(The following article by Gabrielle Birkner was posted on the Stamford Advocate website on June 29.)
STAMFORD, Conn. — Rail advocates, Metro-North Railroad employees and state Department of Transportation officials will be on hand to field commuters’ comments and complaints from 6 to 9 this morning at the Stamford Transportation Center.
The annual meet and greet, which will take place in the station’s ticketing area and on its railroad platforms, is sponsored by the Connecticut Rail Commuter Council.
“The idea (of today’s event) is to take the meeting to commuters, instead of asking commuters to come to the meetings,” said Jim Cameron, the organization’s vice chairman.
Today marks the first time in five years the council will hold the annual “Meet the Commuter/Railroad” day in Stamford, home to Metro-North’s busiest station after Grand Central Terminal. While the Stamford Transportation Center was undergoing construction in recent years, the event was held at the Bridgeport, Westport and Noroton Heights stations.
Cameron said he expects complaints to outnumber compliments, especially in light of the controversial taxi-token system implemented at the Stamford station in March. The system, put in place by the DOT, requires riders taking cabs from the station to pay a $2 surcharge to an attendant directing traffic on Station Place.
Still, Cameron said he hopes commuters will credit the DOT — the state took over the station from the city in 2000 — for its work at the Stamford Transportation Center. While the station was under city control, “the escalators were always broken, the bathrooms were deplorable and the security was lax,” Cameron said.
He said the yearly event helps bridge the gap between Metro-North and its riders, allowing commuters to “meet the people who run their railroad every day — the people who decide on the fares, the schedules and whether or not they get a seat.”
It’s equally important for railroad officials to hear from their riders, said Marjorie Anders, a Metro-North spokeswoman.
“It gives people a chance to have face-to-face contact with our employees,” whom, Anders said, “take the feedback and decide how to tweak the service.”