April 28, 2014

GOV. MALLOY STATEMENT ON THE REVISED METRO-NORTH SCHEDULE FOR THE NEW HAVEN LINE

(HARTFORD, CT) - Governor Dannel P. Malloy today issued the following statement on Metro-North Railroad's and the railroad's parent company, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, approval of a revised commuter rail schedule for the New Haven Line in Connecticut. Metro-North's new schedule will take effect Sunday, May 11, 2014.

"While a step in the right direction, the new schedule falls short on delivering commitments to increase the frequency of trains and minimize travel time. It's been almost a full year since the derailment in Bridgeport and since then, New Haven Line customers have been enduring longer, less reliable train service.

"Metro-North has placed the appropriate priority on rebuilding and maintaining the New Haven Line to ensure safety as its number one goal, and in turn Connecticut has completed a major portion of upgrades to the overhead catenary power lines and railroad bridges, along with several power supply upgrade and redundancy projects.

"It is time to implement a schedule that takes advantage of the safety and infrastructure investments to deliver safe and reliable service that strives to achieve an on-time performance goal of at least 95 percent. This can be accomplished while sustaining safety as the over-arching priority. The schedule should deliver that service, even as it creates the necessary time slots or windows for all required maintenance. Safe, reliable, frequent and fast service are mutually achievable goals.

"While I appreciate the fact that Metro-North has to be sure this new schedule meets its objectives and wants to do that carefully, Metro-North has historically delivered high quality service to its customers, which is what they deserve. I have the commitments of MTA Chairman and CEO Tom Prendergast and Metro-North President Joe Giulietti that they will work directly with our Department of Transportation over the next few months to prepare schedule proposals that go beyond today's changes, with an eye toward even better service by the fall."

###

For Immediate Release: April 28, 2014

Facebook: Office of Governor Dannel P. Malloy