Amtrak disruptions are on the rise in the Northeast and are likely to linger for years as extreme weather events become more frequent, Amtrak’s aging fleet requires more upkeep and reconstruction projects begin on the nation’s busiest passenger rail corridor, railroad officials say.
Boston, MA
Train delays are up from D.C. to Boston. It will not get better soon.
“This is really part of the conundrum we face,” Amtrak president Roger Harris said, citing decades of deferred maintenance on the 457-mile route, part of it dating back 190 years. “Now we have the money to do work. And to do work, you have to do things like take tracks out of service to get the work done.”
The carrier, which transports more passengers in the Northeast than airlines, is launching major construction projects along various segments of the route as it begins to use some of the $66 billion made available for rail in the infrastructure law. Most of the money, federal transportation officials say, will go toward upgrading track and replacing century-old tunnels and bridges along Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor.
As work moves forward, train operations will be affected as the company considers overnight track shutdowns to speed the repairs. Among the ongoing work is a major overhaul of the 1950s-era catenary system that carries electric power to trains, as well as improved draining and track upgrades to replace aging wooden ties.
Massive projects, such as the construction of a new Hudson River tunnel between New York and New Jersey and a replacement for the 150-year-old Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel, have received federal funding and will require years of construction.
Before those projects begin, service disruptions already are prevalent this summer in the New York area, where single-tracking and work zones around Penn Station have slowed trains up and down the corridor.
On Wednesday, train delays varied from 20 minutes to more than an hour across different sections of the Northeast Corridor. A trespasser south of Boston delayed an Acela train by an hour. A Northeast Regional train departed Washington 40 minutes late because of mechanical issues. A crew change problem delayed departure of a Washington-bound Northeast Regional train in Richmond.
Systemwide, more than one-quarter of Amtrak passengers encountered delays in June, according to performance data, with an average delay of 54 minutes. Disruptions are more pronounced for travelers on long-distance routes — which are late more than half the time — and in parts of the country outside the Northeast Corridor. The share of delayed customers is also trending up, Amtrak’s data shows.
In the Northeast, 22 percent of trips encountered delays in June, with those on Northeast Regional trains experiencing the most problems, data shows. That was a decline in timeliness compared to June 2019, when 15 percent of trains were late.
Delays also have stemmed from a July derailment in Washington, collisions at rail crossings and trespassers entering restricted areas along the track. The work — combined with weather-related speed restrictions — have meant longer trips for passengers.
“They’ve got all sorts of excuses. Bottom line is, it’s not just bad, it’s unacceptable,” said Sinan Ciddi, an Alexandria resident who takes a Northeast Regional train most weeks to Quantico, where he teaches security studies.
Rarely is his train on time, said Ciddi, who has experienced delays of 15 minutes to more than an hour this summer. On a recent morning, he said, his train was delayed 90 minutes because of a signal problem at Union Station. When he travels to New York, he flies because of concerns over the rail network’s reliability.
Amtrak said its fleet, which includes trains about 50 years old, is requiring more frequent maintenance. Amtrak purchased new trains for the Northeast, including 28 Acela trains that were planned to enter service in 2021, but now are in line to debut next year. The company decommissioned four Acela trains during the pandemic because they were past their life span.
The rising challenges come as demand for Amtrak service has surpassed 2019 numbers, while the carrier has said it’s constrained to increase capacity because it doesn’t have enough trains. Amtrak served more than 1.1 million Northeast Corridor passengers in June, up slightly from June 2019.
Sean Jeans-Gail, vice president of government affairs and policy at the Rail Passengers Association, said it’s a terrible time to have more service breakdowns, considering the surge in ridership and that new passengers — many of whom are younger and travel for leisure — are experiencing rail for the first time. Passengers are reporting frustration across the network, he said, and in the Northeast in particular, raising questions about effects from maintenance work.
“Yes, it’s going to get worse,” he said. “We are in for more significant disruptions to the way we move around the country.”
During the summer months, Amtrak is issuing daily alerts to passengers that trains might experience delays because of excessive heat and weather-related disruptions. Officials say rail congestion and speed restrictions can reverberate across the entire system.
Advocates are pressing Amtrak to take steps that could reduce the delays, while passengers say the railroad isn’t communicating the problems effectively.
On a recent business trip to New York, D.C. resident Brian Gray’s train was delayed an hour at Union Station. He said he never received a notification indicating a late departure time.
“The only way to know of a delay was to keep an eye on the display boards,” he said. “There was no mobile app notification, text message or email sent about the delay. And you had a crowd of people gathering, all equally confused and frustrated.”
Amtrak said it is working to improve communications and has taken steps to compensate the rising number of passengers who experience problems. Passengers can use a self-serve process for ticket refunds when a train is canceled or to change trains when they are delayed.
Jeans-Gail said he is looking on the bright side: The investments should reduce problems in the long run.
