Around Town

Metro-North To Close Richmond Hill Road at Rail Crossing Oct. 3 to 8

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Metro-North Railroad is scheduled to replace a worn rail at the Richmond Hill Road crossing, and will close the busy street there Oct. 3 to 8 to get that work done. The road will close at 10 a.m. on the 3rd—a Friday, and will reopen at about 4 p.m. the following Wednesday, according to a bulletin posted by Metro-North. “All associated emergency personnel for the town of New Canaan will be notified,” Metro-North said. “The detour will be implemented via fixed message signs supplied by CTDOT and installed by the town of New Canaan.”

Train operations will run as usual on Oct.

News

Letter: Report on Metro-North a ‘Scathing Indictment’

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The report by the Federal Railroad Administration’s “Operation Deep Dive” safety review at Metro-North is a scathing indictment of years of neglect and mismanagement at the railroad. This brief report confirms our worst suspicions about Metro-North:

On-time performance was the top priority, not safety. Training for new hires has been inadequate. Management has not been enforcing safety rules about things as simple as “no cell phone use” on the job. Railroad workers are fatigued because too many are working lucrative over-time shifts because of unfilled staff positions (that also fatten their pensions).

Government

New Canaan to Petition State on Rte. 106 Railroad Overpass

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New Canaan will petition the state to put some warning tape around the Metro-North Railroad overpass on Route 106/Old Stamford Road so that it’s more visible to truckers who continually drive their too-tall vehicles into it. The town already has a system in place to warn those truckers about the overpass and its maximum height. As a truck approaches from either side, if it’s too tall it triggers flashers that say “Low Bridge Ahead.”

And New Canaan can also—on its own—paint “Low Bridge” in the street. Even with all New Canaan has done, “We still get trucks stuck in the bridge, so we said OK what else can we do,” said Tiger Mann, senior engineer for New Canaan and assistant director of the Department of Public Works. Any alteration to the bridge itself must be made by the Connecticut Department of Transportation.

Around Town

New Canaan Commuters: A Chance to ‘Speak Out’ on Train Woes

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By Michael Dinan

Here are two Tweets that serve as good examples of the pain New Canaan rail commuters felt this week:
“Took one hour to get from New Canaan to Talmadge Hill”
“a 2nd train has pulled alongside us and we are literally stepping from one train over to the other”
No one enjoyed the snow, ice and sleet storms that brought New Canaan and surrounding towns to a halt, closing school for two days, shuttering local businesses, Town Hall and even the stalwart library, widely recalled as a safe haven during 2012’s Hurricane Sandy. Yet for Metro-North Railroad commuters, the inconvenience and frustration may well have felt like more of the same. The rail service brought in a new president at the end of 2013, a year that saw derailments, a collision on the New Haven line up in Fairfield and even deaths. On Feb. 18, rail commuters will have an opportunity to bring their concerns directly to the Connecticut Department of Transportation.