Bus Ridership Returns Slowly

Much has been written about Metro-North’s slow return to “normal” service as commuters ponder a return to their New York City offices.  But what matters as much, if not more, is bus ridership within the state.

Pre-COVID busy systems like GBT (Greater Bridgeport Transit) served as many as 15,000 bus riders in communities from Westport to Milford.  Recent statistics show 10,000 riders per day, about a 33% drop from pre-COVID.

“We reached 10,000+ boardings on some weekdays this past July.  I expect to see that gap partially close as the high schools, universities and colleges resume in-person learning,” says Doug Holcomb, Executive Director of GBT.

CT Transit ridership in Stamford, New Haven and Hartford has equally held up, recently down only 40% compared to Metro-North’s 60% drop.

Why the difference in returning ridership between trains and buses?  Because bus riders are much different than train riders.

Most can’t work from home:  nurses and blue-collar workers can’t telecommute.  And many don’t even have access to cars. (GBT says 90% of all passengers are going to or coming from school or their job.)  If the bus doesn’t keep running to get them to work, they can’t get to class or lose their jobs and go on unemployment. 

Bus riders are also less affluent. Even though bus fares are only $1.75 (closer to $1 for those with discount passes), that daily expense represents a bigger chunk of their weekly pay compared to “gold coast” residents taking the train.  While Metro-North riders enjoy a one-seat ride from their home station to Grand Central, many bus riders must take two or more connecting routes.

In other words, bus service in this state is essential.  It keeps service jobs staffed, our hospitals running and cars serviced.

But what will it take to get even more riders back on the bus?

First, they need to feel safe.  And here the bus companies are doing a much better job than the railroad both in cleaning and in enforcing recently extended federal and state mask-wearing rules.

“We have only had one reported incidence of refusal (to wear a mask) that resulted in a driver/rider confrontation. We focused on encouragement and outreach – signage, announcements, newsletters, social media, mask giveaways, persuasion. This seems to have worked as well as anything,” says GBT’s Holcomb. “If there’s a group of people who really know we’re in this together, it’s bus riders.”

To encourage their staff to get their vax, GBT held a lottery with prize money.  Vaccination rates went way up to 70%.  They’re also building service resiliency by keeping the staff healthy and are even hiring new drivers.

As crucial as bus service is, there is a lot of anti-bus prejudice in Connecticut.  I regularly see social media posts complaining about “empty buses” driving our roads, often posted by the same people opposed to highway tolls as being too burdensome for the working class.

When Southington was recently considering restoring bus service for the first time since 1969, a local resident wrote a letter to the local paper declaring “Towns that have bus service are towns that frankly have a lesser quality of people.”

Really?

Forget about community college students who need their U-Pass to bus to class every day.  Or the people who come and clean your home, if you’re so fortunate. Bus riders are what keep the state, literally, moving.

Kudos also to the bus companies’ drivers and technicians who, as Holcomb says “are courageous and dedicated people with a commitment to this community."

Amen.

Posted with permission of Hearst CT Media

The Raillway to the Moon

New England is home to many railroad “firsts”, but none is more impressive than the Mount Washington Cog Railway, the world’s first cog rail line.  And it’s still running, at a profit, 152 years late, using some of the original equipment.

Unlike most railroads, “The Cog” doesn’t pull its coaches along a relatively flat line with flanged wheels on two parallel tracks.  A cog railroad’s locomotive directly connects its gears to a center rack of iron teeth, pushing the train up the mountain very slowly, but surely.

On a normal railroad the train can handle a two percent grade (or climb) at best.  On the Mount Washington Cog the grade is as steep as 38% as the train ascends the 6,288-foot peak over three miles of steep track at about 3 mph.

A recent race up the mountain between humans on foot and The Cog saw the train win the climb to the summit by about ten seconds.

Originally proposed as a tourist attraction by Sylvester Marsh in 1858, the entrepreneur was almost laughed out of the New Hampshire legislature when seeking a charter, teasing him that he had as much chance of building a train line to the top of New England’s highest peak as building “a railway to the moon”.

But build it he did and it is still running to this date, now owned by the Presby family who once owned the nearby Mount Washington Hotel and Bretton Woods Resorts.  Since assuming sole ownership of this historic line, Presby has poured over $3 million of dollars into its preservation and enhancement.

While The Cog still operates two century-old steam locomotives, their unique design with slanting boilers (to handle the steep pitch) requires hand-made replacement parts.  These old puffers consume a ton of coal and a thousand gallons of water on every trip while generating a lot of smoke, known to locals as “Cog smog”.

Augmenting the two steam powered trips each day is a fleet of biodiesels that do the journey on 18 gallons of cleaner-burning fuel.  Each locomotive pushes one passenger car carrying 70 passengers.  Like the locos, the passenger cars are all hand-crafted on the property and are adorned with beautiful wood inlays. The newest cars also have a reassuring automatic air brake system.

