February 8th, 2011 
admin New Haven, CT, United States (AHN) – The Metropolitan Transportation Authority began service cuts to the New Haven Line on Monday, adding to passengers’ winter woes.
The agency has cut service by 10 percent to allow equipment and train cars, the majority of which are four decades old, to undergo repairs.
Extreme weather conditions proved too much for the nation’s biggest transport system this winter and riders suffered through delays, cancelations and overcrowding in unheated cars. As much as 40 percent of trains are out of service every day because of equipment problems.
The trains, many of which were supposed to be replaced by 300 new cars before winter, can’t be repaired on time because of obsolete shop facilities.
Metro-North President Howard Permut said in a message to riders that the “weather’s repeated pummeling of the region has had a devastating impact on our New Haven Line… The situation is dire.”
The aging fleet of cars serving the New Haven Line was designed in a way that made them vulnerable to snow, according to Permut.
“Further complicating our efforts is the fact that shop space is limited,” he added. “Our employees do not let this limitation stop them, working outside the shops, crawling under cars in the snow and extreme cold to repair components. The work is demanding, and progress is slow and hard won.”
The MTA plans to return service to normal by March 4.
The $866 million worth of new cars, called M8s, were originally supposed to begin running in 2009. The cars are undergoing testing, but the Connecticut Rail Commuter Council, a watchdog group, has pointed out that even if testing is completed, it will take at least three years for all of the 300 cars to begin operations.
Permut says the MTA hopes to begin using the cars in the first quarter of 2011.
“The arrival of the new M8 rail cars will improve this situation in the future,” he said. “You may be wondering when that might be… testing has been delayed by the snowstorms. While we are disappointed with the progress in getting these cars into revenue service, the process cannot be rushed.”
The council has invited the MTA to a meeting next week to investigate what it called a “service crisis.”
The MTA has implemented cost-cutting measures in the past year to close a $900 million budget gap, increasing fares and tolls, ending weekday service on more than a dozen bus routes, and laying off workers. The agency provides 2.6 billion trips every year to 14.6 million people from New York City through southeastern New York state and Connecticut.
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