Metropolis Transit On Ice: El Trains Suffer Equipment Damage

Metropolis, BR. February 16th, 2015.

Icy Wires Wrecked about $4000 of electrical equipment on the elevated trains.

This morning's Rush Hour came to stand still on the 22, 26 & 79 lines when cold artic storm and lots of wind driven ocean spray cause ice to form on the wires that power the subway cars for those line. In an attempt to run trains on the lines, $4000 of overhead equipment was damaged. The lines were shut down at 8 AM right at the height of rush hour. The icy wires also slowed trolley service with speed restrictions on the 7, 21, 56 & 66 lines hampered service. The 5 trolley was also extended to Exhibition Hall to aid the 79's shutdown was impacted. Thankfully not trolley cars were damaged.

Older train cars have ice fighting equipment. 

The 42 remaining 51 year old el cars have overhead ice fighting equipment attached to them and can remove ice at a rapid rate. They are usually assigned to the 39 line with a set floating around on the 79 & 47 but all the 39 cars were taken off and placed on the 79 during the outage to scrape off the ice on the wires. There are also 8 of the old cars that are used for work service that assisted in the ice removal off the 22 & 26 lines. Service was restored by 11 PM this morning.

Freak Winter Tornado Impacts Two Major Transit Depots

South Morgan, BR. January 7th 2015.

Tornado seen destroying homes along 35th Street.

January isn't the month you'd expect to see a tornado but on Monday, January 5th, 2015 a large EF-2 tornado blew through Pecan Valley, South Morgan & Morganville destroying hundreds of apartments and homes. One of the unique things about the tornado was it's path along the N & 47 Corridor. It cross the N trolley line twice, and the 47 twice both times striking two major transit storage facilities near the tracks. The 47's main train depot was hit and two cars were slightly thrown into electrical wire poles. The depot's main build is missing glass and the power wire that give trains juice has been ripped apart. This has cause the 47 to end short at Morganville Station instead of Freehold. The N Trolley was also downed for a period of time but that was fixed within hours of the tornado strike. 

A Work Train fixing power wires near 35th Street station. 

The elevated train depot wasn't the only victim of the tornado's wrath. Slaven Bus Depot was also struck by the tornado and the result was 12 completely destroyed buses and 100 more damaged in some sort of way. The power wires for the trackless trolleybuses also were mangled in the onslaught. Of the 12 destroyed buses, 2 of them were loaner buses from Great Grundolf Transportation as part of a deal to increase service on the 79 Elevated shuttle bus. The tornado also prove to be deadly killing 2 men and injuring hundreds. It was rated EF2 based on it's damage but almost became a EF3 grade. Some homes did receive EF3 grade damage but it wasn't enough constant degree of EF3 in a pattern to give it that rate. The Southwest Metropolis Tornado is the first natural disaster Metropolis faced since Hurricane Sandy back in 2012.

Front of a leased Great Grundolf bus thrown in front of trackless coaches. 

The 47 Elevated is expected to return to Freehold by the end of the week.

Sandy's Revenge: The 26 Bumped to Limited Service Status During Repairs

Boga Island, BR. Sept 8th 2014.

A divot in the sand cause the tracks to shift and was never fixed.  

It's been almost two long years since the devastating Hurricane Sandy stuck Metropolis. The monster storm surge flooded Boga Island completely and ate away at the beautiful beaches it has. The 26 elevated line happens to circles this island and it's the only physical link back to Metropolis. There is no road, and the ferry service only runs between 6 AM and 9 PM prompting 24 hour service on the line. It also soon going to be extended to Downtown relieving the 65 of crowding but that's still way off. Right now the line is plagued with speed restrictions, heavy decay of the rails, signals that magically shift when they're not suppose to and recently a train derailed near Little Wave Lake due to bad track. Metropolis Transit is stepping in with a "Brighter Orange" Fix that will fix the hurricane ridden tracks as well improve the ATC on the line.

Barley any beach left. The winter of 2013 took it's toll over here rather than Sandy.

The 26's concrete trackbeds sit on nothing but beach sand and with the recent winters of 2013 and Hurricane Sandy in the past eroding the beach, the beds are slowly losing ground around it. During the summer of 2014, the beach was off limits on this side to bathers since there was only 5 feet of beach at high tide from the tracks. The fix-up will specifically extend the beaches to enjoyable lengths while fixing and rearranging the trackbed around it. This results in hourly service during the Non-Rush Hours. Because of this, ferry service will run 24 hours a day until end of the fix up at the 19th of September. Metropolis El tickets will be honored on the Ferry until the 21st of September.