Winter
Keeping the Northern Transcon open during the winter is a significant challenge, whether from snow in the Midwest and mountains or rain on the west coast. Heavy rains have the potential to cause mudslides along Puget Sound between Seattle and Everett and in the Nisqually, Washington area between Tacoma and Olympia. For example, in early January, 2006 there were four slides between Seattle and Everett. This was followed in late January, 2006 and again in early February, 2006 by mudslides both between Seattle and Everett and around Nisqually. Following the clearing of a slide no passenger train can run for 48 hours to ensure that the slide area has stabilized.
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Famous quotes containing the word winter:
“Whenas the Chill Sirocco blowes,
And Winter tells a heavy tale;
When Pyes and Dawes and Rookes and Crows,
Sit cursing of the frosts and snowes;
Then give me Ale.”
—Thomas Bonham (d. 1629?)
“How like a winter hath my absence been
From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen,
What old December’s bareness everywhere!”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“When I was a bachelor, I lived by myself
And I worked at the weaver’s trade;
The only, only, thing that I ever did wrong
Was to woo a fair young maid.
I wooed her in the winter time,
And in the summer too;
And the only, only thing that I ever did wrong
Was to keep her from the foggy, foggy dew.”
—Unknown. The Foggy, Foggy Dew (l. 1–8)