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garmon757

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8 hours ago, Busjack said:

 

8 hours ago, Busjack said:

Back to the posturing point, this is probably a ploy to get the riders to contact their legislators, but compared to Doomsdays of 10 years ago, will be even less effective, given the current dysfunction in the legislature.

Jack, You are probably correct. But I find it comical to think that a totally political organization could not schmooze their bozo political buddies for money, yet expect a schmuck like me to have some kind of influence to rally my congressman to cough up some cash.

In the past couple of weeks, Dan Lipinski was at Union Station investigating union safety issues brought up that management didn't or wouldn't address. Upon hearing he was either already there or enroute, the big wigs came out of the ivory tower to meet him there. Also, Tammy Duckworth was at 47th street for a photo op with rehabs and PTC nonsense. In both cases, nobody, but nobody said, "hey, we need some money...the place is falling apart or we need to keep this going". Thinking about the Union Station stuff...it's comical with the Metra big wigs being all concerned about Lipinski addressing union issues, even though Union Station is under control of Amtrak.

 

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7 hours ago, Pace831 said:

Would the need to pay back federal money only be true if all NCS service was cut, or could they (for example) make it rush hour only? It brings to mind the controversy of how there were supposed to be 24 trains, but CN wouldn’t allow the additional round trip.

Metra press release says Romeoville Station was “primarily” funded by CMAQ grant

I do agree that drastic cuts probably won’t happen, and is similar to when they threatened to shut down so the PTC deadline would be extended. Some cuts to off-peak service might be expected, but I don’t think the HC would be cut except possibly the 2:45 train.

Does Metra do Friday-only trains? I could see that happening with the 2:45

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On 7/24/2018 at 9:59 AM, busfan2847 said:

No, but it runs nearly every day, returning downtown around 4:45pm. Often pass it just north of Clybourn while on #629 on the Northwest Line.

There is a place just south of Bryn Mawr Av that has a siding that gets plastic pellets in covered hoppers. Also this used to serve the bakery at Palmer and Kenton on the old freight line, but that might be gone. 

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16 hours ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

Does Metra do Friday-only trains? I could see that happening with the 2:45

Only special schedule is before holidays.

 

17 hours ago, trainman8119 said:

Jack, You are probably correct. But I find it comical to think that a totally political organization could not schmooze their bozo political buddies for money, yet expect a schmuck like me to have some kind of influence to rally my congressman to cough up some cash.

In the past couple of weeks, Dan Lipinski was at Union Station investigating union safety issues brought up that management didn't or wouldn't address. Upon hearing he was either already there or enroute, the big wigs came out of the ivory tower to meet him there. Also, Tammy Duckworth was at 47th street for a photo op with rehabs and PTC nonsense. In both cases, nobody, but nobody said, "hey, we need some money...the place is falling apart or we need to keep this going". Thinking about the Union Station stuff...it's comical with the Metra big wigs being all concerned about Lipinski addressing union issues, even though Union Station is under control of Amtrak.

The issue in this pout to the press was that Metra was asking for state money at budget time. There seems to be a federal transportation law in force, so it knows what it is getting there (which includes no money for PTC, despite a decade of begging). It's more like you are supposed to beg Carole Sente to raise taxes (I had to look it up as I only remember that Mathias was forced out by gerrymandering). That might be what the garbage about putting a gps tracker in your car to collect a mileage tax is about (I'm sure the state isn't happy that I get 46 mpg in a hybrid) .

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11 hours ago, MTRSP1900-CTA3200 said:

Footage from the Operation Life Saver staged car-train collision.

This is at Smith Road in Manhattan on the SWS. It was filmed on Sunday when there is no regular train service. I mentioned in another thread that I saw the train coming back from this event and initially thought it was for PTC testing. The Herald News article said it was a three car train, so I doubted myself until I saw this video confirming there were five.

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6 hours ago, Pace831 said:

This is at Smith Road in Manhattan on the SWS. It was filmed on Sunday when there is no regular train service. I mentioned in another thread that I saw the train coming back from this event and initially thought it was for PTC testing. The Herald News article said it was a three car train, so I doubted myself until I saw this video confirming there were five.

Obviously the car was wrecked, but just how much damage was done to the locomotive's pilot, coupler & front end?

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On the UP line going north past clyborn looks the a new track is almost complete across the river bridge. It looks like track would go as far as near the next bridge. My question is will this extended further or is this only a siding? It just appears if this was part of the main line that it would be a bottle neck due to angle of track. 

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1 hour ago, richii0909 said:

On the UP line going north past clyborn looks the a new track is almost complete across the river bridge. It looks like track would go as far as near the next bridge. My question is will this extended further or is this only a siding? It just appears if this was part of the main line that it would be a bottle neck due to angle of track. 

Are you  referring to UP-N or UP-NW?

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3 hours ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

Never actually had a chance to ride the SSL, where do access those platforms? I can never recall seeing a platform 5

If your walking up and out of Metra side walk toward the Auntie Anne and hang a left.. there is the south shore side. It is much easier to access and takes less effort then Metra side. ME is the only line in which going in bound to city you have to climb stairs to get to platform  and then once downtown more stairs it’s crazy. Only good thing is headed out bound everything is down. I don’t know why they were using south shore today.

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2 hours ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

Never actually had a chance to ride the SSL, where do access those platforms? I can never recall seeing a platform 5

If you come in from Randolph and pass the shops, you keep straight. You will see the SS ticket booths on the left.  Keep straight through the doors leading to the platforms.

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50 minutes ago, Pace831 said:

CBS News: Train nearly hits police car when warning devices fail in Mokena (includes dash cam video).

Made the front of the Northwest Herald, but I couldn’t read it in full except for the headline. I was wondering how they got that image for the front of the paper.

”FRIGHT TRAIN”

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