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 16, 2011
STAMFORD GOVERNMENT CENTER
STAMFORD, CT
Present were: Jim Cameron, Chairman, Bob Jelley, Rodney Chabot, Terri Cronin, Mitch Fuchs, Drew Todd, Laura Cordes, John Hartwell, Sue Prosi, Luke Schnirring, Mark Maruszewski and Jeff Maron, members of the Council; Gene Colonese, Interim Commr. Jeff Parker and Jim Redecker, DOT; John Longobardi, Tim McCarthy and Sue Doering, MNR; Jim McKenna, MTA Police; Michael Molgano, Representative from 144th District; Lile Gibbons, Representative from 150th District; Scott Franz, 36th Senate District; John Hetherington, Representative from 125th District; Toni Boucher, 26th Senate District; Jayme Stevenson, Darien Selectman; Gail Lavielle, Representative from 143rd District; Brian Mitchell, Terry Woods, Mimi Cameron, John Austin, Lauren Jensen, and Sam Gold, members of the public.
The meeting began at 7:00 pm.
Chairman Jim Cameron opened the meeting by thanking government officials and members of the public for coming to the special meeting about the diminished train service this winter and the delay in introducing the new M-8 cars. He spoke about the difficulty of getting answers about the M-8 delay from CDOT.
Commuter Sam Gold of Waterbury spoke about the Waterbury branch. He complained about the replacement of trains with buses and said that the buses being used were not good for a one hour trip to Bridgeport. He talked of Sunday, January 30, when, late at night, the buses left before the connecting train got to Bridgeport. He waited 2 hours for the bus to come back and got home at 2:00 am. In response, Jeff Parker said that on Monday, February 14, they introduced an improved bus schedule. Jim Redecker said that the buses being used are appropriate for the route.
Another Waterbury branch rider said it was unfair to take trains away from the Waterbury branch. She said that Monday mornings and Friday evenings were mass chaos. John Hartwell asked what supervision of the bus operation there was. John Longobardi said that he was trying to get trains back on the Waterbury branch as soon as possible. He said that they were using supervisors to supervise the operation of buses.
Commuter Lauren Jensen of Waterbury asked what will happen to her Waterbury monthly ticket. She said she can’t take the bus and has not taken a train at all during February. Sue Doering suggested that she write to MNR explaining her story and ask for a refund.
Commuter Michael Young of Stamford said that he was terrified when the train went from catenary territory to third rail territory. He also asked why trains go so slowly into Grand Central Terminal. John Longobardi said there was nothing to be terrified about. He also said that there was a 10 mile speed limit for the last mile going into GCT.
Mitch Fuchs complained that 2002-3 had been a bad winter which caused many trains to be out of service. He said that the rehabilitation program for M-2s was supposed to keep that from happening again. In response, John Longobardi said that this had been an unprecedented winter with no warming spells in between storms. He said the snow was such that trains produced clouds of snow as they went by for at least a week after each storm. Mr. Redecker said that the rehabilitated cars performed far better than the non-rehabilitated cars. There was a 15% failure rate for the rehabilitated cars and a 50% failure rate for the non-rehabilitated cars. He went on to say there is no plan to rehabilitate any more cars. Mr. Parker said that normally there were no more than 60 cars out of service. At the worst of this winter’s storm system, 154 cars were out of service, and the number is now down to 121. He said that he had a March 1 meeting planned with Howard Permut to decide when to resume regular train service. Mr. Redecker said that 3 Waterbury engines broke down during the storms. Terri Cronin said that next winter there won’t be enough M-8 cars in service to make a difference. She suggested that more cars should be rehabilitated. Mr. Parker said that it would take too long to re-start the CSR program to make a difference next winter.
Several commuters complained about lack of communication from Metro North as to train service each day. Ms. Doering said that they make station announcements, but their communication system is old and gets backlogged and the messages do not get out as fast as they are put into the system.
State Representative John Hetherington asked whether the M-8s will run on the New Canaan line, and Mr. Longobardi said they would.
Commr. Parker said that Connecticut should have replaced rail cars sooner and should have replaced the catenary and other parts of the infrastructure, including moveable bridges, sooner. He said that the State was way behind. He added that the Governor’s budget has a lot of money to improve rail service. He noted that Connecticut is responsible for capital investments and not Metro North. In answer to a question of why train service was removed from the Waterbury line, he said Waterbury had the lowest ridership and it was possible to bus the passengers based on recent experience with busing during rail replacement last summer.
Mr. Cameron asked Mr. Parker why the DOT didn’t bring Kawasaki and the engineer firm to the meeting, and Mr. Parker said that Metro North and the DOT are responsible for the M-8 cars and don’t need to bring in the others.
MNR’s Tim McCarthy said that the M-8s have been tested for a year now. He said that the M-7 cars (running on third rail on the Hudson and Harlem lines) went through a two-year test program. He said he was not surprised with the problems they have been finding For the most part, the cars have been running very well. They have been tested in snow and ran well. He said that he expected some cars to be in service in several weeks.
Mr. Cameron asked about the electromagnetic field problem with the M-8 cars. Mr. McCarthy said that problem had been resolved. He said that the central diagnostic computer on the cars ties all the computers together. Software design problems are the cause of all the computers not working together. This can be fixed with a program change, which is easy to fix on all the cars. He said that all the cars come with a three-year warranty. He said that MNRR has not accepted any cars yet. He said that he hoped there would be 80 M-8s in service during 2011. Mr. Longobardi said that 262 cars were needed to operate the daily schedule. Ms. Doering said that there was a net gain of 10 cars out of the shop each week. Mr. Cronin asked if there’s enough space to fix the cars. Mr. McCarthy said that cars assembled in Lincoln, Nebraska will start being received in April or May.
Jeff Maron and John Hartwell raised the question of why Metro North and CDOT were planning to get rid of M-2s as the M-8s come on line, particularly since the rehabilitated M-2s seem to be running better than the M-4s and M-6s. Mr. Maron asked to see the contract for disposal of the M-2s.
Commuter Brian Mitchell suggested that the electromagnetic field problem was a power problem and not a software problem. He said that a software problem could not interfere with track circuits and has nothing to do with electromagnetic fields. Mr. Parker said that the Department had decided not to tell people the technical aspects of M-8 problems because they wouldn’t understand. Mr. Cameron suggested that that attitude was insulting to the riding public.
Mr. Cameron thanked everyone for coming to the meeting.
The meeting adjourned at 9:15 pm.
The next meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at SWRPA in Stamford.
Bob Jelley
Secretary
Phone: (203) 498-4306
E-mail: rjelley@wiggin.com
