Metro-North Winter
Operations
Frequently Asked Questions
by Jim Cameron, CT Metro-North Rail Commuter Council (
HOW MANY RAIL CARS OUT OF SERVICE?
At one point the week of
One of the better
news reports on the situation is: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/23/nyregion/23trains.html?pagewanted=print&position=
WHAT'S THE PROBLEM WITH THE RAIL CARS?
Some cars have ingested fine, powdery snow into their electronics, which
melts and re-freezes. Others have succumbed to the near zero temps and
just given out. Remember, most of these cars are 30+ years old, 5+ years past their
life expectancy.
WHO'S TO BLAME?
Clearly, the cars suffer a design flaw with their intake of snow.
But, in my view, Metro-North maintains the cars properly, or at least as well
as one can maintain a car that old. How many of us could drive a 30-year-old
car with over a million miles on it without having problems with metal fatigue,
electronics, etc?
WHAT ABOUT THE ELECTRIC WIRES THAT HAVE BEEN RIPPED
DOWN?
We've had seven "wires down" incidents since December.
These outages occurred in places where the wires date from the time Woodrow
Wilson was President. The wires are fatigued and brittle. Most of the
failures were related to temperatures near zero... some of the coldest weather
we've endured in a century. CDOT is spending billions to replace and update
these catenary wires, but obviously not fast enough.
WHY AREN'T THEY FIXING THESE RAIL CARS?
They are, as fast as they can with only 18 service bays for 100+
disabled cars. The shops work 24x7 year round because they are clearly
inadequate and under-staffed, even in good weather. There are Metro-North
repairmen literally on their back, in the snow, under these cars trying to
repair them.
WHAT ABOUT REHABILITATION OF THE OLD CARS?
CDOT is doing an extensive overhaul of the 250 oldest
cars in the fleet, the M2’s. They’re
replacing 27 different engineering components, from windows to
electronics. The good news is that the
few rehab’ed cars already completed are not breaking down in the snow. The bad news is that the rehab work will take
five years to complete. CDOT doesn’t
have enough money, facilities or staff to work any faster.
WHEN WILL THINGS GET BETTER?
In my personal view, no time soon. Even with above-freezing temperatures for a
few days, the shops will still be playing catch-up. With more bad weather
expected, I predict little improvement this winter. And next winter,
there's no reason to believe we won't see these same problems again.
My soundbite to the media for over a year has been: "Service
on Metro-North is going to get a lot worse before it gets any better... and
we're talking years, not weeks or months. Nothing will change until
WHAT ABOUT THE “NEW CARS” COMING TO METRO-NORTH?
The 180 "new cars" (M7's) can only be run on third rail, not “under
the wire”. That means they'll never see service on the
WHY DOES
Because they’re being bought by the MTA with NY tax
money. CT cars will have to be bought using CT funds
and by action of the Legislature.
WHEN WILL
Not until 2007 or 2008, and then only about 15 or 20 new cars. CT
Dept of Transportation admits it needs 300 - 400 new cars costing $2.5 billion,
but they can't get the Governor's Office of Policy & Management (OPM) to
even allow them to ask the legislature for that kind of money.
WHAT ABOUT THE TRANSPORTATION STRATEGY BOARD (TSB)?
The TSB came up with a list of about $5 billion in needed
expenditures to build a long-term fix for our state's transportation needs, but
the Legislature has so far given them $210 million to spend. In
mid-January the TSB voted to spend $60 million of that on new rail cars, $30
million on rail operations and $100 million on rail repair shops... but under state law that money cannot be spent
until 2006 !
SO, WHO SHOULD I YELL AT TO FIX THESE THINGS?
Not Metro-North or even CT DOT. Instead, I’d suggest you call or
e-mail your State Representative and State Senator and ask them why they won't
order the new cars that we need to run this railroad. Here's a link to
find your elected officials: http://www.cga.state.ct.us/maps/Townlist.asp
WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO GET LAWMAKERS TO ACT?
As one lawmaker admitted to me, “We only react to a crisis”. Last time it took the collapse of the
WHERE ARE WE GOING TO FIND THE MONEY WE NEED?
Probably from new taxes and user fees. When lawmakers
voted to lower the gasoline tax a few years ago, it reduced by millions of
dollars the money set aside specially for transportation. Those who’ve studied this issue think we’ll
need to spread the cost of these transportation investments across the entire
state. But how can we gain support in Haddam
and
DOES THAT MEAN EVEN HIGHER FARES?
We’d hope not. But fares cover only
70% of the cost of rail operations. The balance comes in subsidies from state
tax monies. Still, fares on Metro-North
in CT are the highest fares for a commuter railroad in
WHAT ABOUT PARKING AT THE STATIONS?
CDOT owns most of the stations and parking facilities along the
IS THERE ANY GOOD NEWS?
Yes... Metro-North now has an e-mail alert service that you can
subscribe to for updates on which trains will be affected by cancellations. However, the system does not report on delays
on individual trains.
To subscribe, see:
http://as0.mta.info/mnr/email/newuser.cfm
You can also file an
e-complaint with Metro-North at: http://mta-nyc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/mta_nyc.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php
To register for
e-mail Commuter Alerts from the Commuter Council: http://www.trainweb.org/ct/join.htm
Jim Cameron, Vice
Chairman & Webmaster
CT Metro-North SLE Rail Commuter Council
"Advocates for better rail services in CT"
Web: www.trainweb.org/ct E-Mail: trains@camcomm.com
