Why Are the Trains Running Slower?

Rail commuters on Metro-North got a Spring Surprise recently:  a new timetable with slower running times.  Rush hour trains now leave earlier and arrive later than before, adding anywhere from one to ten minutes to published running times, depending on the length of the trip.

But hey!  What happened to that 30-30-30 plan for faster trains?  Why are the trains running slower, not faster?  In a word:  repairs.

There is so much track work to be done this summer there’s no way that Metro-North can maintain its old schedule. In fact, the on-time performance stats from last summer’s construction hit a record low, sometimes hitting just 82%.  Put another way… the new Spring timetable more accurately reflects the speed of service the railroad can actually deliver, not the service it would like to deliver.

So instead of trains running late, they’ll be on time and the schedule will be more reliable, if slower.

All of this timetable adjusting has been in the works since last fall, though the railroad clearly could have done a better job explaining the whys and hows of the changes.  Big projects like the Atlantic Street bridge replacement in Stamford and the Walk Bridge project in Norwalk are taking one, and in some cases, two tracks out of service.

Necessary “undercutting”, removing years of accumulated rock ballast under rail ties, can take out a track for weeks at a time.  And all four running tracks will eventually need that undercutting work.

That leaves the railroad trying to run a four-track service with a 25 – 50% reduction in resources.  And that, as their computer simulations have shown, means slower service. And all of this assumes nothing else goes wrong.

If there’s an unexpected broken rail, a signal problem or power issue, the railroad will jump on repairs immediately -  causing other delays on top of the planned work.  In other words, it’s going to be a long summer, folks.

And this is just the beginning.  One industry insider tells me these mega-repair projects will continue for about five years, meaning these slower running times will be the new normal.

And the farther east you live on the New Haven line, the greater the impact of the slower trains.  Take Bridgeport, for example.

The current best running time from Bridgeport to Grand Central is one hour and 22 minutes.  Under the new timetable it will be one hour and 29 minutes.  But in 1963 the old New Haven RR could make the run in one hour and 14 minutes.

Why?  Because the original New Haven RR was well maintained.  Today the railroad is 56 years older and not aging well.  The signal system is well past its life expectancy (and can handle speeds no faster than 70 mph).  The overhead power lines (catenary) still dates from the times of Woodrow Wilson in some areas.  And the tracks, as we know are prone to cracking and expansion in the summer heat.

Safety should always be the top priority.  Remember the Bridgeport derailment and Spuyten Duyvil crash?  So if your trains take a few more minutes to get you to work, be grateful:  at least you got there safely.  I’d always prefer to arrive alive, wouldn’t you?

Things will get better.  Maybe not 30-30-30, but better… eventually.

Posted with permission of Hearst CT Media

Letters to Getting There

 As I hope you can tell, I love writing this column.  As New York Times columnist Thom Friedman once said, a commentator should be both in the heating business and the lighting business… getting people fired up while providing factual support for his arguments.

Well, the “heat” runs both ways, as the comments I receive each week constantly remind me. For reasons best known to my bosses at Hearst, anonymous comments are allowed to be posted on the website version of my column.    Here are a few recent love notes from your fellow readers:

When I wrote recently about the power failures on Metro-North, cantchangestupid  wrote  “I sure hope a thorough investigation gets done on why those transformers failed. I see sabotage as the democratic conclusion.”  Gee.  And I thought I was cynical.

Or how about this gem from StaggerLee:  “Am I the only one who thinks Jim Cameron is a Useful Id-yot put out there to enable the spendthrift DemocRATs doing their best to drive the state's economy into the ground?”  You’re not alone StaggerLee.  Your colorfully named (yet anonymous) friends say that a lot, though it is not true.

On the recently approved “lock box” on the Special Transportation Fund, NotMyProblem opined:  “The current Gov already figured out how to get around the lockbox by simply diverting funds before they made it into the lockbox.”  That’s true, as I pointed out in a recent column.

