Letter: Metro-North’s 100-day action plan

By Gail Lavielle (R-143)

NORWALK, Conn. – This week, Metro-North’s new president Joseph Giulietti, delivering on a commitment he made in February, sent Connecticut DOT (Department of Transportation) Commissioner James Redeker the outline of a 100-day action plan to address the railroad’s operational and safety issues.

While the document’s timely delivery reflected an appropriate sense of urgency, the plan is still vague in many respects. As Mr. Giulietti himself wrote in his accompanying letter, it “does not include scope, schedule and budget.”

He noted, however, that completely fleshing out the plan would have to wait for the completion of three external reviews now in progress:

• An MTA blue ribbon panel on safety, comprising national railroad and transportation experts

• A Federal Railroad Administration “Deep Dive” review of safety, operations, and training areas

• Continuing investigations by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) of last year’s derailments

According to Mr. Giulietti, the first two of these reviews should be completed soon, while the full NTSB recommendations won’t be available until this fall.

The plan focuses on four areas:

• Promoting a culture of safety, ensuring that safety considerations factor into all decisions, actions, and initiatives

• Adopting concrete safety enhancements to both operations and work practices

• Restoring reliable, high quality service

• Improving communications to keep customers and employees informed about the railroad’s goals, operations, and policies

In the section of the plan that covers service reliability, Mr. Giulietti notes that Metro-North, together with the Connecticut DOT, has formed a technical working group to identify and address the cause of the signal malfunctions on the Danbury Line. Solving this problem is vital for commuters who use the Danbury Line and are experiencing significant delays every day. Many of you have told me that you can no longer plan your daily schedules with any accuracy. And even worse, many of you have also told me that the constant delays have put your jobs at risk.

The 100-day plan and Mr. Giulietti’s accompanying letter are attached below  (a single attachment).

I spoke recently with Mr. Giulietti when he and MTA President Tom Prendergast testified before the General Assembly’s Transportation Committee, and he appears committed to solving Metro-North’s grave problems. I wish him total, and rapid, success. I hope the entire General Assembly will encourage and support the railroad’s improvement. I also hope that, together with the MTA and the DOT, Mr. Giulietti will aim high enough. His letter mentions restoring Metro-North’s service to the levels of a year ago. But Metro-North must do better. While conditions have deteriorated substantially during the past year, the railroad was already being plagued by service disruptions, stranded-car incidents, and delays a year ago. Meanwhile, commuters have been paying steadily more for service that has become steadily worse. The railroad needs more than a fix: it needs a transformation.

I will be watching developments at Metro-North closely and will keep you informed about any updates to the action plan. Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns you have about this or any other issue.

Regards,

Gail Lavielle

Gail Lavielle represents Wilton and parts of Norwalk and Westport in the state House of Representatives. You can contact her at (800) 842-1423, (860) 240-8700 or Gail.Lavielle@cga.ct.gov.

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