The Connecticut Department of Transportation (DOT) and MTA Metro-North Railroad (MNR) today announced the acceptance of the 100^th M-8 rail car for revenue service.  M-8 trains operate during peak and off-peak time periods, weekdays and weekends, between New Haven, Stamford and Grand Central Terminal.

      “We continue to deliver on our commitment to improve rail service on the New Haven Line with more and more M-8 rail cars being accepted and placed into regularly scheduled train service. Customers should now be seeing nearly a third of weekday trains and half of the weekend trains operating with the new M-8 cars,” said DOT Commissioner James P. Redeker.

      Kawasaki Rail Car Inc. delivers approximately 10 to 12 new M-8 rail cars for inspection and testing to New Haven each month. Currently an additional 8 M-8 rail cars in New Haven are being tested and qualified.

      “More and more M-8 rail cars are arriving, passing inspection and being placed into service each month.  By year’s end, more than half of all New Haven Line weekday trains will operate with the new M-8s.  More M-8s in service mean better reliability and increased customer comfort. That is what our riders have been asking for and I encourage passengers to take advantage of this new experience,” said Commissioner Redeker.

      As anticipated, the M-8s are highly reliable, averaging more than 130,000 miles between in-service failures.  In October alone, the M-8s traveled over 200,000 miles before an in-service failure occurred.  Rail cars being replaced with the M-8s also allow MNR to add cars to other trains, providing more seats for customers.

      The oldest cars in Connecticut’s electric rail car fleet, the M-2s built in the mid-1970s, will begin to be retired now that the 100^th M-8 rail has been placed in service.  DOT and MNR will continue to retire M2 rail cars as more M-8s are accepted for New Haven Line service.

      Customers can continue to monitor the progress on the delivery and deployment of the M-8 rail cars on the DOT or MTA websites at www.ct.gov/dot  or www.mta.info.

      With more than 38 million annual passenger trips, the New Haven Line is the busiest commuter rail line in the United States and is operated by MNR under contract to the DOT.