On Twitter rpm4Liberty noted that Metro-North fares, though the highest of any commuter railroad in the US, don’t cover the operating costs but require a state subsidy.  He noted: “my truck starts every morning when I want it to, and I don’t need roads.”  Wow… a flying truck?

And Grizzly Beer Bear adds: “So is it wrong (to ask) the people who use this 18th century form of transportation to pay for it?  For that money you could BUY A CAR and not steal money from people who will NEVER use the rail service.”  Obviously Mr Bear enjoys driving in bumper to bumper traffic and wants to add to it by pricing rail riders off trains and back into their cars. 

For April Fools’ Day I tweeted a picture of a railroad dome car, soon to be added to Metro-North service, noting that the ride may not be fast but it sure would be scenic.  A few followers thought the news was true, but one guy who got the joke commented “When the train derails from lack of PTC you're already halfway outside!”

Much of the email I get is commuters just asking for help:  where to complain about late trains, how to report uncollected tickets on a crowded train or asking about the lack of station parking.  I’m always glad to direct people where to get answers.

Having been at this commuter advocacy mission for awhile, I occasionally even get a note of thanks.  Christian N recently emailed me that his commute never seems to improve, adding “I am losing all hope. But thanks for your advocacy.  You deserve to go to heaven.”

That final train ride, I answered, would probably be on a local train, running late, but oh so scenic.

Keep your letters and Tweets coming my way:  CommuterActionGroup@gmail.com and @CTRailcommuters.

Posted with permission of Hearst CT Media

Tolls Are In Trouble

Governor Lamont’s tolling plan is in trouble.  I knew it lwhen I got a call from Dan Malloy.

The former Governor and I know each other going back to his days as Mayor of Stamford, but he’s only called me once before (many years ago when he sought my endorsement in his run for a second term as Governor).

This time he was calling about my recent column about the Transportation Strategy Board, the panel that 18 years ago was tasked with prioritizing our state’s transportation needs and how to pay for them.

It wasn’t my fawning over then-TSB Chairman Oz Griebel that prompted Malloy’s recent call, but instead my characterization of the “lock box” on the Special Transportation Fund as having, to quote one wag, “more back doors than a hot-sheets motel on the Berlin Turnpike”.  The Wag’s words, not mine.

“That comment was not helpful, Jim” said Malloy.  “We’re just trying to get this tolls idea across the finish line and your comments aren’t helping.”

That’s when I knew that the tolls plan is in real trouble. (Why is he calling me, of all people?)  Not that there weren’t earlier warning signs that trouble was brewing.

The first was Governor Lamont’s somersaults on tolling from being in favor, then promising trucks-only tolling and finally settling (again) on tolling all vehicles.  Voters felt betrayed.

Then Lamont pulled millions in car sales taxes from the STF, potentially bankrupting the transportation fund by 2022.

Those moves gave grassroots No-Tolls groups new-found fertile soil, picketing and tapping into the media’s love of controversy by offering up great photo ops.

Sure, the Republicans helped fan the flames with their so-called “information sessions” in local communities, providing a forum to attack Lamont and tolls while resurrecting their “Prioritize Progress” bonding plan, asking our grandkids to pay for the roads and rails we use today.

Then there were the “no tolls votes” in local communities, non-binding of course, but a clear indication of local sentiment.  Even Stamford’s Board of Reps voted against tolls.  Polling by Sacred Heart University, though perhaps poorly worded, showed 59% of respondents were against tolling.

But wait.  Where are the pro-toll voices?

Well a coalition of Hartford lobbyists did try to organize an expensive campaign to support Lamont’s tolling vision, seeking money from construction companies and consultants who’d make a lot of money if tolls were approved.  But a reporter somehow got hold of their pitch book, detailing the campaign, and it now seems dead in the water.  Talk about “not helpful”.

Now, Governor Lamont is on a Magical Misery Tour, holding press events at every crumbling bridge, viaduct and train platform in the state.  Against those backdrops he pitches the need for billions in funding achievable only, he says, through tolling.