During the COVID shutdown in 2020 the railway accelerated a rehab process, replacing the rails and racks on the line and building a state-of-the-art repair shop.  The five-year project was finished in eight months.

Since its opening over 150 years ago The Cog has always attracted crowds.  Pre-COVID ridership topped 120,000 annually and with an expanded all-year schedule they hope to surpass those numbers this year.

Unlike some railroads we know, The Cog runs on time thanks to superb maintenance and a dedicated staff of 100.  They’re even hiring new engineers and mechanics, some of them coming from an apprenticeship program with a nearby community college.

Summer and fall are the busy seasons, but a wintertime climb half-way up the peak sounds spectacular, given extreme weather conditions atop the peak where the winter wind chill gets to 50 below.

Tickets aren’t cheap, but well worth it for the experience.  Some of the fall steam trips are already booked up. If you’re any kind of railfan, The Cog is a must for your bucket list.

Road & Rail Scofflaws

What do  Metro-North and the Merritt Parkway have in common, I mean, aside from often crawling at a snail’s pace?  Well, both seem to be hotbeds of unenforced safety rules.

Anybody who has driven the Parkway knows that its 1930’s design cannot accommodate trucks, but they are there all the time.  Tom Lombardo, a fellow Board member on the Merritt Parkway Conservancy, recently conducted an unscientific survey to quantify the problem.

In a single hour one weekday morning he logged 212 trucks, buses and commercial vehicles traveling in both directions on the highway. That’s more than three per minute.  Now compare that number with the fact that State Police issued only 581 tickets to trucks on the Parkway in all of 2020 and you get a sense of how unenforced this rule is.

Mind you, trucks on the Merritt Parkway are only facing a $90 fine, if caught, which they aren’t… often, until they strike a bridge.  The King Street Bridge in Greenwich was struck 24 times in one year.

State Police are understaffed and spread too thin.  Enforcing the “no trucks” rule isn’t high on their priorities list.

But on Metro-North, rules enforcement should not be the problem it has become, given the staffing of conductors on all trains.  Yet, in the midst of the resurgent COVID pandemic, the railroad is not enforcing a simple rule designed to keep conductors and passengers safe:  wear a face mask.

They’re still wasting money and manpower disinfecting car interiors, wiping down surfaces and spraying the seats.  Never mind that the CDC has been telling us for months there’s only a one in 10,000 chance of getting COVID by surface contact.

Oh, the railroad does a great PR job explaining how to wear a mask, but they don’t enforce what is now a Federal TSA regulation:  wear a face mask or face a fine.

A recent Freedom of Information request of the MTA Police by CTExaminer showed that since last September they have not issued a single ticket to mask rule violators in Connecticut.  Not even one!

Yet I see social media complaints every day, often with pictures, of people on trains riding maskless and not being challenged, let alone ticketed, by Metro-North staff.  In some cases passengers say even the conductors aren’t fully masked.

These reports are duly logged by MTA’s social media watchers, complete with date, time and location information and “reported to supervisors”… and then, like with so many complaints to the railroad, nothing changes.

Are these conductors disciplined? Retrained? Does anyone do anything to stop this potentially life-threatening non-enforcement of a Federal public health rule?  Apparently not, given the growing number of reports we see.

The MTA has seen 136 of their own employees die of COVID since the pandemic began.  They’ve even built them a memorial.  And sure, they’ve passed out thousands of masks to subway, bus and train riders.  But what good are free masks if the rules to wear them aren’t enforced?

The TSA and FAA have issued tens of thousands of dollars in fines in 1300 cases of non-mask wearing on airplanes.  But on Metro-North not a single ticket?  Not one.

If trucks aren’t ticketed on the Merritt Parkway and maskless riders aren’t penalized on the train, people notice the laws aren’t being enforced, and scofflaws rule the roads and rails.

The Amazon Logistics Marvel

These days “Getting There” doesn’t just mean moving yourself from point A to B, but the logistics of moving stuff from dozens of locations to your doorstep.  And nobody does that better than Amazon.

Want a new pair of jeans? Click once and they’re delivered the next day.  Need a new printer?  Maybe a couple of days because they’re still scarce, thanks to the home-office explosion.  Your favorite ointment out of stock at CVS?  Save yourself a trip, click here and apply twice daily.

In his 2013 book “The Everything Store” (yes, available on Amazon), business writer Brad Stone chronicle the early days of Jeff Bezos’ dream.  But in the intervening years the Amazon phenomenon has grown far beyond anything that even Stone could have envisioned.

And now that Bezos has stepped down as CEO it’s worth a moment to admire what his team has built.

