Who says you can’t fight city hall … or Metro-North?

Back in August I wrote in my blog about Metro-North’s latest proposals to gouge commuters.  Now I can report they have been soundly defeated, at least in Connecticut.

To close its $800 million budget deficit, the MTA (Metro-North’s parent), has in past months come forward with a series of fare hikes and service cuts, all of them soundly rejected by Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell.  Because, although that NY State agency has never heeded our governor’s requests for a voting seat on its board, Connecticut does have veto power over fare hikes in our state.

But this time the MTA was proposing something different — what I called a “stealth” fare hike.

The rail agency proposed cutting the discount on monthly “Mail & Ride” tickets as well as rail tickets bought on the Web. They also wanted to reduce the validity of ten-trip tickets from one year to 90 days.  And single trip tickets, now valid for six months, would expire in a week.

What were they thinking? Short of having conductors spit at passengers, these changes were almost like yelling “screw you” to their customers.

As the legislature’s appointed advocates of riders in our state, once again, the CT Rail Commuter Council had its work to do.  First, in publicizing the proposal through the media. Then, in demanding public hearings (though none were originally planned in Connecticut).  And finally, in rallying commuters to attend and speak out against these proposals.

For the record, I should note that the commuter council has, in the past, supported small fare hikes when they were tied to the cost of living and matched against improvements in service.  But these proposals were neither.

The New York MTA’s budget deficit is of its own creation, not Connecticut’s.  So New York taxpayers and commuters should pay, not us.  Connecticut has never been asked for input on the multi-billion dollar mega-projects undertaken by the MTA, like the $6 billion to build tunnels bringing the Long Island Railroad into Grand Central, so why stick us with the bill?

Isn’t reducing a discount equivalent to a fare increase?  You betcha!

And what possible reason could Metro-North offer for shortening the validity of ten-trip tickets?  Incredibly, they said it was to deal with the “problem of uncollected tickets.”

Amazing.  For about a decade the commuter council has been beating on Metro-North about conductors not doing their jobs, leaving tickets uncollected on crowded trains.  By its own calculations, Metro-North loses $2 million a year on uncollected tickets.  And their solution is to screw customers by selling them ten-trips but letting them only use two or three rides, then declare their ticket invalid?

And the icing on the cake, the final proposal from the MTA?  A $15 fee to cash in an unexpired ticket!

The commuter council was curious just how much money would be raised if these plans were approved, so we filed a formal written request for that data.  The answer: about a half-million dollars a year in Connecticut.  That’s nothing, a rounding error, bupkis!  An $800 million budget deficit, and all these proposed changes would bring in was $500,000?

Governor Rell heard our argument and agreed.  She quickly ordered the Connecticut DOT to reject the MTA / Metro-North proposal, a directive read aloud at the public hearings in Stamford and New Haven.

Connecticut commuters have won — for now.

Jim Cameron has been a Darien resident for 19 years.  He is chairmen of the CT Metro-North/Shore Line East Rail Commuter Council, and a member of the Coastal Corridor TIA and the Darien RTM.  You can reach him at Cameron06820@gmail.com or www.trainweb.org/ct.

One of the (few) joys of commuting by train is that, as Metro-North used to say in its marketing, “train time is your own time.”  You can read, nap or work on your laptop … unless the inconsiderate passengers around you are yapping on their cell phones.

Years ago, Amtrak began offering passengers an alternative:  “The Quiet Car” … a car which, as conductors remind passengers, offers a “library-like atmosphere” free of loud conversations, especially on cell phones. In some cases, getting cooperation from passengers can be a problem, but for the most part riders who want to conduct business by phone don’t have to be told where to go.

To its credit, NJ Transit has just begun a three-month experiment with its “Quiet Commute” on 29 daily express trains between Trenton and New York City. Two cars on each train, the first and last, will be offering a calmer, quieter ride.

VRE also has Quiet Cars with simple rules explained on its website.

Now I have nothing against cell phones.  I have one and use it often, but I always try not to intrude on other passengers’ karmic “space.”  Nobody is proposing that cell phone users be segregated in their own car, as we used to do with smokers. Instead, let’s segregate silence-seeking riders in a quiet car on all trains.

Some operators say they don’t want to get involved by making their conductors enforce social regulations. But they have no trouble reminding us to keep our feet off the seats or to put our bags in the overhead racks, so how hard would it be to enforce a little silence and civility?

