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

MARCH 21, 2007 MEETING

GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL

NEW YORK, NY

 

Present were:  Present were:  Jim Cameron, Chairman, Bob Jelley, Terri Cronin, Joe McGee, Rodney Chabot, Jeff Steel and Jeff Maron; Peter Cannito, Jeff Watson, Tom Tendy, John Longobardi, Sherry Herrington, Joe Kanell, Ed Lydecker, Donna Evans, Scott Ornstein, and George Okvat, Metro North Railroad; Eugene Colonese, Albert Martin and Peter Richter, CDOT; Alex Karman, SWRPA; Mark Ginocchio, Stamford Advocate; Barry Adler, Pat Black, Drew Todd, Bill Henderson, Roger Cirella, and Dick Stowe, members of the public.

 

The meeting began at 6:00 p.m.

 

Chairman Jim Cameron introduced Peter Cannito, President of Metro North Railroad.  Mr. Cannito began by saying that 2006 had been a record year in terms of ridership and that the upward trend was continuing in 2007.  He said that he was eager for the arrival of the new M-8 cars.  He noted that, with the new M-7s, the Hudson and Harlem lines have more cars than they need, and he said he expected the same situation would exist on the New Haven line after the arrival of all of the new M-8s.  He said that he expected the first operational train sets for the New Haven line would arrive in August 2009.  He said that Metro North was pleased with the progress that Kawasaki is making and they see no reason why the construction schedule cannot be met.  He said that after the initial delivery, he expected ten cars per month.

 

Mr. Cannito mentioned the new timetable, effective April 1.  He said that the plan was to use shorter trains, usually seven cars, so that with the existing fleet it has become possible to add additional rush hour trains. 

 

Mr. Cameron asked when prototypes of the new M-8 cars would be available, and Mr. Cannito said that he expected them in six months. 

 

Joe McGee asked about the plan for having internet access in the new M-8s, and Mr. Cannito said that Metro North was still exploring options. 

 

Rodney Chabot asked about single or double doors on the new M-8s.  Mr. Cannito said that the M-8s will have single doors, just like the M-7s.  He said that would provide for interchangeability and reduce the need for parts inventories.  Mr. Chabot said that in talking to train crews, they favored doubled doors, on the theory that if one door failed, the other still could open.  Mr. Cannito said that mechanics prefer the single doors.  He went on to say that even though the M-8s will have a thirty year expected life, the door systems will have a shorter life and will need to have replacements at regular intervals. 

 

Mr. Cameron asked about Metro North’s position on the $1.00 per ticket surcharge in Connecticut scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2008.  Mr. Cannito said that both New York and Connecticut have to approve any fare increase, and Metro North would not take a position on the issue.  Peter Richter mentioned the Governor’s Task Force (CT Senators Bill Nickerson and Andrew McDonald), which has been charged with finding an alternative to the surcharge. 

 

Mr. Cameron noted that the Long Island Railroad had been “dry” on St. Patrick’s Day.  Mr. Cannito said that Metro North was always dry on New Year’s Eve and St. Patrick’s Day.  He went on to say that there is an MTA task force on bar cars and is studying the bar car issue.  He said that he would let the Council know who is on the task force.  [That information has been received.]

 

Mr. Cameron mentioned that there had been a press conference earlier that day to discuss additional railroad security measures.  Mr. Cannito said that the plan was to have personnel from various federal agencies riding trains and to have more police presence on trains.  Mr. Cameron said that he wanted random bag checks by police in Connecticut.  Mr. Cannito said that that was a Connecticut issue.  He went on to say that there is cross jurisdiction between Connecticut and New York State Police on Metro North trains.  Mr. Cameron asked about security cameras, and Mr. Cannito said that money was being spent on security cameras.  Jeff Maron asked the reason for the press conference that day, and Mr. Cannito said that it was not in response to any particular security threat but just a natural development. 

 

Jeff Steele asked about the MTA Police, and Mr. Cannito said that all MTA police were New York State Police but are deputized law officers in Connecticut.  He went on to say that the National Guard members in Grand Central Terminal have weapons but are not permitted to use them. 

 

Mr. Maron spoke of the latest Monthly Operations Report and asked why more cars cannot be gotten back in service faster and why the CSR program is not going faster.  Mr. Cannito said that the Railroad was doing maintenance and rehabilitation as quickly as possible.  He said that no more maintenance bays had been available this year until the past week.  He said that biggest constraint was lack of maintenance facilities.  He said that the CSR program had been designed to go faster, but that the M-2 cars needed more work done than had been expected.  He said that Metro North was going to begin putting M-4 cars in the rehabilitation program, because those cars are triplets, and if one car of a triplet fails, the railroad loses 360 seats, given that three cars must be taken out of service.  So if the M-4s are rehabilitated, they will have a much greater time between failures.  He went on to say that pairs, like the M-2s and the new M-8s, are much easier to maintain than triplets.  In response to a further question, he said that Metro North has adequate maintenance and rehabilitation manpower and that 66 additional people had been added.  He said that the new New Haven maintenance facility will get repairs done faster, and went on to say that the Harmon Shop will not be used to help out, because it is being rebuilt. 

 

Mr. McGee asked about fleet size after receipt of the M-8s.  Mr. Cannito said that there are now 240 M-2s and 100 M-4s and M-6s.  He said that the 280 M-8s replace the 240 M-2s.  (The M-8s will have fewer seats than the M-2s.)  He said that the M-4s were better cars than the M-6s, and that the Railroad will have to decide which of the older cars to keep after 380 M-8s have been received.  He went on to say that with additional cars, there could be more frequent service. 

