(Updated) A long-awaited shiny new $2 million, 105-seat Metro-North train pulled up to the Track 8 platform at New Haven’s Union Station at 10:30 Thursday morning.
You can’t ride the new train until mid-2010 at the earliest. Gov. M. Jodi Rell showed up on the platform, transit aide James P. Redeker in tow, to hop aboard for a first look at the car — and at the new age of commuter rail between New Haven and New York.
The train was the first of two to arrive in town — and the first of 300 modern trains the state is bringing here to replace old cars over the next five years. The state’s buying the M8 rail cars from Kawasaki Rail. It has to test each car for months before putting them on the tracks for good.
“What better present could we ask for for Christmas?” Rell declared as she viewed the ergonomic seats with added legroom and headroom, the plus-size bathroom (as big as a “Manhattan apartment,” quipped one observer), and the overhead light-display panel to announce station stops. Wheelchair-accessible alcoves have also been designed for two bicycle hooks to be placed in every other car, according to DOT Rail Administrator Gene Colonese.
What struck Rell most of all was the cleanliness — and that new-car smell.
“It is beautiful. It smells nice and fresh and new too,” Rell declared. “I hope that smell lingers for a little while when we actually get them tested and get them on the tracks.
“It’s like getting a new bicycle, getting a new car. You’ve had one for a long time. It’s still fun to get that new one out there.”
Rell spoke of the importance of modern, more user-friendly cars in promoting mass transit. “Our commuters have suffered a long, long time waiting for the new cars to come in. They’ve been riding … 30 year old cars for some time now. They’ve been very patient.”
“This is a happy day for commuters,” agreed Jim Cameron (pictured behind Rell), chairman of the CT Rail Commuter Council. “We have waited a long time.”
As he and the governor sat for a photo-op chat, Cameron pointed to the outlets that will be next to every seat, ready for cellphones or computers to plug into. You don’t find the outlets on current Metro-North trains.
Departing the train, on the way back to her fossil fuel-burning car ride out of New Haven, Rell stopped to press the flesh. She received a warm greeting from a 3 1/2‑year-old constituent who’ll help her prevent damage to the new trains: Mullen, a purebred German Shepherd who sniffs out explosives for the transit cops.