans aren't real enough.

Speaking of trains.

I've been looking at some high res pics of NO East, and there are derailed train cars, tossed and turned everywhere you look. I knew they moved a lot of freight in NO, but it takes a moment like this to bring home how important a nexus point for trade NO has been.

I though I still had the link for the site up, but I cloesed it. It's a NOAA site, I think. I got to it through the WDSU website.