Talking Transportation: Two Railroad Giants at War – And Riders Pay the Price

There’s a feud brewing between Metro-North and Amtrak and it’s getting nasty. Worse yet, this tiff is already hurting our train service in Connecticut.

Since 2021, construction has been underway to bring some Metro-North trains into New York’s Penn Station, rather than Grand Central. At New Rochelle, NY, trains headed to NYC will “hang a left” and go to the Hell Gate Bridge, just as Amtrak trains now do, with new station stops in the Bronx.

This is significant not only for getting Connecticut and Westchester commuters to Manhattan’s west side, but more importantly, to harvest labor of Bronx residents for jobs in Connecticut via a speedy, reverse-commuter train ride.

But now Amtrak is dragging its feet, slowing construction. Why? Because Amtrak is angry with Metro-North for not allowing high-speed tests of its new Acela NextGen train while running in Connecticut. And that’s because Metro-North says the new Acelas have been losing their pantographs on Metro-North’s overhead power lines. Not once, but five times.

Amtrak sued MTA (parent of Metro-North) to regain access to our tracks to test their flagship train and they lost. Now they’re appealing the ruling. Perhaps in revenge, Amtrak is slowing MTA contractors’ access to the new Bronx stations, pushing back their opening from 2027 to 2030. That means lost employment (and taxes) in Connecticut.

Meanwhile, Amtrak has also throttled the already diminished Shore Line East rail service as CDOT has decided to replace the electric M8 cars running there since 2022. Why? Because CDOT says that Amtrak (which owns those tracks and wires east of New Haven) is charging too much money to use its overhead catenary electrical lines to power those electric trains. So, forget about speed and clean-running trains, and it’s back to slower diesels. Still, CDOT claims this will save them $8.8 million.

On top of all this, CDOT’s next fare hike (5%) kicks in July 1 on all Connecticut commuter lines. Fares are going up because CDOT says its costs are increasing and the only alternative would be service cuts. That’s not altogether true.

The better alternative would have been for the legislature to adequately fund CDOT operations in the first place by giving them the $11 million needed this year to run trains at current fares and schedules. But lawmakers didn’t, so we really have those pols to thank for the fare hike. Remember that in November.

And forget about the highly-touted revival of trains on the Waterbury branch where ridership is up almost 150% in recent years. Commuters there are looking not only at that same fare hike but bus substitutes for ten months due to construction. But when the work is done, CDOT will open four station upgrades on the branch.

Gubernatorial candidate Josh Elliott is making train service an issue in his run for the Democratic nomination in the upcoming primary, saying that the Hartford Line and Shore Line East should have trains running every 30 minutes, just like on Metro-North’s main line. No response from Governor Lamont, who is still hoping we will forget his promise from 2019 of trains from New Haven to NYC arriving in one hour, not the one hour and 43 minutes they take, on average, today.

So stay tuned. We’re just four months from the November election, when, once again, our state’s failing transportation system could be a hot topic in the campaign.

About the Author: Jim Cameron is the founder of the Commuter Action Group and advocates for Connecticut rail riders. His column is published by several publications in the state.