Metro North Commuter's Journal

Truth now...How often do you arrive at your final destination on time?

I am not talking about the magic time kept by MNRR to prepare the schedules and propaganda we regularly see, but the real time that you step off the train onto the platform. Rush hour trains regularly test the 5:59 that MNRR calls "on-time" but almost never arrive 5:59 early.

It used to be that a 95 minute trip to/from New Haven was that or even better on occasion. Today the shortest scheduled train is 98 minutes. I can remember a few 80-85 minute trips during the past ten years, so I know the railroad can do better, I guess those days are gone, Today, most trains are over 100-105 minutes, and they end up using every second of the magic 5:59 to ultimately get us where we are going.

The diesels are the worst, slow off the platform and the crew is often faced with door, engine, computer and other mechanical failures which complicate the matter further. Arriving at the appointed time on one of these contraptions is a pipedream.

Unfortunately, MNRR does not have a solution for the mess as they do not have the equipment that can actually meet the posted schedules. The worst trains have been placed on the longest runs to avoid the risk that they will not start up again if they stopped more often on the local run. That means that the worst equipment is assigned to us who pay the most to run MNRR.

MNRR does have one magic trick that seems to work...adding minutes to the schedule which they do regularly (tell me the last time they actually shaved a minute off a rush hour train on the New Haven Line).

Sadly, instead of raising the bar...pushing for better efficiency, they lower the bar just so that this rotting equipment can be called a railroad.

By the way, the train ran slow again today, no ventilation and the lights are only half on.

Yours,

Mark Wuest

Metro North just wasted the last of the good will it had generated by doing a decent job moving us around during the summer. We commuters wait anxiously for the promised new trains while we remain stuck on equipment that has no place on a 21st century railroad.

Today I ended up on a dead train stuck on the express tracks somewhere around New Rochelle. The equipment involved...one of the Bombardiers, the slow, unreliable equipment I have often complained about.

I could hear the engineer's radio and was amused by the suggestions being offered to get this piece of junk moving....re-boot.

When there is no one else to blame...it must be the computer. I am actually surprised to learn that a computer actually controls anything on the train given that the extent of computing technology when this equipment was built was a sliderule.

The computer must have been a retrofit...product improvement...instead of a blown circuit, stuck door, or bad pump...lets leave the operation of the railroad to an extra comma buried in several million lines of computer code by a sleep deprived programmer overdosed on TAB.

Fall is upon us again, soon to be followed by winter. Let's see if MNRR can get it right this time.

We arrived 40 minutes late to GCT, and I thought I saw a sliderule in the engineer's hand as we finally exited the train.

No the Blog has not started the summer re-runs.

MNRR almost magically has hot cars in the Summer and cold cars in the summer, except the other day when it was possible to see the ice crystals forming in your breathe.

Today however, a sweatbox.

Then there is the regular power outage...6:55 two consecutive days, lights and AC die 10-15 minutes outside of GCT (yes Bombardier). Add to that the late arrival, broken seat (first triple behind engineer).

While you are at it, when was the last time a BOMB had a thorough cleaning. The windows are typically filthy and what used to be a gleaming stainless steel exterior has taken on a dusty patina more typically seen on a salt crusted truck in winter..

I know, I should be happy that there IS a train.

Yours,

Mark Wuest

I have held my tongue through much of this summer as the State slowly acquired more engines and more of the diesels (AKA BOMBardierS) made it onto the mainline. Funding for the new trains has been approved but it will take years of these conditions before any of us experience improvements in our commute.

At this point, these BOMBS have largely replaced the sleek M6's that once were used to run the express trains out of New Haven. Why have we who have the longest commutes and pay the most towards the operations of this railroad been cursed with what is arguably the worst equipment on the railroad?

Today, 5 cars, of which at least one would qualify as a torture chamber according to Geneva Convention (maybe that explains the Connecticut State Police on the train) were assigned to make this run. These 5 cars were the ones with only a single door at either end (no middle doors), they look and feel like the inside of a large can of SPAM which has been outfitted with seats and a couple long flickering fluorescent lights. The carriages on this equipment provide for considerable rocking, clanking and bouncing as we slowly make our way towards New Haven.

The diesel engine pulling this train is slow off the mark, so slow in fact that just to maintain system on time performance, MNRR has recently added a few minutes to the schedule for the 5:38. What is sad is that all too often, this equipment pulls into New Haven station 4-5 minutes late...maximizing the 5:59 that MNRR has defined as "on-time".

Today, as we left New York, heavily perspiring passengers were seen abandoning the hot cars, moving to the few remaining cars with adequate air-conditioning creating standing room only conditions.

I guess this is what they call public transportation.

After a period of relatively decent performance, MNRR has run once again into a bad streak.

Monday morning's 6:55 out of New Haven just pulled a no show. When a train did pull up to the platform about 15 minutes later, we were told that it was going to be the 6:55. By the time we were half way to Milford we were told that actually the 6:55 had been annulled and this was going to be the local.

