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February Weekend Blizzard Hits Southern New England Hard


FROM THE EVENING OF FEBRUARY 8 INTO FEBRUARY 9, a powerful blizzard dumped three feet of snow and more on southern Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New York’s Long Island, with lesser amounts falling throughout New York state, as far south as Philadelphia, and as far north as Québec. The storm’s effects were not as bad as if it had occurred on a weekday, but Amtrak, MBTA, Metro-North, and the Long Island Rail Road were affected to varying degrees with most shutting down on Friday and beginning re- covery operations as the storm moved through on Saturday. On February 9, most of the station trackage at New Haven, Conn.,


was snowed in (above) and on the previous day Amtrak, Metro-North, and Shore Line East had suspended operations on their New York-New Haven-Boston routes as well as the Springfield Line, the Vermonter, and the Downeaster route into Maine. On February 11 and 12, Providence & Worcester borrowed Green Mountain Railroad Russell wedge plow No. X-106 to clear its lines. Originating in Worcester, Mass., as train MFS-1 and powered by B40-8W No. 4005 and B39-8E No. 3904, the plow extra rolled through Woonsocket, R.I., (right) en route to Valley Falls on Feb- ruary 11. Metro-North ran an interesting “plow” extra on February 10 as BL20GH No. 128 pushed borrowed New York Metropolitan Transit Authority rotary snow blower ST 201 to clear the Waterbury Branch. Parts of Connecticut received up to 42 inches of snow.


Amtrak


TAKES OVER MICHIGAN TRACKAGE: On February 16, 2013 Amtrak took responsi- bility for the maintenance of 135 miles of for- mer Norfolk Southern track between Kalama- zoo and Dearborn, Mich., which was purchased by the Michigan Department of Transportation on December 9, 2012. After a maintenance agreement expired, last year,the freight railroad declined to maintain the track to passenger standards as freight traffic on the route continued to decline. As Amtrak trains experienced up to 90-minute delays, the state stepped in to buy the line and trans- fer operations to Amtrak. Starting this year, Amtrak will begin to install positive train con- trol and upgrade the track and signals to per-


24 MARCH 2013 • RAILFAN.COM


mit 110 m.p.h. operation working eastward from Kalamazoo; the route already supports higher-speed operations and has PTC be- tween K-Zoo and Porter, Ind. Norfolk South- ern will continue to provide freight service, and MDOT plans to establish commuter serv- ice over the route between of Ann Arbor and Detroit in the future. NS will continue to dis- patch the line for the time being until that function can be transitioned to Amtrak.


Canadian National


PROPOSED ORE LINE IS PUT ON HOLD: Canadian National has shelved a feasibility study it had been conducting on the construc- tion of a new 500-mile long railroad north from the port of Sept-Îles, Québec, on the Gulf of St.


Lawrence to tap iron ore deposits in the Labrador Trough north of Schefferville. Sever- al of the six mining companies which partici- pated in the study with partners CN and La Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (the Québec pension fund) have delayed their proj- ects in the Trough and the currently projected volume would not be enough to justify building a new railroad. The region is already served by two major railroads between the ore deposits and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The Iron Ore Company of Canada’s Québec, North Shore & Labrador Railway runs from an ore dock at Sept-Îles to Ross Bay Junction and Carol Lake (Labrador City), and the Arcelor Mittal Mines Canada railway (the former Chemin de fer Cartier) is located to the west, running between Port


MARK FLORIO


DANIEL WENC


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