In the last couple of months Metro-North has had two major power meltdowns as circuit breakers, transformers and sub-stations have failed, slowing trains and disrupting service.  Commuters take such crises in stride knowing full well they’re riding in shiny new railcars on a century-old railroad crumbling beneath them.

But people upstate could care less.  It’s not their problem, so why should they pay tolls or support mass transit?

Cynicism abounds that toll revenues would really be spent on transportation and not get diverted.  Nobody trusts Hartford.

Tolls, my friends, are in trouble.

Posted with permission of Hearst CT Media

Commuter Parking? There's An App for That

How can you get people to commute by train if they can’t get to the train station?

Oh, those two-wheeled, buff millennials would have us believe we should all bike our way from home to the train.  But not all of us are that athletic or inclined to take our lives in our hands wheeling through traffic and bad weather. 

No, the real solution (at least for now) is car-parking.  But with a parking permit wait list of up to seven years in many communities, shouldn’t towns be thinking of building new expensive, decked parking lots?  Maybe.  But not until they’ve made sure they’re maximizing use of all existing parking opportunities.

That’s where Boxcar comes in.  Yes, when it comes to rail station parking, there’s an app for that.

Boxcar bills itself as an “Air B&B for parking”.  It matches would-be parkers with private landowners who have available parking spaces near train stations.

Launched in Cranford NJ in 2017, Boxcar is the brainchild of 34-year-old Joe Colangelo who grew up in that town.  Cranford’s a typical commuter town about an hour by train from NYC.  And like most such towns, it’s always had about a three-year waiting list for station parking permits.  After graduating from UC Berkeley and serving in the Navy in Afghanistan, Colangelo returned to Cranford and found, decades later, it still had a three-year waiting list.

But he also noticed a lot of empty parking spots at nearby churches and funeral homes.  Why couldn’t they be used by commuters, earning the landowners some money and the commuters new access to mass transit.  Thus, his app was born.

Boxcar’s app allows a user to see where available parking is, reserve it up to 14 days in advance and pay for it all online.  Spaces average about $6 a day with 75% of that  going to the landowner and 25% to Boxcar.  The closer the parking space is to the station, the higher the rate.

Boxcar’s first parking space was Joe’s own driveway.  Today the app is in use in 25 New Jersey towns and is making inroads in Connecticut.  They’ve been operating in New Canaan since 2018 and have just launched a pilot program in Darien.  After just two years in operation, Joe’s four-employee company is already profitable.

Colangelo says “there’s a high cost to free parking”, especially when towns (or the CDOT) are considering major capital investments in new parking structures.  Colangelo says in 10 or 20 years, parking lots will be empty and we’ll all be shuttling around in autonomous vehicles.  “Boxcar is a bridge to the future,” he says.

Boxcar is also finding applications in a different kind of “time sharing”… office space.  With so many people working from home or on the road, there’s no reason to go into NYC “to the office”.  But sometimes you do need a desk and a place to meet clients.  So Boxcar can find you both.

“The average commuter only makes 3.5 trips into the city each week,” says Colangelo.  But working with nearby co-working spaces and law offices, that virtual worker can easily snare a desk or meeting room for a few hours. 

With big cities like Stamford enjoying a 28% office vacancy rate, imagine the possibilities.

Posted with permission of Hearst CT Media.

The Transportation Strategy Board - Deja Vu

When are we finally going to do something about our transportation crisis?

That question has been asked for decades… but never answered, or more importantly, acted upon.

I remember back in 2001 when then-Speaker of the CT House Moira Lyons held a news conference about our state’s transportation mess.  The six-term Stamford Democrat, who was long on power by short in stature, stood next to a stack of consultant studies and reports almost as tall as she was.  Enough with the studies, she said.  Let’s fix it!

One of the best things to come out of that call to action was creation of the Transportation Strategy Board.  It had representatives from business, labor, commuters, academics and planners.  They had a one year deadline to come up with a 20 year plan for Connecticut’s transportation future and how to pay for it.  And they did.

Chairman of the TSB was Oz Griebel.  Yes, the same Oz Griebel who ran unsuccessfully for Governor last fall.

