Jordi Gassó Photo
Commuters heading to the train station will soon have one less worry: long waiting times.
Starting Nov. 9, off-peak weekday and weekend trains on the Metro-North New Haven Line will run between New Haven and New York City every 30 minutes.
Flanked by local and state officials, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy (pictured above) made the announcement Wednesday at a press conference in Union Station, offering commuters a prize in the final weeks of a tough reelection campaign in which he has struggled to get in front of ongoing problems with Metro-North.
The Waterbury secondary line will also see major improvements, including additional rides, re-signalization of the line and a refurbished train station.
“When I ran for governor in 2006, I talked about Metro-North thinking about it more as a subway system than a traditional rail line,” Malloy said. “I’ve said the same thing to you all ever since then.”
Malloy labeled this development a “momentous occasion” for the Metro-North railroad, the fulfillment of a promise made in 2012 to provide half-hour service through the New Haven line. One of the main goals, he said, is to get more cars off the highways and more people onto trains.
State transportation chief James Redeker said the new schedule will add nine trains on Saturdays and eight on Sundays to allow for service at 30-minute intervals.
Adding trains to these Metro-North lines, he explained, will allow for increased ridership, bringing in revenues that would likely offset increments in cost.
“That’s not a pipe dream, folks,” Malloy said. “We’re seeing ridership go up.”
Last year, the New Haven Line served a record-breaking 39 million customers. With 275 trains running each week and 16,000 passengers a day — a figure that continues to increase — it is the busiest commuter rail line in the country.
The scheduling change is part of a broader $7 million effort to modernize the Connecticut railroad, in particular the Waterbury branch, which will be “no longer the stepchild” of the Metro-North lines, said Sen. Richard Blumenthal.
With an uptick in ridership, though, comes added pressure on security and parking infrastructures. New Haven Mayor Toni Harp said her administration is “making progress” on building a new Union Station garage in collaboration with the governor’s office. The state has promised for decades to build a second garage. (Read about that here.)
Neil O’Leary, mayor of Waterbury, told the Independent his city has also received a $14.4 million grant from the United States Department of Transportation to improve its transit system. The Waterbury line, neglected and underutilized for decades, will finally see the addition of three later trains, along with more security cameras and parking lots to its station.
This change will be a welcome improvement for Bobby Hamilton, a commuter from Avon, who travels on the Metro-North line for business.
“The Waterbury station, that was a disaster. Outdoors, no security — an end-of-the-line bench,” he told the Independent. “People would get a lot more use out of if it was friendlier to navigate.”
Harriet Cooper, from Woodbridge, was at the station witnessing Malloy’s announcement. At the end of the press conference, she publicly commended Malloy for the new schedule.
“This is a big plus for the city,” Cooper said. She often rides on the Metro-North railroad during off-peaks hours to visit her kids. On Wednesday, though, her train was half an hour late.