At the heart of the operation is a logistics network that is a marvel of technology.  So just how does a package go from your click to your doorstep?  Keep in mind that half of all Amazon orders are for third-party sellers just racking their goods on Amazon’s e-shelves.

Most Amazon orders are handled at one of the company’s 110 US “Fulfillment Centers”, massive 800,000 to one million square foot warehouses filled with robotics.  So far there are two such centers in Connecticut, Windsor and North Haven, with more in the works.

Merchandise arrives by the pallet and gets offloaded, scanned and stored by some of the 1500 full time employees at each site.  Other, slightly smaller centers house the really big stuff… furniture, lawn mowers and such.

As sales soared during the pandemic, Amazon went on a hiring binge, bringing an additional quarter million staffers onboard, many of them enticed by $1000 signing bonuses.  Worldwide the company has 1.3 million employees.

Much has been reported on the working conditions in Amazon facilities… the long hours, intense pressure for performance, etc.  While we should keep this in mind when we shop at Amazon, there seems no shortage of folks willing to take these jobs, averaging about $40,000 a year in Connecticut, plus benefits.

These are the folks who, with the help of Kiva robotics, pick your order, pack it up and SLAM it… scan, label, apply and manifest.  Then it rides miles of conveyor belts and is sorted by destination zip code.

It used to be that Amazon relied on FedEx, UPS and the postal service (for the last mile) to deliver your order, supplemented by freelancers earning $20 an hour to make deliveries using their own cars and vans.

But lately Connecticut has seen Amazon roll out its own fleet of dark grey Prime vans to handle many deliveries, with plans to convert to an all-electric delivery fleet by 2040.  The current vans are noticeable by their back-up warning sounding like a quacking duck rather than the usual beep-beep.

Supporting this US network are 20,000 tractor trailer trucks and Amazon’s own cargo airline, Prime Air.  That plane fleet has doubled in size this year to 85 leased jets and Amazon even is building its own $1.5 billion airport hub in Kentucky.

So next time you click to shop, think of the amazing logistics network that helps your package in “Getting There”.

 

Posted with permission of Hearst CT Media

 

Is It "Time for CT"?

In 1955 a New Haven Railroad commuter train could run non-stop for the 36-mile distance from Stamford to Grand Central in 48 minutes.  Today that Stamford to NYC run takes 59 minutes at best, despite Governor Lamont’s long-promised dream of a 30 minute trip time. 

But now there’s a new effort to speed up the New Haven line: CDOT’s ambitious “Time for CT” $8-10 billion plan.   It promises 10-minute faster running times from New Haven to NY by next year and a 25-minute quicker run by 2035.

While some dream of a new high speed rail system running from Washington to Boston at 200+ mph speeds, CDOT and Metro-North are taking, in my view, a much more realistic approach to fixing our existing system. “Higher” speeds will be fine.

Reading the consultant-driven 138-page plan, years in the making, one gets a sobering picture of how badly our railroad has deteriorated.

For safety reasons, “slow orders” all along the line have cut speeds to 37 mph, both for commuter trains and Amtrak. 

As one trouble spot gets fixed, another pops up as Metro-North plays whack-a-mole with decaying infrastructure. Layer on top of this permanent slow orders implemented by the FRA in 2013 and you can understand commuters’ frustrations.

There are 57,000 track-ties that must be replaced.  Of the 134 bridges between New Haven and the NY state line, 34 are rated as poor or in serious conditions.  The open deck timber bridges are in most need of attention. 

And of the five movable bridges, only one has been replaced while the others are each more than a century old.  The South Norwalk swing bridge project alone will cost about one billion dollars.

The catenary (overhead power) system is in better shape, but some of its trackside support structures are also in the century-plus club.  There’s a lot of work to be done.  And trying to do it while still running the railroad will be like changing the fan belt on a car running 60 mph.

At the Stratford event unveiling the CDOT plan, the construction unions photo-bombed the press conference unveiling a huge banner reading “Jobs Jobs Jobs”.  And every speaker pandered to them promising “45,000 good paying union jobs” on this project.

But it’s not like CDOT or Metro-North will be hiring 45,000 new plumbers, electricians and carpenters.  That number is a hypothetical projection based on the cost and time involved in the work.

The Metro-North unions  have jurisdiction over all track work and you can’t join that union until you get hired by the railroad.  Then you need training which can only be done on the job.  And you need track equipment, some of which on the New Haven line is 30 years old.

Hopefully we’ll have enough money to make all this happen thanks to Senator Blumenthal and the Congressional compromise on infrastructure achieved recently.  But then we still need leadership.

CDOT has been suffering a brain drain in recent years, losing its best and brightest planners and engineers to retirement, those fat state pensions or lucrative consultant jobs.  With so much Federal money being thrown at transportation, Connecticut will be in serious competition for a limited pool of expertise.

