(The Stamford Advocate posted the following article by Gabrielle Birkner on its website on April 29.)
STAMFORD, Conn. — Metro-North Railroad President Peter Cannito hopes next winter will be milder than the last, when snow and freezing temperatures caused a lack of functioning rail cars.
But if Mother Nature doesn’t cooperate, Metro-North’s New Haven Line aging fleet will be better equipped to handle winter weather, Cannito said at the monthly Connecticut Rail Commuter Council meeting yesterday at the Stamford Government Center.
Cannito said Metro-North has identified some of the problems that caused service hiccups last winter and has taken steps to rectify the problems.
Problems included trains’ electrical components that are vulnerable to weather conditions and the lack of shop space to fix broken down cars.
For example, rail car couplers will be covered during the winter and the Shore Line East shop will be used in addition to the New Haven Line one to repair winter-worn cars.
Though some commuters at the meeting complained that they want to be kept better informed of how extreme weather will affect their commute, Cannito admitted it would be a difficult task.
“We look at the weather forecast, but we don’t change service based on a prediction,” he said. “The result of the prediction isn’t always right.”
He also said the $150 million Critical System Replacement project, which is expected to extend the useful life of the New Haven Line’s M2 electric trains for another decade, will make riding Metro-North more pleasant for commuters.
About 20 percent of the cars have already been refurbished — their exteriors cleaned, windows replaced and torn seating repaired. M2 trains are being renovated at the rate of two per month.
Metro-North is also working on what Cannito sees as a crucial plan to replace by 2025 the current fleet with new rail cars featuring interior wiring, making trains less vulnerable to weather.
Replacing the trains, Cannito said, is contingent on acquiring funding from the Connecticut Legislature. The Connecticut Department of Transportation would be responsible for 65 percent of the cost to replace the fleet and Metro-North would pick up the remainder, according to a Metro-North spokeswoman.
“We have reached our capacity and continue to exceed our capacity,” Cannito said, noting that ultimately replacing the fleet is inevitable. “I took (Interstate 95) here, and were traveling 10 to 15 miles per hour since Exit 2.”
Considering the traffic, he said, “You’d be an idiot not to use our service.”
Cannito also said he was pleased that, despite the troubled economy, Metro-North ridership relatively stable in 2003 — dropping eight-tenths of a percent from the year before.
Earlier this month, Connecticut approved a plan to spend $60 million to purchase 2,000 seats for New Haven Line commuters on locomotive driven-coaches.
In addition, Metro-North purchased 24 additional coaches that can run on the New Haven, Harlem or Hudson lines.