Metro-North Railroad
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| Metro-North Railroad | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Reporting marks | MNCR (Revenue) MNCW (non-revenue) |
| Locale | New York (New York City, Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, and Westchester counties), Connecticut (Fairfield and New Haven counties), and New Jersey (Bergen and Passaic counties) |
| Dates of operation | 1983 – present |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm) (standard gauge) |
| Headquarters | New York, NY |
The Metro-North Railroad (officially the Metro-North Commuter Railroad Company, and usually abbreviated as Metro-North) is a suburban commuter rail service between New York City to its northern suburbs in New York and Connecticut. Trains terminate in New York State in Wassaic, Poughkeepsie, Port Jervis, and Spring Valley, and in Connecticut in New Canaan, Danbury, Waterbury, and New Haven. Metro-North also provides local service within the Bronx, and Manhattan.
Metro-North is operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which also operates the MTA New York City Transit buses, the New York City Subway and the Long Island Rail Road. The MTA has styled Metro-North as MTA Metro-North Railroad. The MTA announced in October 2002 that it plans to merge the MNCRR and the LIRR into a new entity, to be called MTA Rail Road[1], which requires approval by the New York State legislature that has failed of passage as of April, 2006. The proposal will be resubmitted to the state legislature in January 2007. [2]
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[edit] Lines
[edit] East of Hudson
There are four Metro-North lines on the east side of the Hudson River, three running into Grand Central Terminal - the Hudson Line, Harlem Line and New Haven Line. The fourth, the Beacon Line, is used for internal equipment moves between the Brewster shop & Danbury station. The Beacon Line does not provide passenger service. The New Haven Line has three branches providing connecting service - the New Canaan Branch, Danbury Branch and Waterbury Branch. Amtrak also operates intercity train service along the New Haven and Hudson Lines; on both lines, it splits onto its own trackage to Pennsylvania Station. At New Haven, Shore Line East connecting service, run by the State of Connecticut, continues east to New London.
The Hudson and Harlem Lines were originally part of the New York Central Railroad system, and the New Haven Line and its branches were owned by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.
There are plans to build a new Metro-North station on the Hudson Line to directly serve the new Yankee Stadium, which is scheduled to open in 2009.
[edit] West of Hudson
- See also: New Jersey Transit rail operations
Metro-North also operates trains west of the Hudson River from Hoboken Terminal in New Jersey, with service jointly operated by New Jersey Transit under contract (with connecting service to New York Penn Station at Secaucus Junction). Those trains go to Port Jervis (the Port Jervis Line) and Spring Valley, New York (the Pascack Valley Line). Trackage on the Port Jervis Line north of the Suffern Yard is leased from Norfolk Southern by the MTA. New Jersey Transit owns all of the Pascack Valley Line trackage in Rockland County. Most of the rolling stock consist of Comet V Metro-North cars, with some other NJT cars mixed in as needed. Both lines were once part of the Erie Railroad system. The fare structure, while set by the MTA, resembles the New Jersey Transit fare structure. New Jersey Transit provides much of the rolling stock and crews to operate West of Hudson service. At times, Metro-North equipment can be seen on other lines that are operated by New Jersey Transit on the Hoboken division as needed.
All West of Hudson stations in New York, except for Suffern, are owned and operated by Metro-North.
[edit] Technical details
Some services are operated by diesel, but all services running directly into Manhattan Grand Central Terminal are electric powered. Most of Metro-North's passenger diesel locomotives are General Electric GENESIS P32 diesel-electric hybrids capable of switching to a pure electric mode using contact shoes to contact the railroad's under-running third rail power distribution system. On the Hudson Line, trains are powered by electrified third rail from Grand Central Terminal to Croton-Harmon and are powered by diesel north of that station to Poughkeepsie. The Harlem Line has third rail from Southeast station and diesel north of that station to Wassaic. The New Haven Line is special in that electrical Multiple Unit (EMU) trains are powered through either 700 V DC from a third rail or 13.8 kV AC from an overhead catenary wire. Nominally 13.8 kV (per a MN Power Director), the voltage floats between 13.2 to 13.8 kv. The main line from approximately Woodlawn to Pelham (3 miles, or 4.8 km), is powered by third rail, while from Pelham, New York east to New Haven, Connecticut (58 miles, or 93 km)), as well as the entire New Canaan Branch, is powered by catenary. The Danbury Branch was formerly electrified but in 1961 became a diesel-only line. Plans are underway, however, to reelectrify the line[3] with a concurrent expansion to New Milford. Locomotives on the Waterbury Branch, the only east-of-Hudson Metro North service which has no direct service of any sort into Grand Central, are powered by diesel.
