METRO NORTH NEW HAVEN RAIL COMMUTER COUNCIL
(Established in 1985 under Connecticut Public Act 85-239, now Sections 13b-212b and -212c
of the Connecticut General Statutes)
MINUTES OF JUNE 16, 2004 MEETING
AT UNION STATION
NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT
The meeting began at 7:00 p.m.
Present were: Chairman Rodney Chabot, Vice Chairman Jim Cameron, Bob Jelley, Carl Leaman, Jeff Maron, and Lee Carlson, Members of the Council; Gene Colonese, Fred Chidester and Jeff Watson, Metro North Railroad; Mike Donnarumma, Mark Neri, Carmine Trotta, and Jay Mather, Connecticut DOT; Scott Crosby, Nancy Creland and Larry Vydess, members of the public.
The Minutes of the May 19, 2004 meeting were approved.
FARE INCREASE
Mike Donnarumma reported that the fare increase will not take effect until January 1, 2005. The Legislature has come up with enough money to cover the DOT’s railroad deficit for the second half of 2004. In answer to a question, he said that he believed that there would be no new hearings on fare increase issues.
MAIN LINE
There was extended discussion of the Stamford station taxi surcharge issue. Mike Donnarumma reported that the loss in May on the taxi dispatch system was about $15,000. In answer to a question, he said that use of the Stamford police was cheaper than using Metro North police, because Metro North police will not work less than a 12-hour shift. There was discussion of people paying the surcharge directly to the dispatcher, rather than buying a token, and the question of whether all of the funds paid to the dispatcher were being accounted for. There was further discussion of whether the cost of the taxi holding lot and the people controlling the lot were proper charges to be covered by the dispatch system. There was discussion of a detailed letter from Harry Harris to Representative McDonald outlining the costs of the dispatch system and whether particular line items were correct charges. Later in the meeting, Jeff Marin arrived and raised the question of whether it might not be better to scrap the dispatch system entirely and simply have a police presence to assure proper behavior by taxi drivers.
Rodney Chabot reported that there was no public telephone on the eastbound platform at the Darien station.
There was discussion of the defects in the new Stamford parking garage, and the DOT people said that they will do better the next time they design and construct a new facility.
WATERBURY LINE
It was reported that there were no bus substitutions for trains in May. On July 12, midday trains will return to the Waterbury line. New timetables will be issued that show the additional trains.
SHORE LINE EAST
Lee Carlson reported that several trains had been canceled without announcement at Shore Line East stations. He said that there was no way to call Shore Line East to find out about late or canceled trains. Mike Donnarumma said that 773-6177 was available at certain times to give information about the status of Shore Line East trains. There was also discussion about inadequate parking at the Clinton and Guilford station construction sites.
DANBURY LINE
There were no bus substitutions in May. Trains were 97.1% on-time. In answer to a question, it was reported that there is a ticket vending machine at the Danbury station.
NEW CANAAN LINE
Fred Chidester reported that fence and other problems at New Canaan would be fixed within the next week.
REPAIR BACKLOG
Fred Chidester reported that the Metro North fleet was minus eight cars the morning of the meeting. He said two weekends of work had made major progress on air conditioning equipment on cars. He said that there were fifty-two cars in the shop.
NEW CARS
Mike Donnarumma reported that the contract for the purchase of used cars from Virginia was completed and was being reviewed by the Connecticut Attorney General. He said that after the purchase contract was signed, the State will go out for competitive bids to do the necessary work on the cars to prepare them for service in Connecticut. He also reported that locomotives that are able to run on both AC and DC current were being considered for Shore Line East and other service.
There was a lengthy discussion of the configuration of cars to be purchased for total fleet replacement. The thought is that the new fleet will be based on the M-7 configuration, which the Long Island Railroad bought. DOT is studying using the M-7 platform to create an M-8 for the New Haven line. The proposal is that a group of three cars would be made up of two M-7s and one M-8, with the two M-7s drawing DC power from third rail below Pelham and the M-8 drawing AC power from the catenary above Pelham. There was much discussion of whether such an arrangement provided adequate acceleration and confusion as to how the system would operate. [A subsequent meeting of Rodney Chabot, Jim Cameron and Bob Jelley with Peter Cannito, President of Metro North Railroad, indicated that the group of three cars will have the electric motors on all three cars running at all times, with the power below Pelham coming from the two M-7s and the power above Pelham coming from the one M-8.]
NEW BUSINESS
Jim Cameron reported that the Noroton Heights station was being repaired.
It was decided to have this year’s “Meet the Commuter” day at Stamford station on Tuesday, June 29 from 6:00 – 9:00 a.m.
Rodney Chabot reported that windows on the M-4 and M6 cars were beginning to wear out. Mike Donnarumma reported that there is no plan to do anything about rehabilitating M-4 and
M-6 cars until the M-2 rehabilitation program is completed.
There was discussion about having a meeting in New York City, and the council decided to have its October meeting in New York City.
There was discussion about having a midsummer meeting, and it was decided to have it July 28 in Stamford [that meeting was subsequently canceled.]
It was reported that because of the status of terror alert, State Police will be back on trains beginning June 17.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 p.m. The next meeting will be in Stamford on September 15, 2004.
Bob Jelley
Secretary