There’s so much to be done. But it’s all achievable given enough money and patience.

 

Posted with permission of Hearst CT Media

New Commuter Alternatives

Not with a bang, but a whimper.  That’s how commuters seem to be moving, albeit in small numbers, back to working in-person in their NYC offices.

Leaving the comfort of your home office and Zoom-nasium won’t be easy, as many of us have found ways to be so much more productive without wasting hours commuting.  But when the boss says “jump” you got to ask yourself (and her), “how high?” when you really want to say “but why?”

I hear anecdotes of some employers being persuaded (or forced?) to offer work-from-home alternatives two or three days a week just to keep their key staffers.  And  given the demand for talent, such options may become a deciding factor in where to hold a job.

Many of those who’ve been persuaded (or ordered) back to the office have so far opted for driving to New York City, perhaps because their expensive parking was being subsidized by their employers to entice them back.  But their traffic-and- stress-free drives of months ago have morphed into post-COVID mayhem as I-95 and the scenic Merritt Parkway are back to gridlock.

So, is it time to reconsider the train or are there new alternatives on the horizon?

Much as Metro-North keeps saying it wants commuters to come back, they’re not doing enough to make their service attractive.  Oh, their trains safe enough if you keep masked-up (as required by the TSA).  But with ridership crawling back from 9% (a pandemic low) to more recent weekday loads of 39%, given the reduced service the trains are getting crowded again.  Really crowded.

Every day someone Tweets a picture of a standing-room-only Metro-North train, pleading with the railroad to add more cars if not also increasing the number and speed of trains (currently offering only 53% of pre-COVID service).

Granted, they just added four more daily trains between New Haven and GCT in rush hour.  And I’ll give them thumbs up for adding a new feature to their TrainTime app to show which cars are the least crowded.

But Metro-North is about as nimble as a rock.  They have a surplus of new M8 cars and plenty of OT-hungry conductors and engineers, so why not expand service more quickly?  Why do anything more to discourage people from riding the rails again?

Why?  Because they have no competition… yet.

Sensing a business opportunity, entrepreneur Joe Colangelo (the guy who invented Boxcar, the “Air B&B of commuter parking”), is considering giving Metro-North a run for its money, especially along “the gold coast” of Fairfield County.

Colangelo envisions a luxury motor coach offering a one-seat ride from New Canaan, Darien and Greenwich to midtown and Wall Street.  His cushy fleet would have Wi-Fi (still a non-starter on Metro-North), at-seat power plugs and onboard bathrooms.  So even though you may be stuck in traffic you can still be productive.

Right now he’s conducting a survey to gauge commuter interest and to collect data on destinations and travel times.  But I’d predict he gives his idea a chance over the summer to have it ready for post-Labor Day carmageddon.

Tickets would be bought on their app even use benefit programs like Wageworks and TransitChek.  From New Canaan to GCT would be 65 minutes, then on to Hudson Yards and the Financial District (90 min).

While Metro-North is studying and planning, hemming and hawing, this entrepreneur may launch a new alternative in just a matter of weeks.  And good for him, even if he’ll be skimming the 1% cream off the top of the railroad’s heavily subsidized operation.

Commuters deserve alternatives.

Posted with permission of Hearst CT Media.

Summer Road Trips

The summer travel season is starting with a vengeance.  After a year of quarantining, we’re all anxious to get back on the road again.  But where to go?  And what can you expect when you get there?  A recent mid-week mini-vacation to the Berkshires taught our family some important lessons.

WHERE TO GO?    Like many vacationers we opted for a road trip instead of flying.  There are great destinations within two or three-hours drive.  But in deciding where to go, remember you’re not just going to see the sights or visit friends.  You’re relying on local services and the folks who live there and run them.

MASKS OR NO MASKS?:          With vaccination levels well over 50% here in Connecticut and mask rules relaxed, especially for those vaccinated, you’ll want to see how your destination compares.  Do you really want to go someplace where vaccination rates or low or mask compliance is arbitrary?

WHAT’S OPEN?               In many parts of the country restaurants and hotels are still shuttered, so put your spontaneous wanderlust on hold and do your research.  Don’t just rely on apps or websites.  Call ahead and be sure they’re open.

CAR RENTALS:     If you are flying or enjoying Amtrak to travel and need a car at your destination you don’t want to be disappointed.  Many car rental companies downsized dramatically during the pandemic, selling off their fleets.  Now, because of the chip shortage hitting auto makers, they can’t get the new cars they now need.  Reservations will be a must and car rental availability may even  end up determining where to go.

If you can reserve a car, prepare for sticker shock as rates have soared, on average double the old rates. 

GASOLINE:            Unless you’re driving an all-electric car, the availability and price of gasoline may also factor into your plans.  In the Northeast availability was unaffected by the recent Colonial Pipeline shutdown, so the supply is there.  But rising demand will see the highest prices in seven years.  AAA suggests filling your tank before arriving at busy resort destinations where prices will be the highest.