 

Mr. Cannito said that the CSR program was still being reviewed to see how it could be improved.  Mr. Richter said that the DOT wants the CSR program to be as efficient as possible, and that there is no intention to end the program. 

 

Pat Black, a commuter, said that she takes the 7:39 a.m. train from Harlem to Stamford.  She said that the express train has 5 cars and the seats are always full when it arrives at Harlem.  She said that the local always has seats and is always relatively empty.  She also mentioned that some trains go through Harlem Station empty and without stopping.  Mr. Cannito said that trains go out empty in order to come in again.  The effort is to get three or four trips per morning out of each train.  He went on to say that when there are not enough cars to make full trains, the Railroad tries to spread the pain by cutting cars from different trains on different days. 

 

Alex Karman said that there was much confusion at Fordham and Stamford stations as to which train was which.  Mr. Cannito asked Tom Tendy from Metro North to speak about a new automated train information system that is to be tried out at White Plains station.  Mr. Tendy said that White Plains station was frequently used as the laboratory for developing new systems.  He went on to say that 50% of riders do not go all the way into GCT.  Mr. Cannito said that he was trying to get advertising to pay for a new information system.  He said that announcements about trains were now made only to inform riders about problems, but the effort was to come up with a system that would announce all trains.  He said that within Metro North, information about all trains is now available to employees using the system.  He went on to say, in response to the issue of advertising, that some MTA Board members think the right to name railroad stations ought to be sold but he did not support the idea of advertising which could wrap the outside of a rail car.

 

Terry Cronin raised the question of all tickets not being collected.  She suggested that more conductors were needed to collect tickets.  Mr. Cannito said that a high percentage of uncollected tickets are monthly tickets. 

 

Mr. McGee said that there had been a fare increase on January 1, 2005 and asked when there was likely to be another fare increase.  Mr. Richter said that there would be no fare increase until at least mid-2009. 

 

Richard Stowe, a commuter, asked about the inability to board GCT-bound New Haven line trains at Fordham.  Mr. Tendy said that issue was being studied. 

 

Roger Cirella, a Waterbury line commuter, talked about the inadequate service on the Waterbury line.  Mr. Cannito said that the Waterbury line was a real problem.  He said that there were too few commuters to justify necessary improvements.  Mr. Cirella said that train counts on the Waterbury line are incorrect, because they are done on Mondays and he suggested that counts ought to be done on Friday evenings when there are many more commuters.  Mr. Cannito said that the last month and a half has been quite bad on the Waterbury line.  He said that the

Waterbury service was operated out of New Haven, and if trains break down, new trains must be brought from Harmon.  He said that the Railroad was buying 11 shuttle locomotives that would arrive this year.  Mr. Cirella said that if there were an earlier train out of Waterbury in the morning, there would be more passengers.  He suggested that it needed to be half an hour or more earlier in the morning. 

 

Mr. Cannito concluded his remarks.

 

Gene Colonese spoke about the new timetable, effective April 1st.  He said that they were cycling trains more effectively, thereby providing 1,000 more seats into Stamford in the morning and 400 more seats into GCT.  He emphasized that the new plan involved shorter trains so that they can be kept the same length all day long.  Mr. Steele asked why deadheading trains can’t take passengers, and Mr. Colonese said that there was not time to make stops.  Mr. Colonese said that the new timetable dropped the Stratford and Milford stops on the first Shore Line East thru train from Stamford in the evening.  He said that this was done so that passengers arriving in Stamford on the New Canaan branch train could connect to the Shore Line East thru train.  He went on to say that in order to provide that connection it was necessary to drop the Stratford and Milford stops so that the Shore Line East thru train would arrive in New Haven in time for its “slot” heading out to Old Saybrook.  Mr. Stowe said that he thought the timetable changes were the best in years.  The question was asked as to how fast Metro North turns trains, and Mr. Colonese said it can be done in 10 minutes without cleaning but requires 15-20 minutes if cleaning is done during the turn. 

 

Mr. Chabot asked about the absence of a telephone at Talmadge Hill Station and Mr. Richter said a phone is being put in. 

 

Mr. Steele asked whether all stations ought not to be ADA compliant.  Mr. Colonese said that only major stations needed to be compliant and other stations needed to comply only when major work was done. 

 

Mr. Cameron spoke of the $1.00 surcharge and reported on the letter he had sent to the Governor.  Bob Jelley noted that the statute providing for the surcharge is in place and that the Legislature has to act if it is to be changed.  Mr. Maron noted that with increased ridership no new cars are in service as yet, and therefore the Railroad ought to be taking in more money.  Mr. Colonese agreed that increased ridership does provide more fare money. 

 

Mr. Jelley noted that Harry Harris had said some years ago that the number of conductors on a train was not necessarily designed to collect all fares, particularly given the number of monthly tickets, and that adding one additional conductor on a train would cost more than the few additional fares collected.  Mr. Jelley said that it was his view that it was important to have enough conductors to collect 100% of fares.  Mr. Colonese said that all trains were staffed to collect 100% of fares. 

 

The meeting adjourned at 8:00 p.m.  The next meeting is Wednesday, April 18, 2007 at The Business Council of Fairfield County offices in Stamford, CT.

 

 

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