LETTER TO THE EDITOR:   STAMFORD ADVOCATE

 

 

To the Editor:                                                                                               Published February 14, 2002

 

In my view, your recent editorial “Bi-level Rail Car Idea Shows Promise” gives CDOT well deserved credit for looking for long term solutions to the overcrowding we’re seeing on Metro-North today, let alone the growth in ridership in decades to come.

 

Increasing the capacity of each train while still offering a safe, comfortable ride is easily achieved using a bi-level fleet as has been demonstrated from Boston to San Francisco, from Chicago to Miami.  And working with NJ Transit on a common solution to the tunnel clearance challenges makes sense, though it still looks like access to Grand Central will mean lowering the tracks or raising the tunnels’ height.

 

What’s missing from your editorial is not the hopeful planning for the future, but the shorter  term solution to our current plight.  To raise riders’ expectations of bi-level bullet-trains whisking them to the city is only to mislead them and make them even more cynical.  Bi-level cars are a pipe-dream.

 

CDOT admits they can’t even consider ordering a new car, of any type, until 2008.  With their diligence in design, RFP’s etc., and the long lag-time necessary for construction, we’ll be lucky to see any  new rail cars by 2011.  And that assumes we can find the money.  CDOT’s Harry Harris tells the CT Rail Commuter Council the new car order will cost $1.5 - $2 billion.

 

How is a capital expense like that be paid for?  How will we circumvent the budget cap, let alone find the money?  While the current Legislature scrambles to deal with a few million dollars in deficits, nobody has the political courage to look beyond the next few months to face the looming, though necessary,  expense of replacing our aging rail fleet, now 25 years into its 20 year life expectancy.

 

Meantime, CDOT undertakes a four year effort to rehab existing rail cars, working on four per month… adding to further crowding on our already over-burdened fleet.  That’s not to mention that on any given day, 40 – 50 cars (approx. 13% of the fleet) are unusable because they’re in the shop for repairs.

 

Bi-level trains sound like a great idea… for my children to ride.  But what’s being done to handle the current overcrowding?  How are we to attract motorists to Metro-North if we don’t have enough cars, can’t promise them any new ones for a decade and haven’t a clue how we’ll even pay for them?

 

Mark my words:  Metro-North riders are going to see service get a lot worse before it gets any better.  The reason is not CDOT’s lack of planning or vision, but our political leaders denial of the real transportation crisis we’re in and their unwillingness to spend our way to a solution.  Who in Hartford has the courage to speak the truth on this challenge and find the money to solve it?

 

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Jim Cameron, Vice Chairman

CT Rail Commuter Council