Railroad Traffic during Super Bowl 1-23-2012

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W9NES

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CSX Railroad will be stopping CSX trains before and after the Super Bowl. The main east-west route runs near Lucas Oil Stadium. Tains will be staged in Anderson and in Avon.During this time we will not be hearing any railroad radio traffic on the east-west route thru the downtown area. Mon 1-23-2012
 

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This is pretty much normal practice for events at Lucas Oil Stadium. When games were played at the RCA Dome, all rail traffic was halted during entire football games. Now, with events at LOS, they generally only stop rail traffic for the hour leading up to kick-off. The Super Bowl is a big enough event that they will stopping traffic as Tim described. Luckily, Sunday is not a high traffic day, so holding trains for a few hours won't cause a major disruption.

As for where trains will be parked, a lot will depend on timing and rail traffic levels. East bound trains will probably just not be allowed to leave Avon Yard. West bound trains will be stopped anywhere between Anderson and downtown Indianapolis. The line between Indianapolis and Anderson is double track, so they can park trains on one of the mains and still keep the other main open. The biggest issue is what to do with the crews. If they take the crews off the trains, they will have to stop the trains someplace where it's convenient to pick up the crew and deliver the replacement crew when they decide to start moving trains again. Anderson is a good spot for that, but Anderson Yard doesn't have enough tracks to store very many trains.

Mark, the Indianapolis Terminal uses 160.800 as the road frequency and 160.560 as the dispatcher frequency.
 

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Primarily, it's a safety issue. The railroads carry many hazardous materials. If a train derailed on the overhead trackage between White River and College Avenue, there would be a potential for any hazmat involved to impact the large crowd of people assembled for the football game. In RCA Dome days, the tracks ran right next to the building. There's a little more distance between the tracks and LOS, but for the Super Bowl, they are expecting a large crowd of people up and down Capital Avenue between Georgia Street and LOS.
 

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Is that just for the game only, or for all of the festivities leading up to the game? I had heard rumors that trains were going to be routed over the Belt.
 

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The trains will be sent to Anderson and Avon.CSX Police will have the east and the west side of LOS on the main line closed down.This is just for the game only.After the game train traffic will be allowed to run 3 hours after the game is over.
 

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FYI, if someone is envisioning CSX Police standing on the tracks stopping trains on either side of LOS, that will not be the case. The movement of trains outside of yards is controlled by the train dispatchers, not the railroad police.

Eastbound trains will not be given clearance to leave Avon Yard. Normally, eastbound trains leaving Avon Yard must have clearance from the IC Dispatcher (on 160.560 MHz) to proceed east of CP MY which is at the east end of Avon Yard. Westbound trains will be directed by the ID Dispatcher (160.680 MHz) to tie down at Anderson Yard or maybe someplace between Anderson and Lawrence. This will all be done by the dispatchers under orders issued by higher authorities at the railroad, such as the regional superintendent.

E.J., there's long been talk about routing road trains around the Belt in order to avoid downtown, but I don't see that happening. CSX is loathe to do it because the condition of the Belt track is not that good. There may be greater danger of derailment by going around the Belt than going through downtown. Also, there is no connecting track between the St. Louis Line main and the Belt at CP 1 (west of downtown Indianapolis). They would have to run trains on the Crawfordsville Branch between CP WOOD to the South Hunt connection to get between the Belt and Avon Yard.
 

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Bob, Story was on WRTV 6 News and Jack Rinehart said CSX Railroad Police would be working with IMPD and that CSX Railroad Police would be shutting down both sides of the main line in the area of LOS. IMPD would not be doing this CSX Railroad Police would be*In Charge of this* Not IMPD.
 

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Tim, you can't believe everything you hear on television. The news media routinely gets just part of the story and distorts what they do get. Look at all of the rumors, half-truths, and unsubstantiated stories the local media has been running lately about the Colts.

As I said, train movements are controlled by train dispatchers. At a very high level, local public safety officials will coordinate with railroad officials to control the rail traffic during the event. And those railroad officials will issue general orders that the train crews and train dispatchers will execute. If there is any railroad police presence around LOS during the event, it will be to keep trespassers off of the tracks.
 

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No one watches channel 6.

Bob, Story was on WRTV 6 News and Jack Rinehart said CSX Railroad Police would be working with IMPD and that CSX Railroad Police would be shutting down both sides of the main line in the area of LOS. IMPD would not be doing this CSX Railroad Police would be*In Charge of this* Not IMPD.
 

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Tim, you can't believe everything you hear on television. The news media routinely gets just part of the story and distorts what they do get. Look at all of the rumors, half-truths, and unsubstantiated stories the local media has been running lately about the Colts.

As I said, train movements are controlled by train dispatchers. At a very high level, local public safety officials will coordinate with railroad officials to control the rail traffic during the event. And those railroad officials will issue general orders that the train crews and train dispatchers will execute. If there is any railroad police presence around LOS during the event, it will be to keep trespassers off of the tracks.

I'm sure its not even local officials, rather the Feds. The superbowl is a national security event, ran by the secret service, isn't it?

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AK9R

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I'm sure its not even local officials, rather the Feds. The superbowl is a national security event, ran by the secret service, isn't it?
There are a number of agencies at the federal, state, and local levels "running" different aspects of security for the event. But, you are correct, the Super Bowl is a "Level 1" national security event. Several million dollars in federal money is being spent on security and the feds will, no doubt, exercise their right to supervise how the money is spent.
 
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