New Canaan needs a two-car train that travels between the station downtown and Stamford Transportation Center every half-hour, the town’s highest elected officials said last week.
Pushing for more trains is the second-highest priority for New Canaan, after improving cell service, First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said during a press briefing held Thursday in his office at Town Hall.
“We have a big gap in the evening,” he said. “People who commute from New Canaan if you don’t make the [4:45 p.m.] or [4:50 p.m.] train, you have to wait an hour and 10 minutes. That’s not service. So my point is, I am going to focus on that. It is much harder to accomplish because we can’t control it. But I think it’s important that we tackle that.”
The comments came in response to a question about Moynihan’s priorities as first selectman as he and Selectman Nick Williams announced their intention to run for re-election to the Board of Selectmen.
Moynihan said he’s “beginning to think that we have to take a more proactive stance to simply work with Metro-North Railroad” on train service, and that he’s hopeful that work will be made easier now that former Metro-North Railroad President Joe Giulietti has been appointed commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Transportation.
“You still have four express trains in the morning and four at night, but we need half-hour service for New Canaan, and that means building a second rail,” Moynihan said. “There was a pull-off that they took out, down in Glenbrook or Springdale some place, that would allow—just like Princeton, N.J.—every half hour you can get to Stamford to connect to a train.”
Williams, Moynihan’s fellow Republican on the Board, said during the briefing that “it’s not just the frequency of trains—which is better than it was 20 years ago—but what’s worse is train times.”
“The time that you spend on the train is worse than it was 20 years ago, 40 years ago,” Williams said. “This is intolerable. And that is not just the New Canaan branch line, that’s the New Haven line. And by the way it impacts not just us but Darien and Greenwich and Westport and others.”
Williams said New Canaan might consider partnering with those towns in its effort to push for improved train times, to “come together and apply some pressure.”
While I agree it would be wonderful to have have half hour service on the New Canaan branch, it’s also a goal that seems completely unrealistic. I rode the trains for over 20 years and saw first hand the increase in travel time over the decades, not to mention the limited schedule as Kevin points out. The operation of the New Canaan branch already operates at a significantly larger deficit than most other parts of the Connecticut rail system serviced by Metro North.
To add half hour service would not only increase those deficits, but add millions of dollars of capital costs in building the second rail. I don’t see the half hour service as a means to add additional ridership that would cover the added operating costs of the increased number of trains.
As Kevin points out, control of the MTA and Metro North lies outside of Connecticut’s sphere of influence. Connecticut does not appoint a single Commissioner to the MTA and therefore has little, if any, influence on MTA operations and capital expenditures.
I worked at one of the MTA’s agencies for almost 33 years and have seen first hand that its controlled by both the Governor of New York and the appointed commissioners. Their focus is on the NYC subway system and Long Island Railroad. The State of Connecticut is treated no differently than New Jersey or any other State, it’s not part of the MTA’s primary plan of improving service and infrastructure.
Unless Connecticut pays for 100% of the increased capital and operating costs of a second rail and the added number of trains, this idea is nothing more than campaign rhetoric. Great idea, something everyone agrees would be great, but little chance of ever coming to fruition.
More frequent service would be great if it can be funded. I am a firm believer that accessibility will increase home values and make New Canaan a more desirable place to live. I ride the branch to NYC daily and quite frankly, it is awful. Since moving to town 5 years ago the trains have gotten slower. The times are not convenient – the gaps between evening departures are haphazard (4:45, 5:13, 5:26, 6:10, 7:01…) Why a 13 minute gap and then a 44 minute gap? Something needs to be done. Maybe this is a step in the right direction to at least get Metro North talking to us.
*Please advocate for the Passing siding at Springdale* I agree that more creative thinking is needed for train service to New Canaan. I applaud the out-of-box thinking here. An off-peak 2-car shuttle is not unlike the service provided in Princeton NJ at Princeton Junction.
There are however some key realities that need advocacy if this or any change is going to go into effect. In referencing the professional rail study
http://www.ct.gov/dot/lib/dot/documents/dpolicy/waterburynewcanaan/Innovative_Technologies_Report_V10_FINAL_web.pdf
The study had 2 Recs:
1. Full Branch Signalization (This is now complete including PTC)
2. 6-Car Passing Siding at Springdale potentially with a 2nd platform.
This siding was to start work according to the 2019 plan. This is a very short branch to have a siding according to many MTA individuals, Therefore it will require much lobbying to avoid perpetual delay here.
There is a Transportation Forum on Monday May 13th. I would like to see our officials advocating for this change if they believe this is the direction we need to take.