METRO NORTH POWER UPGRADES BEGIN TODAY
(NEW HAVEN, CT) – Governor Dannel Malloy today announced that ConnDOT, the Connecticut Department of Transportation, will undertake a $10 million project to upgrade the power supply for Metro-North Railroad's New Haven Line beginning on Monday, February 3. The project will prevent the type of catastrophic power failure that occurred this past fall which seriously disrupted service on the New Haven Line.
Governor Malloy also announced his plans to meet face-to-face on February 13 with the incoming President of Metro-North, Joe Giulietti and Thomas Prendergast, chairman and CEO of MTA, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Metro-North's parent agency, to discuss his concerns about the operation of the New Haven Line.
GOAL; SAFE, RELIABLE TRAIN TRAVEL
"The New Haven Line is the busiest single rail line in the country and, each day, takes more than 60,000 travelers off of our already congested highways," said Governor Malloy. "In anticipation of adding even more service on this state owned rail corridor, we want to ensure riders have as safe and reliable a commute as possible and prevent the major system interruptions that we experienced in September."
Metro-North operates the New Haven Line under a contract with ConnDOT and will manage the project in conjunction with Connecticut Light & Power (CL&P). CL&P has been contracted to do this critical work and will install new transformers to replace four aging transformers to ensure reliability and safe operation of the electric supply that powers New Haven Line trains.
Metro-North and CL&P have developed an accelerated schedule for replacement of two transformers. Replacement of the first transformer will begin today, February 3 and is expected to be completed within 16 days. Replacement of the second transformer will begin immediately thereafter and be finished by mid-March. Both CL&P and Metro-North have partnered to ensure a successful project for New Haven Line customers.
NEW HAVEN LINE: BUSIEST IN USA
Metro-North's New Haven Line is the busiest single rail line in the United States, provided a record-breaking 38.8 million customer trips in 2012, an increase of 4 percent in ridership from 2010. Last year, the New Haven Line carried a daily average of just over 106,000 riders.
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