As of February 2007, some services are still operated by FL9 and F10 diesels built between 1946 and 1960.
The third rails on the three Metro-North lines (East-of-Hudson) which go into Grand Central Terminal are unusual in that power is collected from below the third rail as opposed to above, unlike most other third rail systems (including the Long Island Rail Road and New York City Subway). This allows the third rail to be completely insulated from above, thus decreasing the chances of a person being electrocuted by coming in contact with the rail. This was important, because until the early 1970s the majority of the suburban stations had low platforms where the third rail was easily accessible; this danger was greatly reduced with the introduction of the high-level platforming of Budd Company-made Metropolitans (M1A's) in 1971 and the Cosmopolitans (M2's) between 1972 and 1977, both purchased by the MTA and practically identical to their sister cars on the LIRR.
West of Hudson trains are usually handled by EMD GP40FH-2, F40PH-2CAT or Alstom PL42AC diesel locomotives, although any MN or New Jersey Transit diesel can show up and the MN diesels based out of Hoboken are banned from the Pascack Valley Line due to the installation of SES. Passenger cars are basically all Comet V coaches built by Alstom, but again anything can show up as the equipment is pooled with NJT.
Although Metro-North uses many official abbreviations (MNCR, MNR, MN, etc.) there are two official AAR reporting marks used on equipment. For non-revenue equipment, the mark registered and recognized on AEI scanner tags is 'MNCW', with revenue equipment is identified using 'MNCR'.
[edit] Fare policy
[edit] East of Hudson
Tickets for travel may be bought from a station agent, self-service ticketing machine, online, or on the train. There is a 5% discount for buying tickets online, while fares paid on the train are between $4.75 and $5.50 more than the standard fares (there are no exceptions to this rule, even though some stations do not serve ticket office nor vending machines, as per new MNR fare policy).
Local travel between stations located in The Bronx (and Marble Hill, technically part of Manhattan, although on the mainland due to re-routing of the Harlem River) costs $2.25 per trip regardless of time of day. Manhattan-only travel (between Grand Central and 125 Street) is $4.25-5.50. See also CityTicket.
[edit] West of Hudson
West of Hudson policies are different, as the fare structure there is set by New Jersey Transit. On the Pascack Valley and Port Jervis lines, the surcharge is $5 at stations with ticket vending machines and/or ticket offices.
[edit] Trivia
- The Metro-North mascot is Metro Man. A robotic cyborg in the shape of a train car, he educates children about railway safety.
- The railroad has been featured in several films, most notably in a scene in the film U.S. Marshals, when a character (Wesley Snipes) jumps from the roof of a multi-story building onto a train, in Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds, when a train that has just been attacked by aliens, speeds through a railroad crossing on fire and out of control and in The Ice Storm, with M-2 cars on the New Canaan branch marked as "Penn Central".
[edit] References
- ^ Metropolitan Transit Authority (2002-10-09). Metropolitan Transit Authority Announces Historic Restructuring (in English). Press release. Retrieved on 2007-01-06.
- ^ Sinco Kelleher, Jennifer. "Kalikow riding his dream to the end", New York Newsday, 2006-12-19, pp. 1. Retrieved on 2007-01-05. (in English)
- ^ Danbury Branch Electrification Feasibility Study (English). Retrieved on 2007-01-06.
[edit] External links
- MTA Metro-North Railroad (East of Hudson lines ONLY)
- Network map
- New Jersey Transit (West of Hudson lines ONLY)
- Connecticut Rail Commuter Council, "a consumer liaison between riders and the Connecticut Dept. of Transportation (CDOT), Metro-North, and Shore Line East railroads"
| Metro-North Railroad lines |
| New Haven - Harlem - Putnam - Hudson - Pascack Valley - Port Jervis New Canaan - Danbury - Waterbury |
| Metropolitan Transportation Authority (New York) | |
|---|---|
| Bus | NYC Transit • MaBSTOA • Long Island Bus • MTA Bus |
| Heavy rail | New York City Subway • Staten Island Railway |
| Commuter rail | Long Island Rail Road • Metro-North Railroad |
| Roads | MTA Bridges and Tunnels |
| Law enforcement | MTA Police |
| Fleet | New York City Subway • New York City Bus, MaBSTOA, and MTA Bus |
| Other | Fares • MetroCard • New York City Transit Authority • NYC Subway History |
