The following letter to the editor was submitted to the Fairfield Citizen News:

 

To The Editor...

 

Your editorial praising Governor Rell for swift action in bringing used rail cars from Virginia into service on Metro-North really missed the point.

 

While ignoring the advice of CDOT engineers that these decade-old cars should be disassembled and inspected for safety, not just repainted as you implied, rushing these cars into service will do little to save us from another Winter of delays and commuting misery.

 

Last February, as many as 120 of the 343 cars on Metro-North were knocked out of service, frozen solid with no facilities to thaw let alone repair them.  The 18 service bays that are supposed to maintain these 30 year old cars must work 24 x 7, even in good weather, to keep them running.  On the fairest Spring day 15% of this decrepit fleet is shopped for repairs.

 

So how can 33 used cars from Virginia replace 120 frozen cars should weather and the ever-aging fleet conspire against us?  Obviously, they can't?  And the Governor and the Citizen News are wrong to offer commuters such false hope.

 

We are also facing a shortage of locomotives to pull these new VRE cars, which the Governor conveniently chooses to ignore.

 

While the Governor enjoys her photo-ops, surveying the new cars and pronouncing them in "top shape", the longer term solution to our commuting crisis remains ignored:  getting the Legislature to fund the $1+ billion needed to buy new cars for Metro-North.  And even if she can show leadership on this front, commuters should remember that new cars won't arrive until 2009 at the earliest.

 

Bottom line:  Commuters can expect service to get much worse on Metro-North before it gets any better.

 

Sincerely,

 

<signed>

 

Jim Cameron,  Vice Chairman

CT Metro-North SLE Rail Commuter Council

"Advocates for better rail services in CT"