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.

Mandatory Hurricane Improvements Calls For More Elevated Space

North Christine, BR. January 3rd, 2015.

Blue Beach Yard Received 6 inches of Sea Water During Sandy 

For a system that uses the words "Elevated Railway", it actually hard to believe only 60% of the elevated network is above street & sea level. The 22, 26, 39, 47 & 79 lines all have significant portions of track at street level with the 22, 26, 39 & 79 being only a mere feet from the salty ocean. On normal days, this may seem scenic until a storm like Hurricane Sandy hit and engulfs those sections of track under feet of water. This leaves very limited space to store trains out of the damaging salt water's way. The NTSB and BDot spent the past two year conducting a study about train storage in the case of any high wave event whether if it's hurricane, nor'easter, or a earthquake triggered tsunami and the results are very grim. With the system expanding it's fleet with 150 new cars along with current 150 cars from 2005 and the 48 soon-to-retire cars from 1964 it will be nearly impossible to save the entire fleet from salt water unless more elevated space is created.

South Clubs Station is particularly vulnerable. 

Most of the Elevated Subway System in Metropolis stems from experimental elevated trolley routes as well as a few regular trolley routes that were outright converted instead of elevated. This means most lines at some point run on street level and close to waterway that could surge and flood out the tracks leaving rust deposits on rails or outright eatting them to the ballast. Metropolis Transit wants to combat this with more elevated subway space to store trains. Since during storm it's require to keep all running tracks clear, only the 79 elevated's express track, Exhibtion Hall and Blue Beach Depot (barely) are elevated enough to let water run through under it. Still monster surges in Sandy top the levee at Blue Beach leaving NTSB member to push for more elevated space.

Exhibition Hall is a good 45 feet above the street and 50 feet above sea level.

There is no definite location eyed yet for elevated subway storage but Metropolis Transit is urged to work closely with BDot to solve this problem immediately. The NTSB classed the project "Urgent" on the list of US transportation improvements. Governor Patrick Soraz (R) counters this by dismissing the study as "rushed" and "another transportation bill to spend money on" but, the Senate is taking the study finding a bit more serious.

"Sandy crippled the largest transit system in Bridgerissa for almost month because of downed train cars," Senetor Kelly Jones (R) began, "So what is there not to take serious about this study? We can't have subway trains running in the path of danger and I will try to lobby this to get the ball rolling even if Soraz doesn't care."

Only time will tell what will happen in the answer of this potential political spin.

DashTransit Rebuilds House Park Trolley Depot

North Christine, BR. Nov 26th 2014.

Recently rebuilt tracks at House Park Depot

When The Metropolis Connector loops opened in 2014, there was no clear picture where the trolleys would be laid up. The only soultion was share space at Ran Mourie Depot and use the only working two tracks at House Park Depot. HPD was the main depot for the Broadway & Boga IBOA trolleys until the company went under in 1975 and bought out by Metropolis Transit in 1976. Metropolis Transit treated the depot as a paint shop for the Gretalinn trolley routes (Route 3 & 7) until 2004 when Gretalinn was rebuilt with a paint shop. The depot building's tracks remained wired as some 3 & 47 trolleys used the depot as short turn point while the yard tracks were severed and unused.

A 46 bus using the depot as a looping point due to construction at 21st-Lindsay. 

DashTransit Services's Metropolis Connector Trolley was placed into service in the summer of 2014 and the Red Loop (formerly the 47 trolley) used the depot tracks to park PCC trolleys for the service. With a federal grant, DashTransit hired a private contracting firm to rip up the old yard tracks and replace them with brand new ones as well as a new depot building. The yard was expanded to 5 tracks instead of 4 and new electric wires were erected to power trolley cars. When all said and done, the depot will be able to house 45 trolley cars including their upcoming order of Siemens S70s that will replace the vintage PCCs on the Red Loop. Those PCC cars will go back to Geneva Heights Trolley Museum.