One of the TSB’s top recommendations was ordering new railcars for Metro-North, which finally happened under Governor Rell.  But they also recommended highly unpopular funding mechanisms:  a gasoline tax increase, sales tax surcharge and, yes, tolls.

What have we done since?  More studies making consultants rich but never persuading lawmakers to do something.  When our elected officials have no political will, they just suggest another study, board or commission.

Former Governor Dannel Malloy had ideas. His $100 billion, 30 year “Let’s Go CT” plan had something for everyone in every corner of the state.  It was ambitious, but it wasn’t really a plan, just a laundry list of projects without priorities or funding.

Politicians love to take credit for the ideas but never want their finger prints on the nasty business of paying for them.  That’s why Malloy created… you guessed it… a blue ribbon panel:  The Transportation Finance.  Among its members… Oz Griebel.

“It was like that movie ‘Groundhog Day’,” Griebel recently told me.  “It was the same people we saw at the TSB debating the same issues” ten years later.

And what did Malloy’s Transportation Finance Panel recommend to pay for his $100 billion “plan”?  A gasoline tax increase, a sales tax surcharge, fare hikes and, you guessed it, highway tolls.

Of course, none of those came to pass.  It was an election year and who wants to run for a job in Hartford explaining to constituents that they have to pay more, especially when the Republicans mischaracterized such funding as “taxes” instead of user fees.

Along the way then-Governor Malloy abolished the TSB, ‘lest it should suggest one project had priority over another.  He wanted it all, but got none, because he couldn’t sell the plan to pay for it.

But now we have the Special Transportation Fund Lockbox, right?  Any money that goes in can only be spent on transportation.  Or so we were told.  But as one sage observer of the transportation scene for decades recently told me, “The lockbox has more backdoors than a hot-sheets motel on the Berlin Turnpike”.  We’ll see.

Will the new legislature have the guts to finally raise the funding we need to fix our roads and rails?  Or will I be re-writing this column again in another decade, like “déjà vu all over again”?

Posted with permission of Hearst CT Media

Travel by Tube

Is Elon Musk a brilliant innovator, or is he just smoking dope?

Well, we know the answer to the second question as a viral video has shown him puffing (legal) weed on a talk show. The man is under a lot of stress, right?

There’s no doubt that Musk’s privately funded ventures in space travel and electric cars are prescient, maybe even profitable someday.  But his transportation vision for Hyperloop has yet to be proven viable.

Hyperloop is Musk’s 2013 vision of high-speed underground tube-travel in a near-vacuum using liner induction motors akin to maglev.  The concept has already gained “traction” with private companies like Virgin Hyperloop One and HyperloopTT, which are looking to commercialize Musk’s idea.

They’ve signed deals in South Korea, India, the United Arab Emirates, China, Indonesia and Ukraine.  In the US, Virgin is working with the states of Missouri and Colorado on projects, envisioning things like a 250 mile run from St Louis to Kansas City in 28 minutes (vs three and a half hours by car).  They say that development costs would be 40% less than those for high speed rail.

Even some in Connecticut are thinking about tube travel in the Northeast.  State Representative Tom O’Dea (R – New Canaan) has been in touch with Musk’s Boring Company (that’s its name, not an adjective) which says they are “literally on board with the idea of Hyperloop” between New York and Boston.

So far Musk’s only demonstration project has been a bumpy ride in a Tesla on a short 1.14 mile stretch of tunnel under Hawthorne CA it cost him $10 million to drill.  Reporters who tried the system in December seemed underwhelmed as speeds hit only 49 mph in a self-driving Tesla with special guide-wheels.  Musk told skeptics he could get speeds up to 150 mph over time.  But to me the whole thing looks sketchy.

First, you have to use a Tesla.  And that has to go underground on an elevator. Imagine the lines you’ll wait in for that.  Once underway, what happens if there’s a derailment or crash, or worse yet, a fire?  There are no escape hatches.   And this demonstration project hasn’t even touched on the issues of running in a sealed pod, in a vacuum using maglev technology.

