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 NOVEMBER 19, 2008

Union Station

New Haven, CT

 

Present were:  Jim Cameron, Chairman; Rodney Chabot, Sue Prosi, Bob Jelley, Jeff Steele, and Roger Cirella, members of the Council; Gene Colonese and Jeff Parker, CDOT; Jeff Watson, Bill O’Brien, John Longobardi and Scott Ornstein, MNR, Jim McKenna, MTA Police; Paul Hammer, Matthew R. Grailich, John Austin, Scott Crosby, Dave Bonan and Christine Citerrelle, members of the public.

 

The meeting began at 6:00 pm.

 

Chairman Jim Cameron called the meeting to order. 

 

Dave Bonan presented a resolution seeking to create a bicycle infrastructure fund.  Its purpose was to have the $5.00 bicycle permit fee charged by Metro North used to provide infrastructure for bicycles.  Mr. Cameron asked if any member of the Council wanted to propose the resolution.  Since no one did, the matter was dropped.  Mr. Bonan also said that Gene Colonese had agreed to meet with people representing bicycle interests on an every three months basis. 

 

John Austin noted that there were no ticket machines on the outbound platform at Fairfield Station.  Mr. Colonese noted that there had been a restriction on the number of ticket machines, but said that the permitted number had recently been raised, and that would permit more ticket machines. 

 

Christine Citerrelle suggested that there ought to be ticket machines on the Waterbury line.  Bill O’Brien of Metro North said that the ticket machines used by conductors will not impose a penalty if there is no ticket machine at the boarding station. 

 

Scott Crosby spoke of the Danbury run thru incident.  John Longobardi said that the crew had been disciplined. 

 

MAIN LINE ISSUES

 

Jeff Steele spoke about a conductor who had put a young fellow traveling by himself off the train, and who then was rude to other passengers who questioned the conductor’s action.  Mr. Longobardi said he would follow up on the matter.

 

Rodney Chabot said that the clocks at Old Greenwich and Westport Stations are still set to daylight savings time. 

 

Bob Jelley said that he had in May proposed to Gene Colonese that there ought to be an additional Stamford to New Haven train on weekday nights about 10:55 pm to accommodate people who had gone into the City for shows or concerts.  He reminded Mr. Colonese that he had agreed that that was desirable.  Mr. Colonese said he continued to agree that there ought to be half-hourly service for a period after shows and concerts, but said that introducing such a train for the October timetable change proved to be too expensive.

 

Mr. Cameron asked whether there were any plans by Conn. DOT to cut New Haven line service and Jeff Parker said that there were no such plans.  Mr. Cameron also asked about the provision in the M-8 contract that gives the State the option to order additional cars at the same contract price.  Mr. Palmer said that the State has money to exercise the option.  He said that there were two ways to exercise the option:  (1) exercise the option to buy cars for Shore Line East, which would require all Connecticut money or (2) exercise the option to buy additional cars for the New Haven line, which would require MTA to provide some of the money. 

 

BRANCH LINE ISSUES

 

Roger Cirella asked about new or refurbished locomotives for the Waterbury line, and Mr. Colonese replied that all locomotives presently being used are either new or newly refurbished.  Mr. Cirella said that in the spring timetable change, he was looking for another evening train between the present 5:45 pm and the 8:53 pm.  He also mentioned that 8 or 9 car windows were broken at Waterbury station a week or so before the meeting.  Jim McKenna of the MTA Police said that he was getting information from the Waterbury police and that there would be police at Waterbury to catch the perpetrators.    

 

Mr. Cameron asked about the Danbury line electrification study.  Mr. Colonese said that the study should be completed in the next year or two.  Mr. Cameron also asked about the design of the signal system for the Danbury line.  Mr. Colonese said that that system as designed does not meet the requirements of the new Federal Legislation (passed after the train crash near Los Angeles several months ago) and that it will have to be entirely redesigned.  He said that a signal system is “years away”. 

 

Mr. Jelley mentioned his earlier email to Mr. Colonese about weekday afternoon New Haven bound trains on Shore Line East just missing connections with Metro North, resulting in connection waits at Union Station of almost an hour.  Mr. Jelley said that he recognized that it was hard to make the Shore Line East trains any earlier, and suggested that it would be necessary to change the times of the Metro North trains.  Mr. Colonese said that he was working on trying to make the connections work. 

 

Mr. Jelley noted that the DOT was proposing a 585 car parking garage for Madison station and asked whether a parking garage was a good idea, given the concerns that people have about safety in garages, particularly after dark.  Mr. Colonese said that because of the small amount of land at the new Madison station, a parking garage was the only alternative. 

 

STAMFORD GARAGE

 

In answer to a question, Mr. Parker said that the State would do nothing about tearing down the old garage until the temporary parking to replace it has been obtained.  He said that there was no question about the need to replace the old garage.  He said that there was no firm plan yet for off-site parking. 

 

OCTOBER OPERATIONS REPORT

 

Scott Ornstein discussed the Operations Report.  Mr. Cameron noted that Jeff Maron had wondered about email alerts for all train delays or incidents.  Mr. Ornstein said that he didn’t know if that was possible or desirable.  [It should be noted that since Thanksgiving the New York City subway system has been giving email alerts about all incidents causing subway delays.] 

 

MISCELLANEOUS

 

Jeff Steele raised the question of the need for additional parking at most stations.  Mr. Cameron said that he would put off a discussion of that subject until the December or January meeting.  Mr. Colonese passed out a list of the average number of people per day boarding inbound trains at each MNR station in 2007.  [In a later email exchange, Mr. Colonese confirmed that the number of people boarding included people transferring from another train, as, for example, transferring at Stamford from a New Canaan branch train to a main line train.].

 

Mr. Chabot said that he thought the conductor dress code should be better enforced. 

 

Sue Prosi said that it was her impression that ticket collection had gotten lax.  Mr. O’Brien said that the individual ticket machines slow down ticket collection. 

 

Mr. McKenna reported that the MTA police did eight exercises with the CT State Police in October. 

 

The meeting adjourned at 7:45 pm.

 

The next meeting will take place at SWERPA in Stamford at 7:00 pm. on Wednesday, December 17, 2008.

 

Bob Jelley

Secretary

Phone:  (203) 498-4306

e-mail :  rjelley@wiggin.com