STAFFING SHORTAGES:          The biggest surprise on our recent trip was the number of establishments offering reducing hours because they can’t find staff.  Restaurants, coffee shops, hotels, museums and art galleries were all operating on reduced hours while their windows were plastered with help wanted signs.

Several owners lamented to me that they desperately needed servers, kitchen help and sales staff but nobody was applying.   “I need four people right now,” said one restauranteur, “But nobody wants to work.  They’re all making $600 a week on unemployment!”

This is becoming a serious issue, not just in hospitality but in transportation.

DRIVER SHORTAGE:       Supply chain issues have left some store shelves empty because the trucking industry says they have a driver shortage.  In some areas of the country that’s also affecting gasoline deliveries.

In New York City the MTA needs 400 bus drivers, meaning reduced frequency and longer waits at bus stations just as they’re urging riders to come back to mass transit.  Some school districts are also having trouble filling bus driver jobs as are tourist destinations that run jitneys.

But don’t let all of this frighten you.  We all deserve and can enjoy our summer travels if we just do a little planning ahead.

 

Posted with permission of Hearst CT Media.

CDOT Fare Hearings

 Our state government certainly moves in mysterious ways.

The Connecticut legislature seems unable to even discuss the crucial replenishing of the Special Transportation Fund to keep mass transit rolling… but they found hours to debate the merits of declaring pizza the “official state food”.  Really?

Kudos to the nine lawmakers who voted “no”, not because they don’t like pizza but because they saw this issue as a waste of time.

Also in the “waste of time” category were the recent series of virtual public hearings (May 18, 19, 20 & 25) by the Connecticut Department of Transportation.  The topic… service reductions on Metro-North and CT Transit that have already been implemented.

Twelve mind-numbing hours of Zoom hearings were planned, accompanied by hundreds of pages of legally mandated reports and analysis.  I can’t even imagine the hours of work that went into their preparation, and for what?

There are no fare increases planned and no further cuts in service beyond what was ordered months ago.  So why are they having public hearings on a moot issue?  In fact, if Metro-North gets its dreams fulfilled and ridership returns, schedules will have to be adjusted again, potentially triggering more hearings.

If the decisions have been made, why ask the public their opinion after the fact?  Does anybody really think that anything that gets said at these hearings will evoke a change of plans by CDOT or Metro-North? 

There has been one silver lining to the pandemic:  it’s got state government using virtual platforms like Zoom to better engage with the public. It used to be that you’d waste a day driving to the Capitol in Hartford, sitting through hours of others’ testimony and finally get your three minutes to speak.  Now you can attend the political theater of meaningless hearings without leaving the comfort of your own home.

To their credit some legislative committees held 24 hour-long hearings on such important issues as mandatory student vaccinations and forced re-zoning, allowing hundreds of voices to be heard.  But again, let’s not be naïve enough to assume that anyone’s testimony changed votes.

Sure, attending, watching or (if you were lucky enough) testifying on these matters may have been cathartic, but they didn’t change a darn thing.  Lawmakers were only going through the motions, just like CDOT will do in this case.

But here’s an idea: attend these virtual hearings and register to speak.  Not about these already-decided matters about fares and schedules, but about anything you’d like to say related to commuting.

Use your three minutes to ask why Metro-North is still running its trains slower than it did a decade ago.  Query the Commissioner of DOT about what happened to Governor Lamont’s illusory plan known as “30-30-30”.  Ask why Metro-North conductors aren’t enforcing Federal rules on mask wearing to keep passengers safe.  Or how long the railroad can keep operating with 20% ridership and who’s going to pay the bills.

There are so many questions that could be asked.  Don’t expect answers.  These are public hearings, not a dialogue with decision makers.  Officials will be in listen-only mode, probably chanting some secret mantra to fend off the verbal barbs and anger of those testifying.

These hearings won’t change anything, but they may make for fun viewing and a chance to vent your frustration.

Posted with permission of Hearst CT Media

Do You Feel Safe Riding Metro-North?

Is it safe to get back on the train to New York?  Casey (not her real name) thought so when, a couple of weekends back, she wanted to see some millennial friends in Manhattan for brunch.  But boarding the Saturday morning train she immediately started to worry and texted me.

The train was jammed, she said.  Very few empty seats.  No way to “socially distance” and many people were not wearing face masks.

Looking around, she saw large groups of NY Yankees and NY Rangers fans.  Sure enough, both teams had home games that afternoon. The fans were tailgating their way to the fun, already drinking (heavily and openly) by 11 am. 

Metro-North claims it’s doing everything it can to attract riders back, but this was just the opposite.  The railroad knew there were two major sport events that day, so why not schedule extra trains, giving people room to spread out? 

