(The following article by Greg Clary was distributed by Gannett Suburban News on October 13.)
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Metro-North Railroad will start pulling 298 credit-card rail phones from its trains early next year.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the railroad’s parent agency, approved the idea last week at its board of directors meeting after officials reached agreement with AT&T not to renew a 10-year deal that ends Dec. 31, 2004.
The MTA action includes the Long Island Rail Road.
As far as riders are concerned, the program could have been disconnected much earlier.
“I’ve never used those phones,” Tarrytown commuter Bill Sweeney said just before boarding his morning train. “It won’t affect my daily commute one bit.”
Sweeney, 24, said he would like to see something done about rude cell phone users. “They should take out the cell phones until people know how to use them properly,” the construction manager said.
Railroad officials said the explosion in the number of cell phones is the main reason that the railroad car phones have outlived their usefulness. Telephone industry figures show that nationwide, the number of cell phones has doubled to 100 million since 2000.
“Their numbers are up 30 percent this year over last year,” said David Yedwab, an analyst for Eastern Management Group, a New Jersey consulting company for the telecommunications industry. “It’s really affecting the market for public phones.”
Metro-North’s accountants can virtually pinpoint the change in their customers’ telephone habits.
“In the best year, which was 1998, Metro-North was earning revenue of about $15,000 a month,” railroad spokeswoman Marjorie Anders said of the agency’s concession. “It’s been declining every since, and now it’s down to $700 a month.”
Anders said the increase in cell phones was a key reason for killing the program, but the technology involved played a part.
“The phone is a dinosaur,” she said. “It’s an analog phone.”
In a digital age, it’s difficult to find adequate replacements for the outdated telephones, and the cost has become prohibitive, Anders said.
Noor Fatima of Hyde Park has been riding down to her college classes in Tarrytown for more than a year. She tried to use a rail telephone once.
“It was very inconvenient because they only take credit cards, and I don’t have a credit card,” the 19-year-old pre-med student said.
New City resident William Minoff said he’s not surprised or bothered by the change.
“It was more common to see people sitting there for the extra seat than to see them using the phones,” Minoff said. “Now everybody has a cell phone.”