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 FEBRUARY 25 2009
SWRPA
STAMFORD, CT
Present were: Jim Cameron, Chairman; Rodney Chabot, Sue Prosi, Terri Cronin, Jeff Maron, Roger Cirella, Drew Todd, Connor Murphy, and Bob Jelley, members of the Council; Gene Colonese, and Jim Redecker, CDOT; John Longobardi of MNRR, Jim McKenna, MTA Police, and Martin Cassidy, Stamford Advocate.
The meeting began at 7:00 pm.
The minutes of the January 21st meeting were approved with minor changes.
Jim Cameron reported that he had attended a meeting of the General Assembly’s Transportation Committee which dealt with a proposal to permit bicycles on all trains. Mr. Cameron testified at the Committee hearing that it was the Council’s position that bicycles should not be permitted on peak trains until there were adequate cars and seats for all passengers. Richard Stowe said in response that bicyclists would give up the space for storing bicycles if that space were needed for passengers. Mr. Cameron pushed the idea of bicycle racks at stations. Commissioner Marie, who was at the meeting, told Mr. Cameron that regardless of what the Connecticut Legislature decided about bicycles on trains, New York State’s rule about bicycles on trains would apply to trains in New York State.
Commissioner Marie told the Transportation Committee that the DOT would make decisions about a signal system for the Danbury branch before the end of 2009. Mr. Cameron said that there was a lot of support at the meeting for improving the Danbury branch.
In answer to a question, Jim Redecker said that he did not expect any fare increases or service cuts in Connecticut growing out of the MTA’s budget problem.
Sue Prosi asked about the elimination of the special fund created to hold the receipts from the 1% per year fare increases that begin in 2010. No one from the DOT knew what the bill proposing such a change meant.
Mr. Cameron reported that a woman at the Bridgeport station was threatened with arrest because she plugged in the charger for her cell phone.
TELEPHONES AT STAMFORD STATION
Rodney Chabot raised the question of the elimination of all pay telephones for the Stamford station. Gene Colonese said that they were removed by the telephone company because they do not pay for themselves. Mr. Redecker said that the emergency 911 service by telephone is the real issue, and that the State would have to pay to install telephones that would be able to reach emergency services.
MAIN LINE ISSUES
Roger Cirella said that only the 7:47 am and 8:38 a.m. trains stop at East Norwalk. He suggested that an intermediate train should also stop at East Norwalk.
It was reported that the Yankee Stadium station will open in late May. There will be New Haven line trains going directly to Yankee Stadium on weekends, but on weekdays there will be shuttle trains from GCT and 125th Street.
Terri Cronin reported a problem with a catenary failure at South Norwalk on the evening of Thursday, February 19th. It took a long time to get people transferred to another train. John Longobardi said that the problem was the superelevation on the curve that the train was stopped on, and that it was impossible to line up a train on the adjoining track because of the difference of elevation. The problem existed for 3 or 4 hours.
Ms. Cronin also raised the question of why only 4 or 5 bar cars were being used. Mr. Longobardi said that because of maintenance problems, bar cars frequently hadn’t gotten into the right sequence to be on the trains they were supposed to be on.
BRANCH LINE ISSUES
Mr. Chabot said that he understood that the DOT had plans ready for the electrification of the Danbury line. Mr. Colonese said that that is not so. Mr. Chabot also said that he believed that plans for signals on the Danbury branch were ready. Bob Jelley said that we had earlier been told that the signal plans had to be re-engineered because of Federal Legislation after the train crash near Los Angeles last year.
Mr. Cirella asked about the number of passengers on the new early train.
STAMFORD GARAGE
Mr. Redecker said that the DOT was still working on getting a request for proposals out for a new garage to be included in transit-oriented development. Jeff Maron reported that there were people in the existing Stamford garage who were using two spaces for their cars. He said that the garage operator said that security gave a warning for such conduct. Jim McKenna said that the MTA police patrol the garage and he would look at the problem. Members of the Council thought that parkers using two spaces should get ticketed.
JANUARY OPERATIONS
Mr. Colonese said that January had been a bad month. Ridership was down by 1.8%. He went on to say that consist compliance and on-time performance was improving in February. Mr. Maron said that there had been a lot of overcrowding on trains lately and wondered if overcrowding was causing people to stop riding the train. Mr. Colonese said that he thought it was the downturn in the economy that was the problem.
STATION PARKING
Mr. Redecker said that in his view the solution to the parking problem at most stations had to be a ground-up approach with local people and the Rail Council. He said he wants a task force made up from the regional groups and the Rail Council. Mr. Cameron raised the question of having DOT running all of the parking. Mr. Redecker said he didn’t know enough yet to comment on that. He felt the question of who ran the parking was really an implementation question. Mr. Cameron noted that at Princeton Junction there were ride-sharing spaces in the parking lot, and those spaces could be used only by cars that contain two people. Mr. Cameron asked about the time line on parking solutions. Mr. Redecker said that he wants to move fast because there is pressure to get things done.
Mr. McKenna reported that there were no crimes reported in the South Norwalk garage this year to date. He noted that there was a lot of contact with the Norwalk Police Department. He said that the garage is highly patrolled. He said that Stamford, South Norwalk, Bridgeport, and New Haven have comparable statistics about crime. He also reported on the issue of the railroad bridges that were stuck by trucks in Norwalk and said that they are investigating to see if there is some connection between particular trucks that are high and hit bridges. He said that there was good cooperation with the Norwalk Police.
The meeting adjourned at 9:00 pm. The next meeting will take place at SWRPA on April 22, 2009, at 7 pm. (The scheduled March meeting was cancelled).
Bob Jelley
Secretary
Phone: (203) 498-4306
e-mail : rjelley@wiggin.com
