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 JUNE 16, 2010

SWRPA

STAMFORD, CT

 

 

Present were:  Terri Cronin, Acting Chair; Bob Jelley, Roger Cirella, John Hartwell, Jack Testani, Rodney Chabot, Connor Murphy, Drew Todd and Luke  Schmirring, members of the Council; Gene Colonese, DOT; Joe Kanell, MNR, and Martin Cassidy, Stamford Advocate; John Austen, member of the public. 

 

The meeting began at 7:00 pm.

 

The April and May minutes were approved.

 

In answer to a question from Terri Cronin, who chaired the meeting, Gene Colonese reported that there would be no service cuts and that there was nothing new on the issue or raising fares.  Ms. Cronin asked about the $200,000 being paid by the State of Connecticut to Metro North in order to avoid service cuts, and Mr. Colonese said those payments would continue.  Bob Jelley pointed out that in addition to the $200,000 per year payment, the State of Connecticut had foregone an estimated $130,000 per year savings if the service cuts had been made, and therefore the net cost of avoiding the service cuts was about $330,000 per year.  Mr. Colonese agreed.

 

There was a question about the possibility of shortening trains.  Mr. Colonese said that the peak load factor was now 95%.  Joe Kanell said that when there were more than 50 people per car, the conductor should open additional cars.  Rodney Chabot suggested that on weekends, Metro North could run two-car trains on the New Canaan line.  Mr. Kanell said that it was not feasible to run two-car trains, because of the need for redundancy in the event that one pantograph failed to work or air conditioners failed to work. 

 

DANBURY LINE STUDY

 

Mr. Chabot said that the Danbury line study committee had given a lot of thought to continuing the line to New Milford or even Pittsfield.  He said that it was his view that electrification made sense only as far as Danbury.  Connor Murphy said that the challenge for the study committee was to find things that really would make the Danbury line more effective and competitive.  John Hartwell said, for example, that electrification would only cut 11 minutes from the Danbury – South Norwalk trip. 

 

M-8s

 

Mr. Colonese said that testing was going on day and night and that the train was out on the tracks from 9:00 pm to 4:00 am.  He said that testing was still on schedule and that it was expected that there would be two or three train sets operating by the end of 2010. 

 

STAMFORD GARAGE

 

Mr. Colonese reported that the Governor had vetoed the bill that restricted the use of $35 million previously authorized for replacing the old Stamford garage to a new garage in the same location.  (The Governor had planned to use that money to build a new garage several blocks away).   Mr. Colonese said that there was some confusion as to the status of the $35 million.  Mr. Chabot said that it was his view that the $35 million should simply be used to replace the old garage in the same location. 

 

Mr. Colonese furnished a report from Fusco, the Stamford garage manager, about the results of the December walk-thru of the garage.  Jeff Maron suggested that it was important to get police into the garage to ticket people who disobey stop signs.  He also asked how the existing new garage would work if the old garage were torn down.  He suggested that Fusco and the DOT plan the operation of the existing new garage before the disappearance of the old garage.  Mr. Colonese said that they would do that. 

 

TRACKS OUT OF SERVICE

 

Mr. Colonese said that the new interlocking in Southport was now operational.  He said that for the period from August 2010 to April 2011, tracks 2 and 4 between Southport and Bridgeport will be out of service, and bridges will be built over to track 1 for outbound service.  The reason for the outage is the replacement of catenaries and bridges in that section on two tracks at the same time.  When that work has been completed, tracks 2 and 1 will be taken out of service for a period of time, and that will be followed by taking tracks 1 and 3 out of service.  The two tracks at a time removal from service will continue over the next 2 ˝ years.  Thereafter, the same two tracks at a time removal from service will occur in the section west of Southport. 

 

There was speculation among Council members about how trains would be able to operate with two tracks out of service. 

 

WIFI ON TRAINS

 

There was discussion of a report that Metro North was going to contract with Cablevision to provide WIFI service on Metro North trains.  According to the report, the service would be free to Cablevision subscribers, but non-subscribers would have to pay.  Mr. Colonese said that Metro North would bring someone to a future meeting to explain the plan.  Mr. Jelley said that it was his view that because Cablevision was available only in certain of the areas served by Metro North and not available in others, that neither the State nor Metro North could enter into a contract that would require non Cablevision subscribers to pay for WIFI service on trains. 

 

OTHER MATTERS

 

There was discussion of the problem of dogs on trains.  Mr. Maron said that the real problem was dogs occupying seats.  Mr. Kanell said that dogs are not permitted on seats.

 

It was reported that Fairfield, Westport and New Canaan are losing their ticket agents.

 

It was reported that George Okvat is retiring and no replacement has yet been selected. 

 

Mr. Hartwell discussed the problem of buying student tickets when there was no ticket agent, and said that some schools have received authority to sell tickets themselves.

 

Roger Cirella asked if it was possible in the evening to have two trains going from Bridgeport to Waterbury, one at 5:00 pm and one at 5:55 pm.  Mr. Kanell said it would be physically difficult to do. 

 

The April Operations Report showed that ridership was up over the previous year and there was speculation that maybe the loss of riders was turning around.  Mr. Kanell said there was 98.1% on-time performance.

 

It was reported that the Yankee Stadium service averages about 4,000 on weekdays and 5,000 on weekends. 

 

The meeting adjourned at 8:40 pm.  The next Council meeting will be in August if called by the Chairman.

 

Bob Jelley

Secretary

Phone:  (203) 498-4306

E-mail:  rjelley@wiggin.com