Officials toured the scene of a two-train collision in Connecticut that injured dozens of people and halted rail traffic from New York to Boston on Friday.
Area hospitals reported seeing 70 people after the rush-hour collision. Two remained in critical condition on Saturday.
“The damage is absolutely staggering,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal told reporters on Saturday after a tour of the scene. “Ribbons on the sides of cars are torn away like ribbons of clothes. Tons of metal tossed around like toy things. The insides of cars are shattered.”
An eastbound Metro-North train derailed at 6:10 p.m. on Friday and was struck by a westbound train between the Bridgeport and Fairfield stations, National Transportation Safety Board member Earl Weener told reporters on Saturday.
Investigators from the NTSB arrived in Connecticut at about 9 a.m. on Saturday morning and planned to begin documenting the scene of the crash, Weener said. Investigators planned to spend between seven to 10 days on scene, and will conduct interviews with the train’s crew members, passengers, and witnesses.
Metro-North, which runs between New York City and its northern suburbs in New York and Connecticut, is one of the busiest commuter rail services in the U.S. There are four tracks on that segment of the New Haven Line, an MTA statement said, but two are out of service for replacement of overhead wires.
There was “extensive damage” to the track and the wire from the collision, MTA said. The train cars will remain in place until the investigation is completed.
Amtrak cancelled all NY to Boston trains, but later added limited service New haven-Boston.
Until they clean it up, there is no acceptable detour in place. One exists, but it is only single track. Norwalk to Danbury, Danbury to Derby/Shelton on the Maybrook Line, Waterbury Branch to Devon on the Waterbury Line. However, the Maybrook Line is currently out of service for political/financial reasons. Besides, it is not electrified and Metro North does not have significant number of diesel locomotives to operate. In the meantime, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (parent company of Metro North) has rounded up lots of busses to “bridge the gap” between Bridgeport and Norwalk.
Full Metro-North Rail Service Expected Wednesday
Tue May 21, 2013 4:28 am (PDT) . Posted by:
“Gary R. Kazin” gkazin
I knew they could do better than two weeks. That was a worst-case estimate; better to do that than say they can do it in four days and need five…
Full Metro-North Rail Service Expected Wednesday
By MATT FLEGENHEIMER
Published: May 20, 2013
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said on Monday that it expected full commuter rail service to return by Wednesday morning, less than a week after a collision near Fairfield, Conn., involving two Metro-North Railroad trains injured more than 70 people and jammed a crucial transit corridor for much of the Northeast.
“We are confident that the reconstruction work, inspection and testing will be completed in time for a normal rush hour on Wednesday,” said Howard Permut, the president of Metro-North Railroad, who had estimated as recently as Sunday morning that service would be disrupted “well into the coming week.”
Full article:
http://www.nytimes. com/2013/ 05/21/nyregion/ after-crash- metro-north- riders-face- morning-commute. html?ref= nyregion
PenneyVanderbilt 
Reblogged this on Ancien Hippie.
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