ACTIVE DAYS ON RRD

It's been fairly active on the railroad side, but for all the wrong reasons...

Earlier this morning, there are reports that a tresspasser was struck and killed on the R7 Trenton/NEC line between Levittown and Bristol stations. Based on reports posted at the "tristate-rr" YahooGroup, the train involved was believed to be Amtrak's #170 (the 6:55am departure from 30 St, non-stop to Newark and New York). Based on that information, that would put the approximate time of the incident at around 7:00am this morning. Trenton and New York bound trains were directed to one of the Philadelphia-bound tracks, effectively causing delays in both directions throughout the morning peak.

Within the past few hours, SEPTA also reported that a tresspasser was spotted within the Center City tunnel, though few details were given. The homeless population who set up shop at Suburban and Market East stations over the course of the day apparently have been known to sneak into the tunnel. There was no reports of delays as a result of that incident.

Also, the past couple of days have been, to say the least, very adventurous for riders along the Reading trunk, especially the R3 West Trenton and R8 Fox Chase lines.

At around 1:00pm yesterday, the SEPTA wire train was dispatched to the Reading trunk between Newtown Jct and Wayne Jct due to catenary problems. This is the second time in as many weeks that there have been catenary problems in that area. Also adding to the fun for R3 and R8 riders is that CSX (which owns portions of the West Trenton and Fox Chase lines) imposed speed restrictions due to the recent increase in temparatures; on the R3, restrictions are in effect between Wood (south of Langhorne) and Trent (West Trenton), while speed restrictions are in effect on the R8 between Newtown Jct (where the R8 splits off from the Reading main line) and Cheltenham.

There's no word as to whether or not SEPTA made any mention of this on its web site; but it's highly doubtful.