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Amtrak exec details shutdown (The following article by Robert Schwaneberg was posted on the Newark Star-Ledger website on June 23.) NEWARK, N.J. -- Last month's electrical shutdown that stranded 91 trains along the Northeast Corridor cannot be blamed on deteriorating infrastructure at Amtrak, a top official of the rail operation told skeptical state lawmakers yesterday. William Crosbie, Amtrak's senior vice president for operations, said it may be months before the cause of the shutdown is known, but it appears to have been a "very technical" problem involving "our most modern" electrical substation. "We feel the events of May 25 are not directly related to the infrastructure being in a state of disrepair," Crosbie told the Senate Transportation Committee. "We didn't have a piece of equipment fail. Nothing burnt; nothing blew up." In a matter of minutes, Crosbie said, circuit breakers automatically tripped at one electrical substation after another, stopping all trains along 500 miles of track from Boston to Washington, D.C. "The system is designed to self-protect itself so you don't burn a piece of equipment up that will take much longer to replace," Crosbie said. He apologized to commuters who were stranded but said Amtrak did a "remarkable" job of restoring power in three hours. Crosbie said some commuters were stranded in a tunnel under the Hudson River for five hours because once electrical power was restored, the train's braking system had to be recharged before it could move. He added that a stranded NJ Transit train and a rescue locomotive had incompatible braking systems, lengthening the delay. The shutdown stranded 91 trains that use Amtrak's tracks, leaving 12 stuck in tunnels, Crosbie said. Of those trains, 27 were operated by Amtrak, 26 by NJ Transit, 35 by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority and three by the Maryland Rail Commuter Service. New Jersey officials said they feared the May 25 shutdown and shorter, more localized power outages earlier this month and on Wednesday were symptoms of a deteriorating, chronically underfunded rail system. "It's a classic example of failure to maintain core infrastructure," Gov. Jon Corzine said. "It's going to continue to deteriorate and people know it." He called on Congress to fight efforts by President Bush to further cut Amtrak's funding. Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex) said, "If this continues, it will be a disaster. People will jump off these trains and back into their cars, leading to more congestion on our roads." George Warrington, executive director of NJ Transit, said he is "deeply concerned" about Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, which is suffering from "a 30-year history of gross undercapitalization." Warrington said NJ Transit spends more than $100 million a year to use Amtrak's electricity and tracks and to improve stations along the route. Sen. Nicholas Sacco (D-Hudson), chairman of the Transportation Committee, said Amtrak appears to have an "ongoing" problem with power outages. "My suspicions are the infrastructure is now deteriorating," Sacco told Crosbie. Crosbie said Wednesday's localized power loss occurred when circuit breakers tripped at a Kearny substation and was "unrelated to the events of May 25," when the entire Northeast Corridor lost power for the first time in nearly a quarter-century. That outage, he said, has been traced to one of two electrical substations in Pennsylvania. "We are still investigating what caused the problem," Crosbie said. "There are hundreds of logs we have to go through." When Sacco asked whether Amtrak is adequately funded, Crosbie said its current level of funding is "workable. Obviously, more is better." "What's key is a consistent level of funding on an ongoing basis," Crosbie said. He said the 12-month congressional budgeting cycle makes it difficult to purchase equipment with long order times, such as locomotives. Sacco said he hoped the hearing would serve as "a wake-up call for the federal government and federal officials." "They'll certainly know that we're aware of what's taking place and that they have to act," Sacco said. Friday, June 23, 2006 © 1997-2010 Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen

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