The conductors didn’t call out the non-mask wearers, didn’t ask them to cover their faces and didn’t offer them free masks.  They allowed them to break the law without so much as a warning.

Forget the latest guidance from the CDC:  masks are still required on all trains and planes by order of the TSA.

Sure, vaccination levels in Connecticut are rising.  To date 50% of the state has received full dosing.  But something told Casey these tipsy fans weren’t wearing masks because they’d had their shots, but because they just didn’t care.

Casey filed an online complaint with the MTA Police, hoping they would meet the incoming train at 125^th Street and enforce the law.  No response.  A complaint on the Metro-North website generated a boilerplate response but no follow-thru.  And a Tweet, detailing her discomfort brought a tepid reply apologizing for “any unpleasantness” during her journey.

Unpleasant, for sure, but also potentially lethal.  The mask rules are there for public safety.  That’s a Federal rule with fines  of $250 to $1500. Those not wearing masks should have been kicked off the train.

Since the pandemic began, weekday ridership on Metro-North has been crawling back to about 25% of pre-COVID numbers, but on weekends almost half of the old ridership is back onboard.  The trains are getting crowded and more service is needed now.

While weekday commuters tell me mask compliance is almost 100%, it’s the weekend warriors, partying and carousing, that are not following the rules.  And the railroad seems to not care.  They run PSAs but don’t enforce the law. Are they that desperate for customers?

Last fall the railroad unveiled a new virus-zapping UV light air filter system to much acclaim, but it’s only operational on a handful of train cars. Why?

Their TrainTime app added functionality to advise passengers waiting for trains which cars were the least crowded.  It’s working on the LIRR and NY sections of Metro-North, but not in Connecticut. Why?

Every night the railroad sprays disinfectant in the interior of all railcars even though research shows that there’s only a one in 10,000 chance of getting the virus by contacting an infected surface.  It’s airborne transmission that presents the real danger.  And that’s why masks will be with us for a while longer in enclosed public spaces.

NYC Mayor de Blasio wants to re-open NYC on July 1^st.  But riders are not coming back to Metro-North… some because they don’t have to (as they prefer to work from home), but many others because the railroad is still making them feel unsafe.

 

Posted with permission of Hearst CT Media.

It's Time to Invest in Rail Freight

How would you like a plan to remove thousands of trucks from Connecticut highways, clean up the air and create new jobs?

Who wouldn’t?  It’s a win-win-win plan that you’d expect Governor Lamont to embrace, especially in this time of TCI (the Transportation Climate Initiative).

The solution?  Invest in our state’s freight railroads.

Yes, there are still freight trains in Connecticut, just not very many. But there could be more.

In its earlier days as a profitable, private railroad the New Haven ran hundreds of freight trains each day.  But today the railroad is too crowded with (relatively faster) passenger trains and the bridges and catenary lines are too low for modern double-stack container trains.

But in other parts of Connecticut, freight still travels by rail on more than 500 miles of track, most of it owned by the state Department of Transportation and leased to eight different private operators.

In western Connecticut we have the Housatonic, Pam Am Southern, Connecticut Southern, the Naugatuck and Providence and Worcester Railroads, to name but a few.

These short line railroads already carry 3.8 million tons of freight annually in our state, keeping 350,000 truck loads off our roads and reducing greenhouse emissions by 75%.  Diesel trains can carry up to 500 ton-miles per gallon.  Trucks manage about 130.

These freight railroads carry everything from chlorine-based disinfectants for water treatment, food for our tables, huge electrical transformers and bulk commodities.  Their customers include such Connecticut businesses as Becton Dickinson, Kimberly Clark, Home Depot.

There are even plans to turn an abandoned factory site in Naugatuck into an inland port, receiving freight trains of goods to be offloaded onto trucks for local delivery.

Consider the mighty 19-mile-long Naugatuck RR.  Founded in 1845, the line once ran from Winsted to Bridgeport, offering both passenger trains and freight service.  These days the line is much shorter, but they still hand-off long loads of boxcars filled with construction debris bound for landfills in Ohio.

While marginally profitable, these freight railroads need help to continue, let alone expand, their service to the state’s businesses if they are to meet federal expectations of a 30% increase in rail freight traffic by 2040.

As their ‘landlord’, the State needs to invest in their infrastructure by rebuilding bridges to carry heavier loads, lay new track, replace worn ties and improve grade crossings.

Eight years ago the state bonded $10 million to fund such repairs and the railroads chipped in their own money, too.  They had to, with $80 million of needed work, most of which has gone unfinished.

Early in 2020 the legislature approved an additional $10 million in investments, but the Bond Commission has yet to approve the funding and issue the bonds.

When the Bond Commission met mid-April they found $467 million in total funding for dozens of projects but the $10 million for freight rail wasn’t even on the agenda.

