We take our train service for granted. For the 80,000 daily Connecticut riders on Metro-North the service is dependable and on-time… usually. But not last Thursday evening (June 5th), the hottest day of the year (so far), when the overhead catenary power lines were dragged down near Westport. No power means no trains.
What caused the problem won’t
be known for a while. Given the heat it
might be “wire sag”. Or maybe it was a
worn out pantograph carbon shoe (the thing on top of the train that touches the
catenary power line). Whatever the
cause, the results were fast and long-lasting.
Scores of trains were delayed throughout
the Northeast Corridor, both on Metro-North and Amtrak. But two were stranded
between stations with no power… and no AC.
One, an Amtrak train carrying 400 people, got very hot. Because the windows don’t open, people
started to get upset according
to media reports.
Metro-North trains have long
carried emergency water supplies for such incidents, but not Amtrak trains.
Eventually diesel trains came
to the rescue (along with local fire fighters), but the delays were far from
over… lingering into Friday’s service the next day.
How did passengers on the
delayed and rerouted trains make out? Based
on interviews, pretty well given the circumstances and Metro-North’s quick response.
Substitute buses are usually
the answer, but at the peak of rush hour (when the incident occurred) most
buses were already on their regular runs.
It’s not like there’s a fleet of spare buses on standby. And remember… a full Metro-North train can
carry 1000 passengers. A bus, maybe 60
(including standees).
A reporter friend of mine who
lives in eastern Connecticut grabbed the 5:22 pm train from Grand Central to
New Haven and, within minutes of departure the hundreds of passengers onboard
were warned of problems: the train would
terminate at South Norwalk.
South Norwalk station
There he caught a bus, only to
be dumped somewhere in East Norwalk when the driver pulled to a stop and said “I’m
done working, everybody off. There’s another
bus coming.”
“None of us knew where we
were,” said my friend, eventually paying $120 for a cab to West Haven where he’d
parked his car. He eventually got home
about 11:45 pm.
“Everybody was pretty ‘chill’
and patient,” he said, impressed that Metro-North staffers wearing distinctive
vests were at the stations directing the throngs. “I’m just glad that Metro-North was doing something,”
he said. “The whole experience taught us
just how vulnerable we are when things go wrong.”
Greens Farms station
Another colleague, Paul
Murnane from WINS, caught an 8:00 pm train from GCT, getting no further than
Greens Farms where the platform was jammed with tired travelers. Sure enough, vested railroad staffers
directed the throngs down a hill to three waiting buses which immediately
filled up and departed. More buses were
promised and quickly arrived. Murnane’s bus even got a State Police escort,
arriving in Fairfield at 11:30 pm.
Again, he says the crowds were
patient and well behaved. “It’s hard to
have a riot in Vineyard Vines,” he said, commenting on the riders’ summer
attire. A 40-year rider of these rails,
he too was impressed with the railroad’s response.
Stuff happens on a railroad
depending on aging infrastructure. So if
you’re taking a train, always have a “plan B”.
And BYO water.
And kudos to Metro-North for
their handling of this situation, especially for keeping passengers informed.
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