METRO NORTH NEW HAVEN RAIL COMMUTER COUNCIL
(Established in 1985 under Connecticut Public Act 85-239, now Sections 13b-212b and
13b -212c of the Connecticut General Statutes)
MINUTES OF AUGUST 12, 2009
SWRPA
STAMFORD, CT
Present were: Jim Cameron, Chairman; Rodney Chabot, Sue Prosi, Roger Cirella, Luke Schmirring, Jeff Steele, Jeff Maron, Terri Cronin, Drew Todd, John Hartwell, Connor Murphy and Bob Jelley, members of the Council; Gene Colonese, Jim Redecker and Jeff Parker, CDOT; Joe Kanell and John Longobardi, MNR; Two MTA Police; Martin Cassidy, Stamford Advocate, Devon Chiverella and Martin Cazell, members of the public.
The meeting began at 7:00 pm.
Chairman Jim Cameron introduced the two new members of the Council, Luke Schmirring who commutes from East Norwalk to Grand Central Terminal and John Hartwell who lives in Westport and uses the Greens Farms Station. Mr. Cameron also reported that the Station Parking Task Force had held its first meeting on July 7 in New Haven, and that the meeting had successfully focused on a variety of parking problems.
PROPOSED 10% FARE INCREASE
In answer to a question from Mr. Cameron, Jim Redecker said that there was no budget yet, so that no fare increase was being proposed. Mr. Cameron asked about the Public Hearings that had been scheduled and then canceled for a fare increase, and particularly, commented on the fact that 6:00 pm hearing scheduled for Stamford was an awkward time for commuters. Mr. Redecker said that meetings would stay open until 9:00 pm.
Drew Todd asked if the proposal had been both a 10% fare increase and then the statutory 1¼% fare increase on January 1, 2010. Mr. Redecker said that indeed the plan had been for the two increases, which would have been a combined increase of 11.4%.
In further discussing fare increase hearings, Mr. Redecker said that people can testify by email or by letter. Sue Prosi suggested the possibility of having midday hearings in work centers like Stamford. In response to a question asking what the use was of a hearing about the 1¼% fare increase, which is statutory, Mr. Redecker said that people would be able to comment on the DOT’s proposal on how to actually apply the 1¼%, including rounding up and down.
Mr. Hartwell suggested Saturday or Sunday hearings. There were comments about the confusion of having combined bus and train hearings, and Jeff Parker said that it was important to have both together so that people didn’t have to choose one hearing or the other, particularly if they used both train and bus.
STATION PARKING TASK FORCE
Mr. Redecker commented about the first meeting, which Jim Cameron, Terri Cronin, Sue Prosi, and Bob Jelley attended. He said that he had liked the first meeting and that it had raised new issues. He said that he recognized that it may be useful to split the task force into two groups, one for Fairfield County and the other for New Haven County and Shore Line East. He said that he had had some considerable feedback from some of the towns following the meeting. He said that the next meeting would be held in early September.
NEW M-8s
Mr. Parker said that eight pilot cars will be shipped from Japan this fall, after inspection in Japan in September. There will then be a 4-6 month test period in the United States. Production cars will begin to arrive 4-6 months after the test period ends. He expected the pilot cars to arrive in November. Rodney Chabot asked whether Kawasaki will continue building cars while the original eight are still being tested. He suggested that they should stop building until the eight are approved. Mr. Parker said that that is impossible because it’s important for reasons of efficiency to keep the production line going and not lose the production workers who will be working on the M-8 cars. Jeff Steele asked if the new trains will have signs on the outside indicating their destination and whether the train is running local or express. Mr. Parker said that they would indicate the destination but probably will not indicate if they’re local or express.
Mr. Jelley pointed out that the MTA’s 2010-2015 proposed cap budget, which is on line, has money in it for paying back Connecticut the money that Connecticut had advanced for New York’s share of the new cars.
