MINUTES
CONNECTICUT METRO-NORTH SHORE
LINE EAST COMMUTER COUNCIL MEETING
SACIA Offices, Stamford,Conn.
December 18, 2002
The minutes of the
November 20 meeting were accepted with the following change. Train delays on SLE were due to construction
and tie work.
OLD BUSINESS:
1. Shore Line East: Tunnel work on track 2 will start in January
and is expected to take 5-6 weeks.
Permanent information system at State St. Station should be in place by the end of
January. On train 3638 of December 18
only two doors were opened at State St. for 100 passengers and tickets were not
collected east of State St.. It was
explained the train was under staffed.
2. Waterbury Branch: 28
bus trips in November including buses necessary for the bridgework
project. At Waterbury station the two
telephones are often out of service due to vandalism and question was asked if
one could be installed in a safer place.
3. Danbury Branch: 5 bus trips in November substituting for
trains.
4. Stamford Station: New garage to open in April. Engineers evaluating old garage to determine
what to do with it. Safety repairs
(poor steps, etc.) are underway. Five TV
monitors will be in the station facility including one on the walkway from the
new garage but not on the street level from the new garage. There are only funds available for five
monitors.
5. Shop backlog: Average daily number of
cars short this month was seven with forty-four in the shop. The rehab program is moving ahead with completion
of two pairs a month to be reached in January.
6. Ticket machine glare: Machines will be turned to avoid glare by June.
7. New Cars: "What new cars????", said Mr. Harris. No decision yet on the type of cars or the
financing and none expected in the short run.
8. MN- LIRR merger: Harry Harris considers this to be a "done deal" but a study
how to do it has not been started. CDOT
will ask for a "seat at the table".
9. NH Coliseum parking: Will close at the end of December. Parking at Temple St. has begun. Questions
about a new garage at NH station will be answered in January.
10. Darien Station: Selectmen increased daily parking fee $.25. All of Darien's share of the fees goes into
the Town's general fund and there is not a clear understanding of how funds are
used for station repairs. Council will follow
up. CDOT is studying how funds are used
at all stations.
11. MN labor contract: Talks are in the early stage. Gene Colonese
does not expect a strike at the end of this year.
NEW BUSINESS:
1. Waterbury Station construction: The request for bonding funds was turned
down. At this point nothing further is
occurring.
2. GCT shortage of restrooms: It was been noticed that this is a severe problem
on weekends. The Council will write a
letter asking for an improvement.
3. Conn. Fare increase: A substantial increase in the subsidy will
be needed over the next two years just to maintain existing service. How this will be achieved will not be know
until the new budget is set but with the State's deficit we should expect a
fare increase. After discussion of the Council's
long standing support of small regular fare increases, it was
agreed that we
would review this position at a future meeting.
4. Ticket collection: MN
reviews this problem on a regular basis.
At times trains are short crews or have unexpected riders which leads to
uncollected tickets. Seat checks are
not used on all trains.
5. Other:
Discussion of the Transportation
Strategy Board's report and its lack of new rail equipment for trains going to
GCT until 2012 and 2013. This equipment
will only replace the M2 cars and not provide for an expansion of service. In addition Harry Harris spoke of a $3
billion capital need over the next eleven years (to 2014) with only $1.2
billion funded.
Respectfully
submitted,
The following were
present:
>From the
Council: Rodney Chabot, Chairman, Jim
Cameron, Vice Chairman, Ed Zimmerman,
Peter Marcuse, Lee Carlson, Peter
Millard, Carl Leaman, Bob Jelley,
Jeff Maron, Joe Mc Gee
>From CDOT:
Harry Harris, Ray Cox, Mike Donnarumma
>From
Metro-North: Gene Colonese, Fred Chichester
>From
Amtrak: Gary Gilbert
>From the
public: Scott Crosby, Darien resident
