I am one of those lucky souls that gets to take the LIRR (Long Island Rail Road). Sometimes I notice a fully loaded Amtrak Accela train on the tracks from Penn Station (NYC - Manhattan) to Jamiaca (Queens).
I could understand if the train is empty - then I would assume it’s on it’s way to sunnyside yard. But it looks full - and people look like they were there a while - newspapers, laptops visable.
WTF is going on - I don’t know any Amtrak passanger stop on LI, The only thing I can guess is that those employees of Amtrak but I don’t really know, and want to.
Could the Accella which ruins exclusively as the MetroLiner Boston/Philly/DC run be using a short run of tracks to avois tracks that aren’t up to snuff?
I know Amtrak “rushed” to complete the Accela line (the tracks had to be completely redone and some still weren’t right), so maybe they used a short run of track to get around a track section under repair/improvement.
I think this is the answer as Accela is stricly the replacement for MetroLiner service in the NE corridor.
I can only guess that there is a train bridge between Queens and the Bronx that Amtrak uses as an alternate. Otherwise, an Amtrak train should never enter Queens other than for storage. Sure you’re not in the Bar Car (does the LIRR still have that, or did they realize that getting passengers loaded and dropping them off to there cars is Not A Good Thing™)?
When I took Amtrak from Boston to NYC in January we certainly touched LI on our way. I don’t remember exactly where we were but we crossed into NYC from LI.
I used to take the Metroliner/Acela south out of Penn Station 5 nights a week, and (especially during the winter), the train was frequently delayed coming from the north. The most frequent point of delay? Sunnyside yards. I’m not sure why they route the train through there, unless it’s to add and remove cars / engines.
Remember that the Acela trains use Metro North on part of their trip to and from Boston, but Amtrak uses Penn Station, which is the LIRR terminal and not reached directly by Metro-North. The connection between Metro North and the LIRR, used by freight trains and by Amtrak NY-Boston trains long before Acela started running, is over the Hell Gate Bridge. (No. Really. That’s the official name.)
The route from Penn Station to Boston is by way of Long Island, as unlikely as that may seem. The tracks go through eastern Queens and then head north, cut through the Bronx, then veer east.
There are actually two connections to Metro-North, one to the New Haven division which is used for Amtrak’s Boston-bound lines, and one to the Hudson division which Amtrak uses for their upstate NY line which follows the Hudson River and then the Erie Canal.
I knew about the connection from penn to the hudson line, and for that matter knew about the Hell Gate Bridge and knew it was for rail but didn’t know it ran through LI to get to Penn.
Thanks
This GQ has been answered to my satifaction - mods if you wish you can close this