The inestimable Ken Dixon asked the Governor if his old “debt diet” was over and the Governor said no, that the new bonding was an “investment” in everything from housing to economic development, thanks to interest rates being so low (1.8%).

Ten million dollars in state bonding is chump change. At their next meeting the Bond Commission and the Governor should get on with the job of investing in Connecticut’s rail freight.

Posted with permission of Hearst CT Media

 

Biden's Infrastructure Plan

Hurrah!  It’s finally “infrastructure week” in Washington. 

In his first 100 days as President, Joe Biden has delivered a plan that his predecessor just kept teasing us with for four years:  a complete rehabilitation and expansion of the nation’s infrastructure.

Of course, Biden’s “American Jobs Act” goes way beyond just rebuilding roads, bridges and rails.  It also covers our water supply, electrical grid, internet, sea and airports, our housing stock and our very jobs.

It’s too much and way too expensive ($2+ trillion) for conservatives but hardly enough for progressives.  That sounds great to me. With plenty for everyone to hate there’s lots of negotiating room on all sides in the months ahead.

Biden is right to think big.  After decades of underinvestment in the ‘bones’ of our economy, it’s time to do more than catch up but to leapfrog ahead.  Remember it was Republican presidents who built the interstate highway system (Eisenhower) and the Panama Canal (Teddy Roosevelt) using public money.  Why did they have a long-range vision but today’s Republicans are so myopic?

Because this time it’s the corporations who’ll be asked to pay up by raising corporate taxes from 21% to 28%.  That’s still less than the 35% tax rate in effect before Trump’s 2017 tax cuts.  Remember them?… the corporate welfare program that was supposed to create jobs but ended up just making business fat-cats plumper thanks to corporate stock buybacks.

Why not ask business to pay its fair share?  How could 55 of the nation’s top businesses pay zero taxes last year despite billions in profits?

Who benefits from a better infrastructure more than business?  Better roads, safer bridges, dependable electricity, smooth running airports, clean water and a well trained workforce are the things that will make business thrive.

Right now, when it comes to infrastructure, we’re living in a third world country. 

If China can build the largest high speed rail system in the world in just 15 years, why do we make Amtrak to barely limp along on table scraps just to fund its operating costs?

If Germany can build a green energy network providing almost half of the nation’s electric needs, why does Texas go dark in a winter cold spell… or Connecticut when high winds take out our utilities’ fragile networks?

Anyone who drives on potholed I-95 or endures a teeth-chattering ride on Metro-North knows we can do better.  Do we need a bullet train to Ronkonkoma?  Maybe not.  But fixing our existing transportation network would be an easy start.

And that’s what the Biden team is counting on:  public pressure for a “Big Fix” to persuade Republican lawmakers to fund the “shovel ready” if not also the “shovel worthy”.

Shepherding this mammoth package of legislation through Congress won’t be easy.  Speaker Pelosi herself thinks it won’t emerge from the House until July and then the Senate negotiations begin.

Oh, there will be plenty of horse-trading and the final package will little resemble what’s been initially proposed, burdened down by special interest as lobbyists earn their keep in DC.

What do you think are the most important projects to prioritize?  Join the discussion on CTInsiders Facebook page or follow the #GettingThereCT hashtag on Twitter to add your thoughts and I’ll share them in my next column.

Posted with permission of Hearst CT Media.

A Conversation with the Commissioner

Joe Giulietti loves to talk, especially about trains.  As Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Transportation when he calls me and say “Jim… let’s have a chat”, I’m all ears.  In a recent exclusive one-on-one, here’s what he said:

WILL RAIL COMMUTER COME BACK?

The Commissioner says yes, but maybe not until the fall.  “Am I optimistic?  I have to be. The disappointing fact right now is we (still) only have 10% of (pre-COVID) ridership.  The trains we have now can meet (that) demand.  If ridership increases we can add more. ”

ARE THE TRAINS SAFE?

“We have one of the safest (rail) systems out there.  The air is exchanged in the cars almost every five minutes. There’s a constant flow of fresh air.”  While Metro-North did experiment with virus-killing UV light treatments in the cars’ HVAC it turns out that an ionization process is more effective at scrubbing virus from the air.

MASK COMPLIANCE

Initially voluntary, then with a small fine for offenders, mask-wearing is now required by Federal rules.  “Compliance is between 95 and 97%.  Enforcement is done by the MTA Police, strategically placed to respond (to non-wearers).”

INCREASING TRAINS SPEED

Trains are still running slow under FRA rules following the Fairfield and Spuyten Duyvil derailments in 2013.  But now that Positive Train control is installed, CDOT is working with the FRA to get their speed restrictions lifted.

