METRO NORTH NEW HAVEN RAIL COMMUTER COUNCIL

(Established in 1985 under Connecticut Public Act 85-239, now Sections 13b-212b and

13b -212c of the Connecticut General Statutes)

 

MINUTES OF JANUARY 19, 2011

SWRPA

STAMFORD, CT

 

 

Present were:  Jim Cameron, Chairman, Bob Jelley, Rodney Chabot, Terri Cronin, Roger Cirella, Mitch Fuchs, Drew Todd, Laura Cordes, John Hartwell and Jeff Maron, members of the Council; Gene Colonese and Jim Redecker, DOT; John Longobardi, Tom Sully, Randall Fleischer and Susan Doering, MNR; Martin Cassidy, Stamford Advocate; John Austin and Richard Stowe, members of the public.

 

The meeting began at 7:00 pm. 

 

The November and December minutes were approved.

 

Jim Cameron introduced Laura Cordes, our new member from New London. 

 

M-8 DELAY

 

Jim Redecker said that the 4,000-mile tests had not begun yet.  There is no date for introduction of the M-8s into service.  Rodney Chabot asked if any testing had been done on any of the M-8s during the post-Christmas blizzard, and Mr. Redecker said that no testing was done during the blizzard.  He went on to say that the conflicts between the computer system on the cars and the computer system operating track switches had not been completely solved.  He also said that no testing of the M-8s had been done under the 25,000 volt catenary between New Haven and Boston and no testing had been specifically done of passing M-8s to see if passing trains might have conflicting systems. 

 

WINTER OPERATIONS

 

John Longobardi said that the three major snow storms so far this winter, plus the extremely cold temperatures, had resulted in 114 cars presently out of service.  He said that maintenance and repairs were being done 24 hours a day.  He also said the electric heaters on switches on the tracks had a limited ability to keep switches operating.  Mr. Cameron asked if the M-2s, M-4s and M-6s were being pulled out of service during storms and being replaced with diesels from the branch lines.  Mr. Longobardi said that that was being done in order to prevent damage to the M-2s, M-4s and M-6s. 

 

Mr. Chabot asked whether consist compliance was way down and Mr. Longobardi said that it was. 

 

Roger Cirella said that Waterbury service was very bad when they cut train service and substituted busing. 

 

Mr. Cameron said that it was his view that Metro North was doing a very good job during very bad conditions. 

 

Terri Cronin complained that there were too many repetitive email service alerts during the blizzard.  Jeff Maron said that the service alerts on Friday, January 14 did not come soon enough.  In answer to a question, Sue Doering said that somewhere between 12,000 and 17,000 people get New Haven line service alerts, and it takes some time for the server to send them all out.  There was some discussion of whether or not there were better ways of more quickly sending service alerts to multiple recipients. 

 

Bob Jelley said that now that Metro North was doing better on service alerts, perhaps some arrangement should be made for Metro North to send Shore Line East service alerts.  Gene Colonese said that the DOT was working on doing something about communicating service problems on Shore Line East.  He said that reporting service problems was not part of the job of Ride Works.  John Hartwell asked if service alerts, like those on Metro North were being planned for Shore Line East and Mr. Colonese said no.  Mr. Redecker said that Amtrak has no system of gathering information on delays, so there is no information on which to base service alerts. 

 

In response to a question by Drew Todd, Mr. Longobardi had said they have had no problem in getting parts for disabled cars  They had doubled the number of repair slots in New Haven.  

 

BAR CARS

 

Mr. Cronin asked why bartenders leave trains at Stamford, rather than continuing on to New Haven.  Tom Sully of MNR said that bar cars do not generate enough revenue beyond Stamford to justify operation of bar cars between Stamford and New Haven. 

 

Mr. Cameron asked about having bar cars provide coffee and buns in the morning.  Mr. Sully said that such service was not cost effective.  Randall Fleischer, also of MNR, said that in his view the bar cars provide good service.  He said they were working hard on improving service and increasing the number of products sold.

 

Mr. Sully said that they sometimes faced a shortage of bartenders.  He added that in 2011 there were more bartenders on staff than in the previous year.  He went on to say that 50% of sales were for beer and wine, 37% for soft drinks and snacks and the remaining 13% was liquor. 

 

Mitch Fuchs said he disapproved of bar cars.  Mr. Jelley said that in his view bar cars served an important social service. 

 

Richard Stowe asked whether they were studying a health food initiative for bar cars.  Mr. Fleischer said that they were always looking into new products to sell. 

 

WIFI

 

Mr. Fleischer said that they were making a two-pronged attack on the introduction of WIFI.  They have issued a request for proposals with responses due in mid February.  They have equipped a bar car, an M-7 and a bombardier car with WIFI to test it.  At the same time, LIRR is doing a technical trial with Cablevision.  He pointed out that the needed infrastructure along the right away for WIFI is very expensive.  The LIRR test uses poles and utilities to provide WIFI; MNR will test a cellular solution with no infrastructure required.  Mr. Fleischer said that most WIFI programs on railroads haven’t worked very well.  One needs adequate infrastructure to have capacity for everyone to use it at the same time.

 

Mr. Jelley said that he continued to disapprove of any thought that a WIFI provider might give free service to its customers but charge non-customers.  Mr. Fleischer said he understood the issue and would have to see what the proposal provided.  Mr. Maron said that he thought it was fine for a provider to give free service to its customers. 

 

MISCELLANEOUS

 

Mr. Stowe raised the question of having a train getting to New Canaan earlier in the morning than the existing first train. 

 

The Council voted to approve the 2010 annual report.

 

The meeting adjourned at 8:55 pm.

 

The next meeting will be held on February 16, 2011 at SWRPA.

 

Bob Jelley

Secretary

Phone:  (203) 498-4306

E-mail:  rjelley@wiggin.com