Rail lines struggle to stay on time
Metro-North Railroad is under fire for branch line performance that has left some commuters with no more than a 64 percent chance of arriving at work on time.
The Waterbury Branch in July was on time 64 percent of the time, while the New Canaan Branch was on time 78 percent and the Danbury Branch 87 percent, a Hearst Connecticut Media review shows.
Riders on Shore Line East — a separate rail service that runs trains to New Haven from points northeast of the city and offers connections to MetroNorth — have also suffered, with service that was punctual only 72 percent of the time in July.
“Performance is affecting ridership,” said Jim Gildea, chairman of the Connecticut Commuter Railroad Council.
“When you have a 65 percent chance you will not get to work on time, that’s a problem,” said Gildea, who rides the Waterbury Branch. “We have never seen performance this bad.”
Metro-North and state officials acknowledged trains are late and attributed delays to ongoing upgrades of the system and equipment breakdowns.
“The recent trend of late trains on the New Haven Line, including the Waterbury, New Canaan and Danbury branches, has primarily been the result of extensive, ongoing upgrades to our infrastructure,” Metro-North officials said in a statement.
In a recent letter to the state Department of Transportation, 12 lawmakers — including state Rep. Themis Klarides, R-Derby and the House minority leader — demanded action and an explanation.
“As you know on time performance impacts ridership; when residents don’t feel like they can rely on rail, they will take their car into work — again clogging up Connecticut roadways,” the lawmakers told DOT Commissioner James Redeker.
“This is clearly shown with an almost 2 percent decrease in ridership when compared to earlier months,” the legislators noted. “This is unacceptable performance.”
Redeker said commuters will have to live with the delays for now as workers toil to improve the railroad.
“The construction activities that are taking place are necessary and long overdue,” Redeker said. “The service delays to accommodate this aggressive rebuilding program will ultimately lead to a more reliable, more comfortable train service.”
Angry commuters
The late trains are drawing the attention of commuters, who are taking to Twitter to vent their frustrations.
“SLE (Shore Line East) is a disgrace, they’re hemorrhaging riders because the state is incompetent,” Ray Lucibello tweeted last week.
“Decades of stealing from transportation coming back to haunt them, and now citizens will literally pay for it with expensive tolls (new taxes),” Lucibello added.
Frederick Moore tweeted “What’s the surprise?” referring to poor branch service.
“When I am feeling paranoid some days I think there is a competition by DOT to see whether @shoreLineeast or WBL (Waterbury Branch Line) is the worse commute,” noted E.C. Schroeder in a Twitter post.
The data backs up concerns expressed by commuters.
The Waterbury Branch, which runs to Bridgeport, started the year with a 94 percent on-time record.
But by May, the on-time rate dropped to 86 percent, and in August riders had a 69 percent chance of making it to work on time. The line served 312,000 riders last year.
The Danbury Branch varied from an on-time performance rate of 85 percent in January to the 90 percent range between March and May, and back to 86 percent in June. The line carried nearly 700,000 passengers last year.
Shore Line East riders had a 72 percent chance of being on time in July, compared to an 88 percent chance in July 2017. The smallest of the commuter lines, Shore Line East, which is owned by the DOT, served about 2,000 riders a day last year.
The far larger New Haven Line, which MetroNorth runs from New Haven to Grand Central Terminal, posted a performance rate ranging from a high of 95 percent in April to a low of 82 percent in July. Nearly 37 million riders used the train last year.
There is also some evidence that performance is impacting ridership. For example, year-to-date ridership on the Danbury and Waterbury lines is down by just under one percent when compared to last year. The New Canaan Line is up 1.4 percent.
Improvement and delay
Gildea said the poor performance could have been avoided, pointing out the state promised aggressive improvements to the Waterbury Branch three years ago.
Although the $2.8 million project was supposed to be finished this year, Gildea said DOT only recently approved money to design the work.
“They lack foresight and vision,” Gildea said of DOT. “There is not enough equipment for the branches, not enough diesels. They have not made the necessary infrastructure investments they should make.
“They will say Waterbury or Danbury has not lost that much (ridership), but it takes a few months for ridership to decline. There has been construction and speed restrictions for years now. It’s a smokescreen masking a more serious issue.”
Judd Everhart, a DOT spokesman, said the reason for the spike in late trains is straightforward.
“Two out of three late Waterbury Line trains are the result of a late train connection from the New Haven Line,” Everhart said. “The performance on the New Haven Line is the result of an aggressive capital investment program that has taken multiple tracks out of service throughout the 72 miles of railroad between Grand Central Terminal.”
Everhart said major projects include a track undercutting program in Rye, N.Y., bridge work in Greenwich and Stamford, replacement of boarding platforms at Noroton Heights and new railroad interlocking in Norwalk.
“These projects are addressing decades of under investment, but have significant negative impacts on service,” Everhart said. “We realize we could have done a better job at getting the word out about the construction program and we are working with Metro-North on a special notice to customers to explain the recent performance and what to expect ahead.”
Metro-North officials said breakdowns on the branch lines has also impacted performance, as well as construction projects and implementation of the Positive Train Control safety system.
“We have experienced a decline in the performance of our diesel locomotives operating on the Danbury and Waterbury branches.” Metro-North officials said. “To improve the performance of our fleet, we are beginning a program to overhaul locomotives over the next four years.
”We appreciate your patience and understanding as we carry out these critical projects. Our track and infrastructure work will not only make our system safer; it is also an investment in the future reliability of our system, which is something that you rightfully expect and deserve.”