STAMFORD GARAGE
Mr. Parker reported that the DOT had received only one proposal for development of the site of the old parking garage. He said that the DOT was disappointed and asked other possible developers why they hadn’t submitted proposals. Those developers said they didn’t want to spend the time developing proposals. Mr. Parker went on to say that he thought it was going to be hard to provide substitute parking during construction of a new garage at the site of the old garage. Jeff Maron raised the issue of a private developer building a new garage and then being able to charge whatever it wanted to for parking. Mr. Chabot said that the garage belongs at the station and it should stay where it is.
GAME TRAIN SERVICE
It was reported that double-decker cars will probably be used for New Haven line service to New Jersey Meadowlands games on weekends.
With respect to Yankee Stadium service, Joe Kanell said that Metro North was pleased with the game service and reported that there were about 5,000 train riders for one of the Red Sox games. Terri Cronin described the situation of the train from Yankee Stadium to 125th Street on Monday night, August 10. (This was not a thru-train after the game was concluded; she had left following the 7th inning.) She said the train to 125th Street from Yankee Stadium was late resulting in terrible crowding at 125th Street Station of people trying to get from one track to the other in order to get a New Haven line train. Most transferring passengers missed the train. There was discussion about how to communicate between trains to hold connections.
Mr. Jelley reported that he thought the Yankee Stadium game service timetable was confusing as to which trains required a change at 125th Street and which were thru-trains.
MAIN LINE ISSUES
Mr. Chabot mentioned that it was reported that the Long Island Railroad was getting a new car wash building with stimulus money. He wondered why the New Haven line didn’t also get a new car wash facility with stimulus money. Mr. Parker said that no car wash facility was shovel-ready. He said it would be built in November, 2015. John Longobardi said that they wash 80-90 cars daily in Stamford and 20-30 more at the High Bridge facility.
Jeff Steele reported that commuters like the newly-rebuilt station at Southport.
Mr. Parker reported that the Metro Center Station in Fairfield had encountered construction delays because the developer cannot uphold his end of the bargain. He said that there will be a temporary station with some parking. He said that they were aggressively hoping to open a station in late 2010. Ms. Prosi asked who would operate the parking at Metro Center Station. Mr. Parker said that that had not yet been determined.
Drew Todd asked about absence of air conditioning on trains recently. Mr. Kanell said that air conditioning had gone pretty well until the first two weeks of August.
BRANCH LINE ISSUES
Roger Cirella reported that busing on the Waterbury line had been well done. Mr. Kanell praised both the Connecticut DOT and the MTA police for their help on busing.
Mr. Parker reported that the signal project on the Danbury line was at last underway. He said that the job would cost $52 million, but the State already had $10 million for it, it had gotten $32 million in stimulus money and only needed $10 million more. He expects the project to be finished in two years. This would permit positive train control by 2015 as required by federal statute. Mr. Cirella suggested that the state put signals on the Waterbury line.
There was a report of a fire on a P-40 Shore Line East diesel locomotive at Fairfield Station. An oil leak had caught fire but the engine was repairable.
Mr. Jelley reported on his viewing of the operation of the Amtrak Connecticut River Bridge between Old Saybrook and Old Lyme on a recent Sunday morning. He said that it was his observation over a two hour period, that the bridge was often closed much longer than necessary, thus delaying boats with high masts. He suggested that in the State’s negotiations with the Coast Guard and boating associations, there was room for operational improvement that would reduce the impact of bridge closings and permit Shore Line East trains to run to New London. Mr. Redecker said that there was a meeting between the DOT and the DEP scheduled for the next day.
Mr. Chabot reported that a storage track at New Canaan was being extended to permit storage of three rather than two early morning trains.
Mr. Redecker said that the Council’s Naugatuck meeting in May had been useful to CDOT in identifying serious customer service issues.
JUNE OPERATIONS REPORT
Gene Colonese said that ridership was still down, particularly discretionary ridership.
The meeting ended at 9:30 pm. The next meeting in scheduled for September 16, 7:00 pm.
at SWRPA.
Bob Jelley
Secretary
Phone: (203) 498-4306
e-mail: rjelley@wiggin.com
