(The following article by Mark Ginocchio was posted on the Stamford Advocate website on September 16.)
STAMFORD, Conn. — Metro-North riders on the New Haven line are increasingly dissatisfied with train service compared with their fellow commuters on the railroad’s Hudson and Harlem lines.
Eighty-seven percent of New Haven line peak and off-peak riders said they were satisfied with overall train service, compared with 95 percent of customers on the Harlem line and 93 percent on the Hudson line, according to a semi-annual customer satisfaction survey conducted in May.
Average customer satisfaction on all three lines combined, however, has dropped slightly from 93 percent to 91 percent, according to the survey.
Satisfaction on the New Haven line is down three points from the October 2003 report.
The poll sought customer feedback in seven categories, including boarding station, on-time performance, train schedules, train conditions, courtesy and responsiveness of employees, communication and Grand Central Terminal.
Numbers were down in five of the seven categories. Satisfaction with conditions on the train was particularly targeted by the commuters, receiving a satisfaction level of 81 percent compared with 89 percent last October. Twenty-one percent of commuters thought the railroad had gotten worse in the past year compared with 13 percent in October who said the railroad had deteriorated.
Among New Haven line riders, 77 percent were satisfied with train conditions.
The declines in satisfaction were caused by the effects of the miserable winter that knocked out a significant portion of Metro-North’s fleet and disrupted service, the report said. Because of frazzled electrical components, many trains were late, canceled and overcrowded during that period.
Metro-North tried to see the positive in the report.
“Overall, we’re pleased that 90 percent are satisfied, but we can understand where the customers on the New Haven line are unhappy,” said Metro-North spokesman Dan Brucker.
Until the state replaces the New Haven line’s aging fleet with newer, better-designed cars, those numbers will continue to slide, said Jim Cameron, vice chairman of the Connecticut Rail Commuter Council. The current railcars are 30 years old, 10 years past their life expectancy.
“It’s all about the perception of the trains. They were worn out five years ago,” Cameron said. “There is a lingering anger for what happened last winter. We will never let them forget that.”
While New York state has put into service new M7 railcars on the Hudson and Harlem lines, Connecticut’s Department of Transportation predicted it would not be able to import the new cars until at least 2010.
In the meantime, the state is working on acquiring 33 used railcars from the Virginia Railway Express, which will enable it to transfer 10-year-old cars from the Shoreline East line to the New Haven line, and is spending $150 million to rehabilitate older cars in the existing fleet.
“We’re addressing these problems, but it takes time,” said Harry Harris, chief of the DOT’s Bureau of Public Transportation. “We’re doing things to improve the trains and hopefully that should improve customer perspective.”
But mistakes by past state administrations have left a bitter impression, Cameron said.
“It was the state who decided not to replace the cars 10 years ago,” he said. “I always tell commuters it’s not the conductor, it’s not the ticket seller, it’s not even the Metro-North president. It’s the state.”