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The delays are due to limited operating capacity after last Thursday night's freight train derailment in the vicinity of the Spuyten Duyvil station in Bronx.
About 100 Metro-North workers were continuing to remove the CSX cars and rebuild the tracks in the Spuyten Duyvil area over night into Monday morning. When the freight equipment was rerailed and removed and one track was clear of all work equipment, crews were to work overnight to install 160 feet of third rail on one of the two tracks and then run a test train before operating passenger service Monday morning.
The damage to the infrastructure is so substantial that only one of the two tracks in the area will be returned to service for Monday morning, but railroad officials say there is sufficient capacity to operate 40 inbound and 12 outbound scheduled trains during the AM peak. Customers are advised to anticipate scattered delays.
The remaining track will be out of service for the week, and work will continue at night on rebuilding 1,500 feet of track before it can be returned to passenger service.
Late-night off-peak buses -- after 10 p.m. -- will be necessary for this work to be done. Special train/bus schedule information will be available Monday on this website.
Commuters should listen for announcements at the stations and continue to check the news media and the Metro-North website for updates.
Trains had been operating on a limited hourly service between Poughkeepsie and Yonkers stations since the derailment. Trains went no farther than Yonkers, with commuters switching to shuttle bus service there.
Ten cars of the 25-car CSX freight train hauling municipal garbage and other materials derailed Thursday evening. The cause of the accident remains under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.
Crews are working under difficult conditions. The derailment site is in a narrow rock cut, making it impossible to work alongside the derailed cars. The weather, with heat and humidity reaching dangerous levels, has made it more difficult for crews. The following conditions have also made the removal of the freight equipment extremely challenging:
- Garbage containers have tipped over or fallen off the flat cars carrying them blocking access to the track area. Freight cars are out of position and off the tracks.
- Because of the lack of clearance, cranes require many moves to get the freight equipment back into position for removal from the site.
- Crane outriggers (that stabilize the cranes) need to be set up, taken down and reset in different locations to support each move of the cranes.
- Some freight cars need to be rebuilt underneath so their wheels and trucks are operational. Only then can they be rerailed for removal.
- Before some freight cars can be rerailed, the tracks in front of them also need to be rebuilt.
- Some freight cars need to be dug out of the ballast before they can be reassembled and rerailed. Due to the narrow space, this work has to be done by hand because there is not enough space for equipment to assist with this effort.
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