In NJ Transit’s case, peer pressure will be the main means of enforcement. If that doesn’t work, conductors will discreetly hand the offending blabbermouth a small business card explaining the program.

Let’s face it. We’re all basically selfish. In our automobiles we can turn up the radio, smoke a cigar, belch and carry on as we wish. But when we have to share our transportation space with others, these behaviors aren’t appropriate. 

As newcomers start their “training,” they have to learn how to share their space. If they don’t … well, you can only push commuters so far. Commuter trains in the Northeast are so crowded there aren’t enough seats for all ticketed passengers. Then you make them all put up with some noisy blowhard who insists on yapping the entire trip in a voice loud enough to be heard several rows away?

One New York commuter tells me she witnessed the following example of “cell rage” on Metro-North: A passenger asked a cell caller to “keep it down.” He didn’t. He asked the conductor to instruct the passenger to be considerate. The conductor wouldn’t. So, this distraught vigilante grabbed the cell phone and threw it against a wall, smashing it to pieces. A quiet car would avoid such violence.

Amtrak says its “Quiet Cars” have been a marketing success, so much so they have trademarked the name. The service has attracted new passengers and brought much-needed revenue.

Metro-North, apparently feeling it owns the market of commuters, doesn’t try to compete by attracting passengers. It has more than it can handle. Numerous requests from our Commuter Council to experiment with quiet cars have been rejected out of hand.

Instead, the railroad has undertaken a PR campaign asking passengers to be considerate and keep their calls brief and in a low volume.

Admittedly, this has helped a bit. I often see passengers now get out of their seats and move to the vestibule for longer calls. Others cup their hands around the mouthpiece and speak in subdued tones. Blackberries and similar text messaging equipment have also reduced the drone. This is a good start.

Meantime, in the words of Rodney King, “Can’t we all just try to get along?”

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Jim Cameron is chairman of the Connecticut Metro-North Commuter Council but the opinions expressed here are only his own. You can reach him at cameron06820@gmail.com or  www.trainweb.org/ct   

There’s been a lot of media hype and political hoopla of late about the states receiving millions from the Feds for high-speed rail. While any money spent on rail is great, riders need a reality check.

That federal money (combined with millions from the state) is merely a small down payment on massive, multi-billion dollar projects to bring passenger rail service to long-neglected corridors and new ROWs.

In Connecticut, the first millions will be spent adding a second track on a 10-mile stretch of an existing Amtrak line between New Britain and Newington. That’s a good start, but the rest of the project is far from a sure thing. And it sure ain’t high-speed rail.

Media reports that we’ll soon have 110-mph rail service to our capital in Hartford are folly because they assume our cash-strapped state will continue funding the other 90+ percent of the project.

Sure, commuter rail service along the Interstate 91 corridor will be welcome. And it will undoubtedly have economic and development benefits. But will politicians please stop teasing us with images of bullet trains and a one-hour, one-seat ride from Hartford to New York (115 miles)?

In recent years, any number of would-be office-holders (federal and state), have called on me for briefings on how to fix our region’s transportation mess. I’ve gladly talked with them all, Republican and Democrat, and given them a frank assessment of our situation. But when they start asking Why can’t we build a Maglev down the middle of our interstates?I start wondering if they’ve been smoking more than cigars.

We can’t adequately fund our existing Metro-North commuter rail service, and our pols have questions about Disney-style monorails? Let’s look at the facts:

In 2003 Maryland looked at building a mag-lev system 39 miles from Baltimore to Washington and figured it would cost $4.9 billion to build and $53 million a year to operate.  You can buy a heckuva lot of conventional rail equipment for that kind of money on such a short-distance run.

Maglev may make sense running across the desert from LA to Vegas, but in dense, built-up corridors like the Northeast, it’s a fantasy. We’re stuck with the tracks we have with maybe a little straightening and, if we’re really lucky, electrification.

What passes for high-speed rail in the U.S. is a joke by international standards. I love riding Amtrak’s Acela, but its purported 150 mph speed is achieved only on a few miles of track in NJ and RI. In Connecticut, Acela maxes out at 90 mph, no faster than Metro-North. And the tilting mechanism on the train (designed to enhance speed) is disabled in CT due to lack of clearance.  Over its entire Washington to Boston run, Acela’s average speed is just 72 mph, slower than most cars.

