A
stranger walked up to me the other day while I was waiting for the train. “Are you Jim Cameron,” he asked. “I sure am,” I said, expecting a tirade of
complaints about the railroad, the fares and the stations.
“I
just wanted to say ‘thank you’,” he said.
“You guys on the Commuter Council do a great job looking out for
commuters.” We shook hands, and as he
departed I got a little misty-eyed.
The fifteen members of the CT Metro-North Rail Commuter Council, are
all commuters, just like you. We’re
appointed by Hartford pol’s and receive no compensation and have no
budget. We meet monthly with Metro-North
and CDOT and pay our own way.
And
here’s what we did on your behalf this past year:
STAMFORD GARAGE: We
stopped CDOT from a secret sell-out
of the old garage at the Stamford station to private developers. Our leafleting and outreach forced public
hearings and, finally, the appointment by Governor Malloy of a five-person task
force to represent the public and commuters’ interests in reviewing proposals
for a new garage.
QUIET CARS: For
five years the Commuter Council has been beseeching Metro-North to embrace the
idea of a cellphone-free “Quiet Car” on each train. This year our cries were finally answered,
giving commuters a better option for what the railroad calls a “Quiet
CALMmute”
NEW SERVICE: At
the request of the Council, CDOT and Metro-North improved service for riders
from Rowayton, East Norwalk, Southport and Greens Farms stations. While those stations used to have trains only
every two hours off-peak, now they have hourly service.
NEW CARS: For a decade the Council has been
pushing for new cars to replace our worn-out fleet. Now they are arriving at the rate of ten a
month. That means you have a 50% chance
of riding the new M8 cars in rush hours and a 66% chance of enjoying them on
weekends. When the last of the 400+ new
cars is delivered, the old fleet will be scrapped.
TICKET EXPIRATIONS: Last
year Metro-North pulled a fast one and shortened
the validity period for tickets.
One-way tickets, which used to be good for a month, became worthless
after 14 days. And ten-trip tickets,
previously valid for a year, expired after six months. The Council (and, apparently, hundreds of
riders) protested and recently the railroad relented, returning the single-ride
tickets to 60 days validity.
As
much as we have accomplished, there’s still more to be done:
PARKING: Having
expanded our fleet of cars by 15%, CDOT has done nothing to expand station
parking in southwest Fairfield County.
If we want people to take the train, we’ve got to get them to the
station and that means more parking at all the major stations.
TICKET COLLECTION: The
Council is still concerned that conductors
are not doing their jobs and collecting all fares. Metro-North says it’s not cost efficient to
staff trains with enough conductors to get all tickets, yet they ask for higher
fares claiming they are losing money.
BIKES ON THE TRAINS: Years
ago when our broken down cars were standing room only, we opposed the idea of
allowing bicycles on the trains. That’s
changed. Now we have more cars and seats
for all. So it’s time for Metro-North to
live up to its promise to install bike hooks in cars.
What
are your concerns about commuting?
Contact us and let us know how we can best represent you: CTRailCommuterCouncil@gmail.com
or www.trainweb.org/CT
No comments:
Post a Comment