Let’s give Metro-North our kudos for some innovative tech to improve passenger comfort: a new QR code in each train bathroom to allow customers to report any problems.
Bathroom dirty? Too stinky? No soap or paper towels? Just open your smartphone, access that bathroom’s unique QR code and send in your report. You can even add pictures. Knowing exactly which bathroom (by train car number) needs attention, a cleaning crew can be swiftly dispatched to make things right.
In the first week of the
program Metro-North says they got 34 reports on bathrooms, 16 of them
positive. The complaints were “addressed
quickly” says the railroad.
Mind you, the newish M8 cars
on the mainline seem to have many fewer bathroom problems than on the older
cars where you’d need a hazmat suit to “go”.
You might even remember the
story from 20+ years ago of the commuter who said he lost
his cellphone down the John and, when he tried to retrieve it, got his arm
stuck up to the elbow. Trains were
delayed and it took the jaws of life to set him free. But no phone was ever found… not that you’d
want to put that up to your face after it took that dunk.
In other good news… service on
Shore Line East (the rail line that runs from New Haven to New London) is slowly
returning, as is ridership. With the new
fall timetables now in effect, four new trains have been added including
through-service to Stamford without a change of trains.
Susan Feaster of the Shore Line East Riders’ Advocacy Group
credits the new service to her group’s lobbying of local politicians who fought
hard for more funding and scored an additional $5 million in the last
session. Still, even with the new trains,
this railroad is only at 50% of the service offered pre-COVID.
“Ours is not a ‘seasonal train’
as CDOT Commissioner Eucalitto recently claimed,” she told me. “Shore Line communities deserve full train service
and we’re ready to fight for it in the next legislative session.”
Speaking of organized transit
lobbying…
We’re in the home stretch of
the November election campaigning so now is the time to keep transportation
funding top of mind for candidates. As
you attend your local League of Women Voters debates, ask questions of those
who’d represent you. Get them on the
record on how to get mass transit the money it deserves.
Don’t know what to ask? Try one of these questions:
Whatever happened to Governor
Lamont’s promise to speed up the
trains, offering 60 min run-times from New Haven to Grand Central?
Why does Metro-North refuse to
restore the popular Quiet Cars?
Why is there still no Wi-Fi on
Metro-North despite $23
million in special funding to CDOT to make it happen?
And when you ask the
candidates, listen for specific answers, not platitudes. And then vote accordingly.
