How bad has service got on
Metro-North? Ask Chris Golier, a
40-something family-man from Fairfield who rides the train daily from Southport
to Grand Central.
“Commuting is a soul sucking exercise,”
he says. What used to be a 60 minute
ride to and from NYC, now takes 75 minutes.
And though slower than in years past, his trains are rarely on time… not
the 88% on-time performance claimed by the
railroad, but more like 37%.”
How does he know? He kept a log.
“People take it for granted that the
train is going to be late. Most of us
just deal with it or take an earlier train.
But after riding Metro-North for ten years I knew trains were running
late, so I kept a record for three months. I used my iPhone to record the exact
time my train’s doors opened at Southport and when I got off in GCT.”
Golier’s log covers three months, from
July through September 2018. Though he
usually takes the same morning train (scheduled for 7:12 am from Southport), he
takes a variety of evening trains home, so his data reflects systemic
delays.
Even taking into account the railroad’s
grace period of 5 minutes and 59 seconds in determining if a train is on time,
only once in three months did the train meet the published timetable. Just
once.
“These are new cars. They should be quicker,” he says. “I know the MTA needs to do maintenance, but
I pay $391 a month and fares are rising faster than the inflation rate while
service keeps getting worse.”
Armed with real, tangible data… not just
the usual commuter complaints of “my
train is always late”… Golier sent his findings to area politicians. His local Selectman responded immediately and
asked to meet with him. But his town’s
two State Reps and State Senators didn’t even reply, aside from robo-emails
acknowledging receipt.
“I tried sending my spreadsheet to
Senator Blumenthal but his website wasn’t working. Senator Murphy gave me a boilerplate reply
that wasn’t worth my time reading,” he lamented.
Yes, the elections are over and one
wonders if the pols even care.
What he had hoped would get the officials’
attention wasn’t just the train data but its effect on the local tax base. “Real estate values are going down as
commuting time goes up, especially for bedroom communities farther east” (where
slower trains mean longer and longer trips).
He also sent his data to Metro-North
which responded with an explanation about needed maintenance. “It’s frustrating because neither MTA nor the
politicians have a long-term plan they can articulate which suggests the
problem will be solved in the coming years. Commuters are stuck and have no
recourse except to move,” which Grolier says he doesn’t want to do.
Who else should commuters turn to in
frustration? Golier admits the
conductors, being the face of the railroad, are caught in the middle. “We know they’re not driving the train, and
many of them apologize and admit the railroad isn’t delivering the kind of
service they should.”
Golier doesn’t know what his next step
will be… or when he will get an answer from the folks he sent to Hartford and
Washington to represent him.
But at least he did the right thing.
Posted with permission of Hearst CT
Media
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