“There will be a return on investment, but there’s no relief in the short-term,” he said. “This is a problem 50 years in the making and we’re not going to wave a wand and fix it overnight.”
Boston, MA
Boston Celtics vs. Toronto Raptors: Where to watch free NBA live stream
A pair of division foes in the Eastern Conference meet up on Wednesday, Jan. 15 when the Boston Celtics travel to take on the Toronto Raptors at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.
The game is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. EST and will be broadcast on NBC Sports Boston. Fans looking to watch this NBA game can do so for free by using DirecTV Stream, which offers a free trial. You can also watch on FuboTV, which also offers a free trial and $30 off your first month, or SlingTV, which doesn’t offer a free trial but has promotional offers available.
The Celtics are looking for their first winning streak since they beat the Raptors, Timberwolves and Rockets consecutively to end December and start January. Boston enters this matchup at 28-11 while Toronto is 9-31 and winless in two previous matchups with the defending champions.
- WATCH THE GAME FOR FREE HERE
Who: Boston Celtics vs. Toronto Raptors
When: Wednesday, Jan. 15 at 7:30 p.m. EST
Where: Scotiabank Arena in Toronto
Stream: FuboTV; Sling; DirecTV Stream (free trial)
Betting: Check out our MA sports betting guide, where you can learn basic terminology, definitions and how to read odds for those interested in learning how to bet in Massachusetts.
What is FuboTV?
FuboTV is an internet television service that offers more than 200 channels across sports and entertainment including Paramount+ with SHOWTIME. From the UEFA Champions League to the WNBA to international tournaments ranging across sports, there’s plenty of options available on FuboTV, which offers a free trial and $30 off the first month for new customers.
What is DirecTV Stream?
DirecTV Stream offers practically everything DirecTV provides, except for a remote and a streaming device to connect to your television. Sign up now and get three free months of premium channels including MAX, Paramount+ with SHOWTIME and Starz.
What is SlingTV?
SlingTV offers a variety of live programing ranging from news and sports and starting as low as $20 a month for your first month. Subscribers also get a month of DVR Plus free if they sign up now. Choose from a variety of sports packages without long-term contracts and with easy cancelation.
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Court papers say ex-NBA player Jontay Porter laid out betting scheme in a text; 6th person arrested
By JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — A sixth person was charged Monday in the federal sports betting case involving ex-NBA player Jontay Porter, and authorities disclosed a text message Porter allegedly sent explaining how to cash in on his plans to bench himself in a January 2024 game.
The former Toronto Raptors center already has pleaded guilty in the criminal case and was banned from the NBA for life. He admitted that he agreed to withdraw early from games, claiming illness or injury, so that those in the know could win big by betting on him to underperform expectations.
Although the new developments don’t affect the legal case against Porter, they put the scheme in what a court document says were his own words.
“Hit unders for the big numbers,” Porter wrote to an alleged conspirator on Jan. 26, 2024, according to a court complaint against yet another alleged schemer, Shane Hennen. He was arrested Sunday at the Las Vegas airport while boarding a flight to Panama.
“No blocks no steals. I’m going to play first 2-3 minute stint off the bench then when I get subbed out tell them my eye killing me again,” Porter wrote, according to the complaint. It identifies him only as “NBA Player 1” but makes clear through references — such as the details of his guilty plea last year — that it’s Porter.
He had scratched an eye during a game on Jan. 22, 2024, keeping conspirators in the loop by text even from the arena, according to the complaint. But he wasn’t on the injured list when the Raptors faced the LA Clippers four days later.
Porter ultimately played about 4 1/2 minutes in that game before saying he had aggravated the eye problem. Then he pulled out of a March 20 game against the Sacramento Kings after less than three minutes, saying he felt ill. His performance in both games fell well below what sportsbooks had anticipated.
Porter told a court in July that he got involved in the plot to try to clear his own gambling debts. He’s set to be sentenced in May. He could face anything from no jail time to 20 years behind bars; prosecutors have estimated his sentence at about 3 1/2 to four years in prison.
A message was sent to his lawyer Monday to seek comment on the developments.
Hennen was released without bail after his arraignment Monday in Las Vegas on charges including wire fraud conspiracy. The court complaint alleges that he placed bets through proxies after co-conspirators alerted him to Porter’s plans for the Jan. 26 game, and that he also got a heads-up about the March 20 game and likely told other gamblers about it.
A message seeking comment was sent to his attorney.
Besides Hennen and Porter, four other people also have been charged to date. Two have pleaded guilty, a third has pleaded not guilty, and the fourth hasn’t entered a plea.
The complaint against Hennen alleges there were still more conspirators involved. It’s unclear whether more people may yet be arrested.
The Associated Press contributed to this article
Boston, MA
Constantine Manos, photographer for landmark ‘Where’s Boston?’ exhibit, dies at 90 – The Boston Globe
Among Mr. Manos’s books were “A Greek Portfolio” (1972; updated 1999), “Bostonians” (1975), “American Color” 1995) and ”American Color 2″ (2010). Mr. Manos’s work with color was notably expressive and influential.
