Metro-North Railroad has encountered a difficult year in safety; one accident on the New Haven Line in Fairfield this May, and another this week on the Hudson Line Sunday.
Commuter trains are still statistically safer than highways, and also more fuel efficient: a rail car uses 2812 BTU per passenger mile, whereas a passenger vehicle will use 3538 BTU's (source: US Dept of Energy). Recently, I discovered the public Instagram account of Emily, who rides the Harlem Line, and takes great pictures along the way. (The Harlem Line is east of the Hudson Line [map], which recently experienced the accident). I asked some questions about her experience using Metro North, and here's what she said.
Metro North is the train line which runs from New Haven to New York City, and ridership is on the rise. In 2012, Metro-North passengers rose 0.8% to 83 million, its second-highest year ever, nearly matching the record of 83.6 million set in 2008 (source).
However a recent failure of a feeder line in Mt. Vernon has caused there to be limited service, unexpectedly. The feeder line failure makes it impossible to run trains from the high-voltage DC electricity lines overhead. Some diesel-engine trains were dispatched but were unable to entirely make up for the decrease of availability to service. To put things in perspective, MTA estimated that it lost 1,800,000 rides due to Hurricane Sandy. This time, the Metro North line is expected to have limited service for an estimated 3 weeks. These types of situations also clog the highways, which are already at capacity and experience rush-hour slowdowns in the morning and afternoons, particularly south of Bridgeport through Fairfield County. Having less train service will undoubtedly put more cars on the road, worsening the traffic problem, restraining access to New York City from Connecticut.
As you know, the {#NHV} hashtag on Twitter got its origins from Union Station. Transportation issues abound in the region, due to the Metro North crash which happened last Friday.
The safety record of the MTA Metro North line has been historically very sound (though it's difficult to find official safety records at the moment due to the flood of internet news traffic regarding the tragic (but minimal in comparison to the full scope of possibility), since Friday's derailment.
One local guy has solved those problems years ago, simply by only travelling as far as his bike will take him. Except his bike contains a bicycle shop, and he fixes bikes on the corner, on an irregular and sometimes unpredictable basis. Meaning that his official hours are at random but you can expect to see him most days during the week.
He is the Goatville Cyclesmith, and I hope he will release a series of bicycle mechanic training videos, to be aired on Nhv, at some point in the future. Presently he doesn't have much of a web presence.
Trains, be safe and handle your rails correctly. People fixing them, make sure they don't break anymore. Everyone, be careful especially when you drive a car. Cell phone world is not important compared to physically actually moving world. That's all the advice I can think of right now.
