[PRCo] Light rail in the snow

[Harold Geissenheimer]

Greetings to Robert Rynerson and all of you.

I have been reading about the big Denver snow storm.

Robert, from when to when was the LRT shut down.?
What about the Mall shuttle?
Any comments?

Is the airport open yet?

For my part, I have been involved in several very major storms.

In 1948, after Christmas, in New York, a major storm  shut many elevated
lines
and trolleys.  Conduit cars affected by salt on the street.  El lines
by ice on the third rail.  Took several days to return to normal.

I was out until 10PM riding around when I felt I had to go home
or not make it that night as every thing was shutting down.

In l950, in Pittsburgh, I was working at Montour Motor Coach when the
big
storm hit.  This was the day after Thanksgiving, a big shopping day.
I went to work normally and took the bus to our suburban garage
at 8AM.  Snow started to fall by 830AM and we had to put chains on
the buses by 1130AM.  We sent buses back into Pittsburgh by 1PM to
take workers and shoppers home.  Some never made it into downtown.
By 5PM, we had buses stalled all over.  Three never did get back until
the next week!.  We had one bus stalled near a farm house where the
owner was housing and feeding the passengers and the driver. I went
along on our service truck and ended up spending the night there also.

Saturday morning I walked a mile over to the main highway and hitched
a ride on a state snow plow back to the garage.  This was on US Highway
22-30 west which was then a two lane highway..no interstates.  It was
closed
except for the one plow.

The highway did not open until late Wednesday night.  I got out Thursday

AM back to downtown then trolley to Dormont.  I stayed at a driver's
home in Moon Run near the garage from Sat to Thursday.

Street car service stopped Friday evening,  There were dozens of cars
stuck on the streets, many because of stalled or parked autos.  Ice
formed
on the paving and the tracks had to be chipped out by hand.  Pittsburgh
Rys had sweepers but they could not do their job when the auto traffic
stopped.  This was a Pittsburgh of narrow streets and no expressways.

A ban on downtown autos was implemented and the National Guard
called out to turn traffic away.  The whole place was shut down.  Tanks
were delivering milk and taking people to the hospital.  Some trolleys
and buses were out for over a week.

My next big storm was in Chicago in l979.  Actually a series of storms
with feezing temperatures.  It never melted and just kept building  up.
This was hard on the rapid transit routes on the surface as the 6000
series
cars were plowing snow with their motors.  We lost 500 motors in a week.

Tracks on the elevated stucture were OK. the snow just fell to the
ground.
But the surface routes to Howard Street and on the Expressway were
in deep trouble.  It took days to dig out trains and weeks to get
service
back to normal.  This storm resulted in CTA cars getting small plastic
snow plows.  We then acquired snow removal equipment as well.

It was however, an excellent example of team work.  Planners worked the
stations to inform the public, the lawyers took charge of finding hotel
housing, the grants people  were in charge of getting food, and
maintenace
people from all parts were digging out the trains.  We had TV and
newspapers
in our Control Center to keep the public informed.  Real cooperation
worked OK.
Bus service was also blocked and delayed due to traffic, stalled cars
and
abandoned autos.  CTA buses did not have anti freeze so they had to be
drained when
they ran out of diesel.  (and then eventually towed back to the garage)

This storm cost Mayor Bilandic his job.

In the heavy snow last month, Washington DC and Baltimore Metros
has serious closings.

A lesson to be discussed is should you shut down and save the
equipment or run and destroy it.

So, speaking from the voice of experience, I wish RTD well. Lets hope it
will help the summer water supply,

What did happen?  and when?

Harold Geissenheimer