I don't know how may people in New Haven were left standing on the platform thinking that the local was going to pull to the platform momentarily, but the crowd of commuters were lining up on track 8 when the very late 6:55 pulled out of the station only to become the modestly late 7:14 a few miles down the track.

Due to the confusion, we had standing room only by Stratford.

Tuesday night I caught the 5:16, in hopes of catching a few minutes of my boys playing in a charity soccer "kick-off". Well my money will have to do because the train managed to pull into New Haven late that night...missed the kids.

Today an acquaintance mentioned that she was forced to change trains when the train out of New Haven she had chosen, died somewhere along the way.

You get used to the conditions on the trains...stand on hot days when all that is left are middle seats (I have to stand due to lack on knee room on a good day)...sweat because the other cars are standing room only an all that is left is the hot or dark car...but you never quite get used to arriving late or annulled trains.

One final comment. This time not directed to conditions on the trains but rather to a reader who suggested that I stop complaining about the trains and move closer to work.

I guess that is one solution to the problem on the trains, but when hundreds of thousands of other commuters take the same advice, traffic on our highways will become impossible.

You don't here me complaining about the length of my commute, that is a choice I have made and I live with it. For most of us here on the train, commuting is a necessity to get us from point A to B. All we ask for is better accommodations to do that task. Subway riders ask for new trains, bus riders better buses, drivers better highways and walkers, safer sidewalks.

I can not live under my desk at work...all of us commute in one way or another. As a Connecticut resident who needs to commute, it is the State who has the responsibility to provide the means for that to occur. Rail deserves the same attention that buses and roads have received and for too long, the State has neglected us here on the rails. Yours,

Mark Wuest

MNRR has actually been doing a "good" job of late as witnessed by the monthly propaganda/seat drops. New Haven line had the best on-time performance of the entire system. (remember 3 types of liars...lairs...damned liars and statisticians)

Service has been more consistent, we seem to arrive in GCT in the mornings regularly a few minutes late but not so late to trigger the 5:59 rule, and we almost never arrive early.

BUT...today I walked by 3 dark cars and then reaching near the end of the platform, found a seat in a car without air conditioning...can not win them all.

So we are blessed with broken down equipment and standing room only. I don't know whether they got the lights working on the rest ofthe train.

MNRR usually does a decent job of keeping the trains cold in the winter and hot during the summer so I am glad in some regards that the status quo is being maintained...don't want to go messing with my expectations...

The News at 11:00 tells us that the State is close to passing the much delayed funding for the new equipment we so despirately need and MNRR is so convinced that it will happen that they have hired consultants to design the new equipment.

Progress? We will see. In the mean time, we must roll up our sleeves unbutton our shirts and put up with the trains that we have.

This does not mean that I am resolved to accept the conditions we are forced to endour here on Metro North, and it does not mean that I will stop trying to explain to all of you in the Statehouse what a Metro North commuter has to put up with on a regular basis.

Just a few observations.

I receive an occasional message from MNRR people defending what I had criticized here in the BLOG. Thank you. That understanding of the situation or procedures or whatever is helpful, but I still do not arrive any earlier or in any more comfort to my desired destination.

Now MNRR is not always awful and I have mentioned that here on occasion in the past. I have never not ended up where I was planning to go (but then taking a wrong turn is not a possibility on the train is it?), and I do occasionally have pleasant experiences here on the train; times when we arrive on time or early with the lights and ventilation working.

One of those times was on the 8:04 last night. We actually pulled into New Haven after a (may I dare to say?) "civilized" 96 minutes...Early. More often than not, my experience has been that we pull in 5 minutes late, just shy of the official late, and it takes me another 5 minutes to get out of the train because there is only one functioning door...that was the 6:55 this morning; a train with a 100 minute schedule that rarely ever pulls up to the platform in that time frame (especially now that the Bombadiers have been assigned to the long express runs).

I realize that these are lowly commuter trains and I realize that MNRR is handicapped with 30 year old equipment that should have been shipped off to the shredder years ago. But I do not expect carpet or a beverage service, just an ability to get between points A and B safely, timely and reasonably comfortably. And 2 out of 3 is in this case not good enough, especially since I have to do this every day as most of us do.

Back in school, 2 out of 3 barely permitted a student to graduate. Solid D student is something nobody bragged about.

MNRR customer surveys are always amusing to read. Somehow "somewhat satisfied" is OK.

Well I am "somewhat satisfied" with MNRR, but that is not nearly enough. MNRR needs to establish consistent quality service. That means that from one day to another, I know what equipment to expect, I know that I have an equal probability of arriving early or late a few minutes, that the ride will be comfortable and unremarkable.

Being stuck in a confined space with 1,000 other commuters is "exciting" enough thank you. Things happen without equipment malfunctions to spice things up; and unfortunately the equipment malfunctions all too often.

MNRR's problems are not BIG problems in general, but rather are the annoying, nagging, water-torture type that keeps people like me writing blogs like this.