At his Las Vegas test track, a scaled down model of a Hyperloop “pod” hit 230 mph, a far cry from rumored speeds of 700 mph.  Clearly, this technology is not the ride for you if you are claustrophobic.

In fact, Musk’s tube-travel idea isn’t all that new.

Back in 1904 Robert Goddard, the father of American rocketry, wrote a paper as a freshman at Worcester Polytechnic Institute describing a system almost identical to Musk’s.  He predicted a high speed “Vactrain”, suspended by magnetic levitation, hurtling through underground tunnels in a near vacuum.  Passengers would be strapped in for a speedy but exhilarating ride at about 1200 mph, hurtling you from New York to Boston in ten minutes.

As I’ve written before, pneumatic tube subways were running, at least on a trial basis, in New York City as early as 1870.  The city also used smaller vacuum tubes to deliver mail over a 27 mile network.

So put that bit of history in your pipe and smoke it, Elon!

Posted with permission of Hearst CT Media

How I Lost My Lead-Foot

I like to go fast.  Really fast.  Nothing makes me happier than hurtling along to Boston on Acela at 145 mph, brief as those sprints may be, or catching the jet-stream on a flight and hitting 600 mph.  And nothing frustrates me more, like you, than being in slow-moving, bumper-to-bumper traffic on I-95, that highway’s normative state.

But I’m also thrifty, some might even say “cheap”, especially when it comes to buying gasoline.  Which is why I recently traded in my powerful six-cylinder sedan for a very cool electric hybrid. 

While I used to get about 20 mpg in the sedan, the hybrid now gets me 40 – 45 mpg. That means I’m using half as much gasoline (and contributing half of what I used to pay in gas taxes to fund road repairs).  Those who drive all-electric cars, like Teslas, pay nothing toward Connecticut roads.

The hybrid achieves these impressive miles-per-gallon stats because it runs much of the time on electricity.  Its battery gets charged every time I hit the brakes, turning the engine into an electric generator.

But to get the best mileage I’ve also had to change the way I drive:  accelerating more slowly and relying on the visual feedback from the car’s dashboard display.  It’s a game the car has taught me to play:  keep the monitor display in the green, not the red. I’m hooked.

Oh, this car can accelerate quickly when I need to, by slipping out of “Eco” mode into “PWR”.  But I’m constantly challenging myself to maximize MPG by driving and braking efficiently.  I’m finally losing my “lead foot”, compromising my love of speed for saving money.

Whatever kind of car you drive, four, six or eight cylinders, you can save gasoline by avoid these mistakes:

• ·       Don’t accelerate too quickly, especially from a dead stop.  Pretend there’s a raw egg between your foot and the gas pedal and ease into it.
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• ·       While driving down the road, if you see the light ahead turn red, take your foot off the gas and coast to a stop.  It will also save wear and tear on your brakes.
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• ·       Keep your vehicle as light as possible.  No need to waste fuel hauling extra weight.
• ·       Keep your tires properly, but not over-, inflated.  Softer tires increase road friction. Over inflation causes more wear on your tires.
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• ·       Keep your gas tank cap tightly closed. If you get air in your gas tank your engine has to burn more fuel.
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• ·       Don’t idle unnecessarily.  Sitting still can burn one to two ounces of fuel a minute or about a gallon an hour that’s giving you zero MPG
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• ·       When you gas-up, do it in the morning when the station’s underground tanks are coldest and the fuel is the densest.
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• ·       Replace your engine’s air filter as often as recommended by the manufacturer.  A clogged air filter has to work harder to combust the fuel, cutting down on efficiency.
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• ·       Use your car’s air conditioner sparingly.  But for 60 mph highway driving, keeping your windows closed actually improves mileage by cutting down on drag.
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• ·       Use your car’s cruise control to avoid unnecessary braking and acceleration, the two enemies of good MPG.
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• ·       Just slow down.  Driving at 60 mph instead of 70 can save you two to four miles per gallon!

Posted with permission of Hearst CT Media