Summers over – that sucks. To add insult to injury, everyone is back to work, and many of our trains are overcrowded.
Nowhere is this more brutally felt than on the New Haven Line, whose ancient cars are always going into the shop for repairs.
Indeed, my wife hit this head-on this morning, in a scene that has just become all too familiar to Metro-North riders.
Today, as usual, the 6:47 (#1531) out of New Haven was short on cars, and the bar car had been used to help fill the void – to little effect, as not only were all the seats full, but the standing room was packed as well. She managed to shove herself inside the train, but got off at the next stop, as it was just too uncomfortable.
Meanwhile, the next train at her stop, the 7:22 out of New Haven (Train #1535), has TWO ADDITIONAL cars and is NEVER FULL?!
I’m going to bump this one over to Conductor Bobby and see if he can shed any light on this…
5 responses so far ↓
1 Bobby // Sep 9, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Metro North employs teams of “counters” whose only job is to walk up and down the aisles, counting passengers and clicking away on a hand held people counters . These employees try to keep track of how many passengers board and disembark at each station stop.
When the train reaches Grand Central, another team of counters tally the number of passengers detraining and notating how many cars each train has in its consist. This information is then given to Metro North’s planning department and they, in turn, determine how many cars each train is alloted.
The planning department sends car count lists to yardmasters in each terminal (i.e. New Haven, Bridgeport, Stamford). Like a grocery list, the yardmaster tries to follow the form while instructing yard crews making up trains for the morning rush.
Then why are trains short cars?
It all comes down to supply and demand. Most of our equipment is 35 years old, and frequently breaks down, this, in turn, causes car shortages. The problem is compounded in times of inclement weather (like the upcoming “slip/slide” season.)
For example, the yardmaster may be setting up train #1531. His list tells him he needs 8 cars. At leaving time, the crew of 1531 discovers that they can’t get a brake applied light. Mechanical forces are called and find that the train hit debris on the main line and is missing brake shoes. The train is due out in 20 minutes, so the yardmaster, who is short cars, is forced to give train #1581′s crew, #1583′s equipment. That train only called for 4 cars, meaning train #1581 will be very crowded.
The equipment swap throws off the logistical plans for the planning department, and the trains will be out of sync for the rest of the morning commute and possibly all day.
The yardmasters do their best, but sometimes the equipment just isn’t available.
In late 2009, the new M8′s are supposed to start arriving. Hopefully, this will solve our equipment shortage problems.
2 RR // Sep 10, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Your poor wife! She deserves a sparkly gift to make up for her commute this morning.
3 wife // Sep 11, 2008 at 10:42 am
RR—I agree
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4 irenesbooks // Sep 15, 2008 at 12:49 am
Today, some of the cars on our train — including ours of course — had non-functioning air conditioning.
5 Dick // Jul 28, 2010 at 8:21 pm
The person above obviously works for Metro North. This commuter railroad is the little railroad that “Can’t” !!! I personally can’t tell you how much I love looking out the window and watching the cars on I-95 going twice as fast as the train. What a bunch of NYC epic failures. I took my kid to a little steam train tourist attraction a couple of years ago that went faster !!!
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