The MTA has released more information on the new cuts to service on the New Haven Metro-North line. MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan tells us the new schedules are up on the Metro-North website, and that "on weekdays, off-peak schedules remain the same as under the current timettable. On weekends, a Sunday Schedule will be in effect for Saturdays as well as Sundays." That doesn't sound as bad as the cuts could be, but commuters and MTA workers are still shocked that they even happened.
Metro-North was forced to run shorter trains less frequently because nearly half of the trains on the New Haven line were put out of the service due to the harsh weather. “I’ve never seen this in 34 years,” Metro-North electrician John Standish said. “They come, and you fix one thing, and sometimes you find three [other problems]...Most of our fleet is in the ’74, ’75, ’76 range - they’re tired." The state of Connecticut is responsible for 65% of the line's operating costs, and had been reticent to invest in a newer train fleet. New cars are currently undergoing safety inspections, but many see the service cuts as the problematic result of what happens when you don't invest in infrastructure.
"The new cars should have been ordered a decade ago, before the existing fleet broke down,” Jim Cameron of the Connecticut Commuter Rail Council told WNYC. “The reason that didn’t happen is Governor Rowland didn’t want to spend the money." Riders of the Harlem and Hudson lines on Metro-North won't have to worry about service cuts because the fine state of New York invested in a newer fleet years ago. We're #1!