“People are asking for higher speeds.  We also have a Governor constantly reminding us he wants faster speeds,” says the Commissioner.  But, he added “you know I never bought into 30-30-30.  It’s just a vision and a goal.”

MODIFYING TIMETABLES

Commuters complain that trains make too many stops, further slowing up the ride.  So CDOT is studying ‘zoned service’.  A train might run from Grand Central to Stamford then skip-stop to Bridgeport.  The train behind it could make the intermediate stops.

“With ridership down we can step back and look at our schedules.  Modeling (by computer) has got a lot better. Of course every town wants express service from their station,” he said with a chuckle.  Best bet is the fastest service will be to and from the busiest stations, perhaps as early as the fall.

Commuting hours have also changed, so also look for added service earlier in the AM.

WHAT ABOUT FARES?

“I don’t know that we’ll have a monthly ticket anymore… based on the utilization. Maybe we’ll come up with a 30-trip ticket.”

There’s no plan to resume peak fares at rush hour but the railroad and CDOT have to find revenue to cover their huge operating deficits beyond Uncle Sam’s one-time bailout. “A lot of people don’t buy into the subsidization.  We’re trying to find a balance to keep trains running and meet the social justice (obligation of service).”

MORE M8 CARS

As the final new M8 cars get delivered, the railroad has more than enough cars for needed service.  CDOT may even have enough M8s to share a pair with MBTA in Boston for their testing, allowing for group orders of future cars. Testing of the M8s on Shore Line East is progressing (after six years) .

TRANSIT ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT

The legislature is debating looser, state-wide zoning regulations, especially near train stations.  But what happens to those developments ideas if ridership doesn’t come back?

“I do believe (ridership) is coming back. If it doesn’t we won’t just be talking about T.O.D. but the future of business itself.”

 

Posted with permission of Hearst CT Media

How To Save Metro-North

How are we going to get riders back on the trains and save Metro-North from ballooning deficits, potential service cuts or fare hikes?  That’s the question I crowd-sourced on social media last week and found dozens of great answers!

Most respondents said they won’t be commuting as much as before because they will continue working from home. It’s not that they are shunning the rails out of fear,  just that commuting won’t be necessary. “Most of us have figured out how to work without riding a train every day”, one rider opined.

A few cynics said mass transit is dead.  “Rip out the rails. Pave it over. Deploy autonomous minivans,” said one. 

But for the believers they still want reassurance that, even post-vaccinations, safety will continue:  “Better ventilation. More cleaning. Cars look like they’re being ‘wiped down’ using rags from a dumpster.  Clean the bathrooms!”

A few sang the praises of the new M8 railcars: “So much better.  Never a hot or cold car. No doors out of service. Cars ride smooth.”  But a former Shore Line East rider said the seats on their old hand-me-down railcars were causing him back aches so he’s now driving.

But the biggest areas for needed improvement for Metro-North seemed to be speed, frequency and lower cost.

The vast majority of respondents said the trains are “too slow”, that “it shouldn’t take 90 minutes to go 40 miles”  As one veteran rider put it, “My 50 min ride when I started commuting in 2004 is now an hour and 10 plus.”  Many noted it’s now faster and cheaper to drive than take the train.

The railroad is still operating under FRA speed restrictions since the 2013 Fairfield derailment.  But the other reason the run to NYC is so slow is the schedule.  “There’s way too many stops on the New Haven Line”… “go back to zoned service”… and “speed, speed, speed”, they observed.

This is actually an idea CDOT is pursuing… having more express trains skipping stations, so let’s see if they can make it happen.

Commuters said that schedules need to offer “better connections” to buses and the ferry.  Some suggested “through-running service to NJ and Long Island” offering a one-seat ride to JFK and Newark airports.  Several wanted bike rentals at all stations.

More frequent service was a big issue.  “Rapid transit trains every 15 minutes.” And “more off-peak service”.  Surprisingly, nobody complained about rush-hour trains.

One person suggested “reserved seating”, others dreamt of “no standees”.  And there were many complaints about the fares and availability of station parking.

“Between station parking and monthly pass it’s $400 a month, almost the same as driving.”  “Lower fares” and “more flexibility on tickets.  A monthly is too much and a ten-trip too little.  Maybe a 30 trip?”

Others suggested group fares and lower fares off-peak to spread out the riders.  One even wished for “buy one get one weekend fares”.

Other desired amenities included “Wi-Fi” and, yes, “bar cars!”.

To save money on labor, several proposed pre-paid tickets with inspectors and fines.  “No other developed countries’ railroads have conductors manually check tickets.”  Others suggested cross-honoring tickets on still-empty Amtrak trains.

Thanks to everybody for chiming in with your ideas, all of which I’ll be sharing verbatim with MNRR and CDOT. Let’s hope they include past-riders’ ideas in their future plans.

Posted with permission of Hearst CT Media