Federal investigators were on the scene of an Amtrak Northeast regional train derailment north of Philadelphia that occurred Tuesday night. The incident left six people dead and more than 140 injured.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) launched a go-team to the site and was expected to announce additional details about the accident later this morning. The cause is not yet known.
The U.S. Department of Transportation will assist the NTSB in the investigation, U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a prepared statement.
Modified Amtrak service will be provided between Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Pa., and Philadelphia, and New York City and Boston. Amtrak trains will not be running between New York and Philadelphia, but New Jersey Transit will honor Amtrak tickets between New York City and Trenton, N.J., Amtrak announced.
About 238 passengers and five crew members were on board Amtrak Train 188 when it derailed on a curve around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday. At a press conference later in the evening, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Netter described the scene as “an absolute disastrous mess.”
We have written before on alternate routes, but not in anticipation of an accident.A few years ago, we wrote a story on going up the Northeast Corridor from Delaware to Old Saybrook using commuter lines. Here’s an update
Yes, with a little thinking, Amtrak could have had a “disaster plan” to work around this accident. There should have been several by passes arranged
1. Hispeed line to Camden then River line to Trenton (not an easy task. Need to use SEPTA regional rail, a bus, or a streetcar and walk. Easy to get lost and hard with luggage).
- SEPTA to West Trenton and short bus to Trenton with AMTRAK turning at Trenton. This is somewhat like what is being done: NJT is honoring Amtrak tickets between NYP and Trenton and running shuttle bus service to West Trenton.3. Shuttle train From 30th St Via the West Trenton line to Newark on the old Crusader route. (Line is single track between West Trenton and Bound Brook, too busy with CSX freights, and would need CSX engineers as pilots. Complicated track connection there to NJT Raritan Valley Line, so you’d need NJT engineers as pilots there.)
- 4. AMTRAK to North Philadelphia and bus to 30th St. (A bad neighborhood, and the wreck is east of North Philadelphia, so you can’t get there from New York. Would have to quickly establish an emergency station and call in Philadelphia “Highway” police to protect the scene).
PenneyVanderbilt 
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