The recent derailment and collision of two Metro-North trains
in Fairfield left dozens injured, tens of thousands inconvenienced and taxpayers
footing the bill for millions of dollars in repairs. It also proved just how fragile our rail
network is, as this accident severed the crucial Northeast Corridor connecting
Boston and Washington. What lessons can we learn from the incident?
Early indications are the derailment was caused by faulty
track repairs. But this incident is tied
to the larger overall problem facing not only the CT Dept of Transportation but
our entire nation: deferred maintenance.
Our CDOT Commissioner James Redeker, a very talented man of
highest professional integrity, has been warning us for years that we have
worn-out roads, bridges and rails needing repairs or replacement. But the
Commissioner also claims, correctly, that he doesn’t get enough money from the
legislature to do what’s needed.
Metro-North President Howard Permut has said the same thing, pretty
gutsy for a state vendor, which is what Metro-North is.
It took the collapse of the Mianus River Bridge 30 years ago
to finally get attention to the under-investment by the state in bridge
inspections and repairs. And to this
day, 35% of the CDOT’s annual budget pays off bonds issued after that tragedy
to get the deferred maintenance back up to speed.
So, in a state that seems to lurch from crisis to crisis
before things change, I’d predict we’ll end up asking our grandchildren to pay
the bonds we will now issue for repair work to get our rail infrastructure back
up to “a state of good repair”.
Investing in mass transit can be sexy. Just look at our M8 cars. Every commuter I know loves them and sees
them as proof that Hartford cares about commuters. But as they look out their train window on
the way to work, do passengers have any sense of how old the rails or catenary
(overhead power) wires are? Some are 100
years old!
Amtrak owns, operates and maintains the entire Northeast
Corridor from Washington DC to Boston, all except for the section in
Connecticut from the NY State line to New Haven. That track is owned by Connecticut and
maintained for us by Metro-North.
Connecticut pays 65% of the cost, the MTA (parent to Metro-North) pays
35%. Amtrak and the Federal government
kicks in a little money, but clearly not enough.
Ride on Amtrak in Rhode Island or New Jersey and your Acela
will hurtle along at 140 mph. In
Connecticut, America’s fastest train runs no faster than Metro-North, about 70
mph. Our roadbed, bridges and signal
system can’t support higher speeds.
It’s probably a good thing Connecticut owns this
right-of-way, giving us the authority to prioritize our commuter trains (carrying
1000 passengers apiece) over Acelas (carrying 300). But that ownership comes at a high cost that we
have not been paying: spending on
non-sexy things like replacing tracks and ties.
If we want to run a safe, reliable railroad we must pay to
maintain it. Perhaps the biggest lesson
of the Metro-North accident is to re-prioritize our spending on
infrastructure. Not sexy, but very
important.