“Color was a four-letter word in art photography,” the photographer Lou Jones, who worked with Mr. Manos on “Where’s Boston?,” said in a telephone interview. “But he was making wonderful, complex photographs with color, and that meant so much.”
Yet for all his formal skill, Mr. Manos always emphasized the human element in his work. “I am a people photographer and have always been interested in people,” he once said.
That interest extended beyond the photographs he took. He was a celebrated teacher. Among the students he taught in his photo workshops was Stella Johnson.
“He’d go through a hundred of my photographs,” she said in a telephone interview, “and maybe he’d like two. ‘No, no, no, no, yes, no.’ Costa really taught me how to see. I remember him looking at one picture and saying, “You were standing in the wrong spot.’ Something like that was invaluable to me as a young photographer.
“He was a very, very kind man, very generous. But he was very strict. ‘How could you do that?’ He was adored by his students and by his friends, absolutely. We were all lucky to have been in his orbit.”
Mr. Manos, who moved to Provincetown in 2008, lived in the South End for four decades. The South Carolina native’s association with the Boston area began when the Boston Symphony Orchestra hired him as a photographer at Tanglewood. He was 19. This led to Mr. Manos’s first book, “Portrait of a Symphony” (1961; updated 2000).
Constantine Manos was born in Columbia, S.C., on Oct. 12, 1934. His parents, Dimitri and Aphrodite (Vaporiotou) Manos, were Greek immigrants. They ran a café in the city’s Black section. That experience gave Mr. Manos a sympathy for marginalized people that would stay with him throughout his life. As a student at the University of South Carolina, he wrote editorials in the school paper opposing segregation. Later, he would do extensive work chronicling the LGBTQ+ community with his camera.
Mr. Manos became interested in photography at 13, joining the school camera club and building a darkroom in his parents’ basement. After graduating from college, Mr. Manos did two years of Army service in Germany, working as a photographer for Stars and Stripes. He joined Magnum in 1963. This had special meaning for him. Mr. Manos’s chief inspiration as a young photographer had been Henri Cartier-Bresson, one of Magnum’s founders. He was such an admirer he made a point of using the same equipment that Cartier-Bresson did.
That same year, Mr. Manos entered a seafood restaurant in Rome that was around the corner from the Pantheon. Prodanou, his future husband, was dining with friends. Noticing Mr. Manos, he gestured to him. “Would you join us for coffee?” The couple spent the next 61 years together, marrying in 2011.
Mr. Manos lived in Greece for three years, which led to “A Greek Portfolio.” He undertook a very different project in the Athens of America. Part of the city’s Bicentennial tribute, “Where’s Boston?” was a slice-of-many-lives view of contemporary Boston.
Located in a red-white-and-blue striped pavilion at the Prudential Center, it became a local sensation. The installation involved 42 computerized projectors and 3,097 color slides (most of them taken by Mr. Manos), shown on eight 10 feet by 10 feet screens. Outside the pavilion was a set of murals, consisting of 152 black-and-white photographs of Boston scenes, all shot by Mr. Manos.
“The most important thing I had to do was to keep my picture ideas simple,” he said in a 1975 Globe interview. “Viewers are treated to a veritable avalanche of color slides in exactly one hour’s time.”
In that same interview, he made an observation about his work generally. “I prefer to stay in close to my subjects. I let them see me and my camera and when they become bored they forget about me and then I get my best pictures.”
Among institutions that own Mr. Manos’s photographs are the Museum of Fine Arts; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Art Institute of Chicago; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta; the Library of Congress; and the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
In addition to his husband, Mr. Manos leaves a sister, Irene Constantinides, of Atlanta, and a brother, Theofanis Manos, of Greenville, S.C.
A memorial service will be held later this year.
Mark Feeney can be reached at mark.feeney@globe.com.
Boston, MA
Below freezing temperatures again today
The winds are still going Wednesday, but the air temperatures remain at respectable levels. Highs will manage to weasel up to 30 in most spots. It’s too bad we’re not going to feel them at face value. Instead, we’re dressing for temps in the teens all day today.
Thursday and Friday are the picks of the week.
There will be a lot less wind, reasonable winter temperatures in the 30s and a decent amount of sun. We’ll be quiet into the weekend, as our next weather system approaches.
With mild air expected to come north on southerly winds, highs will bounce back to the low and mid-40s both days of the weekend.
Showers will be delayed until late day/evening on Saturday and into the night. There may be a few early on Sunday too, but the focus on that day will be to bring in the cold.
Highs will briefly sneak into the 40s, then fall late day.
We’ll also watch a batch of snow late Sunday night as it moves up the Eastern Seaboard.
Right now, there is a potential for some accumulation as it moves overhead Sunday night and early Monday morning.
It appears to be a weak, speedy system, so we’re not expecting it to pull any punches.
Enjoy the quieter spell of weather!
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