Hurricane Sandy Wreaks Havoc on Northeastern Rail Systems
“FRANKENSTORM,” THEY CALLED IT, and Hurricane Sandy lived up to her advance billing. The storm roared ashore with 100- m.p.h. winds at Atlantic City, N.J., on the evening of October 29, 2012, and decimated the region’s infrastructure as the storm’s energy combined with a full moon to create a record- high storm surge that inundated the New York City subway system and put some of the re- gion’s rail lines out of service for weeks. In ad- dition to washouts, the salt water storm surge wreaked havoc with traction power supply and signaling systems on the affected routes. The extremely high tide filled many of the
city’s subway tunnels as well as the Port Au- thority Trans Hudson (PATH) rapid transit “tubes” beneath the Hudson, along with Am- trak’s East and North (Hudson) River tunnels, which connect Penn Station with Boston and Washington. The Amtrak tunnels are also used by Metro-North commuter trains to New Haven, Conn., the Long Island Rail Road, and NJ Transit commuter trains to northern New Jersey. A week after the storm hit, two of the four East River tunnels and one of two North River tubes were still out of service, although through service via Penn Station had been re- instated on a limited basis by October 31. Am- trak also lost a key substation at Kearny, N.J., which reduced the amount of electric power available to move trains between Newark and New York. The facility was restored on Novem- ber 16, allowing more Amtrak and NJT trains to operate between Newark and New York. Backup generators at the NJ Transit Rail Operations Center located at the Meadows Maintenance Center at Kearny were drowned in high water, knocking out the agency’s train dispatching and power distribution systems. The storm surge in Raritan Bay reportedly put water over the rails on NJT’s Raritan River drawbridge in South Amboy and the nearby Morgan Drawbridge over Cheesequake Creek, both on the North Jersey Coast Line. Two tug- boats had been set adrift and rammed into the Raritan river bridge, while several pleasure boats and several boats and shipping contain- ers were deposited on Morgan Draw; reported- ly, nearly 30 miles of track on the NJCL were washed out.
NJT’s rolling stock fleet suffered consider- able losses as 237 cars and 65 locomotives which had been left at Hoboken and the Mead- ows Maintenance Center were hit by the storm surge and had to be taken out of service. Water was over the rail and into the shops at the MMC, located a few feet above sea level near the lower reaches of the Hackensack River. At the Hoboken passenger terminal on the Hud- son River, water was ten feet deep in the sta- tion waiting room and the PATH station was completely flooded. Reportedly, a dozen locomo- tives were left at Hoboken. The damaged equipment included five new ALP44DP dual- power locomotives and many recently-deliv- ered Bombardier multilevel coaches. Natural- ly, NJT management has come under close scrutiny in the aftermath.
Service had returned to most routes, albeit on modified schedules, by Monday, November 19; only the Gladstone Branch had not been re-
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RAILFAN.COM
PLEASURE BOATS AND OTHER DEBRIS littered the NJ Transit North Jersey Coast Line, including the Morgan Drawbridge (above) over the Cheesequake Creek near South Amboy on October 31. The NJCL suffered nearly 30 miles of washouts. New York MTA crews (below) used a diesel-powered pump train to drain the 14th Street tunnels under the East River on the L Line subway on November 5, just one of several lines to be flooded in Lower Manhattan.
PATRICK CASHIN, METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY
THREE PHOTOS: NJ TRANSIT
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