Compare that with Japan’s Shinkansen which runs 185 mph, France’s TGV or the London Paris Eurostar which do 200 mph.  Now that’s high-speed rail!

Whatever is actually built in the way of higher speed passenger rail, I’ll be thrilled. But none of these projects will be cheap and I doubt they’ll happen in this economy.

All we riders want is some honesty from our pols and planners. Build us a reasonably fast passenger service, but don’t give us promises you can’t keep about bullet trains. OK?

Jim Cameron is chairman of the Connecticut Metro-North Commuter Council but the opinions expressed here are only his own. You can reach him at cameron06820@gmail.com or www.trainweb.org/ct.

As chairman of the Connecticut Metro-North Rail Commuter Council (a group appointed by the legislature and celebrating its 25th anniversary), I get almost daily e-mails from my fellow commuters riding from the Nutmeg State to Grand Central. With 115,000 daily trips, that’s a lot of eyes and ears expecting the best for some of the highest commuter fares in North America.

What’s are the biggest complaints? After a lack of seats on rush hour trains and the smelly bathrooms, tops on the list is uncollected tickets. Passengers on the train get really miffed when they’ve paid for their ticket, but they see others getting a free ride.

Here’s the typical scenario: you’re on a train from Grand Central heading home to Connecticut in the evening. The train stops at Stamford (or Greenwich or New Rochelle, N.Y.) to discharge passengers while other intermediate commuters come on board, filling the previously occupied seats.

As the train proceeds, the conductor walks through the train asking for “Stamford tickets!” and a few honest souls proffer their passes or tickets. Most people avoid eye contact or bury their heads in their papers. But because I have seen the new passengers who got on and where they sat, I realize the conductor didn’t collect all the newcomers’ fares. Why?

Because the conductor, working several cars on a 10-car train carrying almost a thousand passengers, isn’t sure whose ticket he collected leaving New York City and whose ticket needs to be collected having boarded at Stamford. That is, unless he issued seat checks.

Those stubby, colorful seat checks are punched by the conductor when tickets are collected, indicating the number of passengers in that row of seats and their final destination. At least they’re supposed to be punched. Sometimes, perhaps because a conductor is rushed or lazy, no seat checks are punched and then dozens of new passengers get a free ride. Free for them, but hardly free for the rest of us who’ve paid for our tickets. Metro-North tells the Commuter Council it knows this happens, but it’s willing to lose a few fares rather than over-staff a train.

Before the introduction of Metro-North’s ticket vending machines in 2002, most fares were collected onboard trains by conductors to the tune of $50 million a year, in cash. There was a huge “money room” at Grand Central that looked like something out of a casino. Now, the cash collections are minimal, thanks in part to an on-board “service charge” (penalty) of up to $5.50 for boarding without a ticket. (And that’s on top of the cost of the ticket … a mistake riders don’t make twice.)

Conductors on Metro-North make good money. And they do a very important job: opening doors, answering questions and directing passengers in an emergency. For the most part, they get high marks from commuters for their work. But being human, sometimes they cut corners, don’t do seat checks and lose the railroad a ton of money that we who do buy tickets end up paying.

Being the “face” of the railroad, conductors take their share of abuse. But with proper training, they should deal with the customers and do their jobs.

As I see it, people who get a “free ride” on Metro-North are the transit equivalent of shoplifters. If you saw someone stealing from a store, wouldn’t you say something?

So when I see a conductor miss a ticket, either because the conductor didn’t notice the new passenger or, more likely, the deadbeat passenger didn’t offer a ticket, I’ll say something to the conductor like, “I think you missed this gentleman’s ticket …” and then smile at the conductor and the chagrined thief.

The Commuter Council gives Metro-North detailed reports when we hear of uncollected fares … names, dates, times, train numbers. After one recent complaint, undercover inspectors were dispatched within days to ride the train and observe the conductors. When appropriate, disciplinary action is taken against the staffer. Or so we are told, though the complaints continue.

Connecticut and New York are now spending more than a billion dollars on new rail M8 cars. Metro-North has been going through several rounds of fare hikes and service cuts. All of that money comes from us, as taxpayers and commuters. If we’re paying our fare share, shouldn’t the railroad make sure others do as well?

Jim Cameron is chairman of the Connecticut Metro-North Commuter Council but the opinions expressed here are only his own. You can reach him at cameron06820@gmail.com or www.trainweb.org/ct