MN ownership of NEC route from New Rochelle-New Haven

How did Metro-North get the track from New Haven west to Grand Central ? Instead of Amtrak getting the whole thing.

Can you define "get"? Do you mean operational rights? Ownership? Please clarify.

Nester

From what I've heard, when Conrail was forced to divest their passenger operations, they decided to get rid of the track they owned. NY and CT moved in and bought it up, Amtrak didn't. Hey, first come, first serve, highest price wins. Nothing out there says you gotta offer it to Amtrak first, even if it's the NEC. If they wanted the NH line so badly, they shoulda bought it...

In the very early 1970's when all of the movement started to have the
states take over the commuter service, the through service between New
York - Springfield and New York - Boston was only a shadow of what it
was under the New Haven Railroad. Penn Central had cut the service to
both Springfield and Boston to less than half of what it once was a few
years previously. In spite of all of the cuts east of New Haven, the service
between New Haven and New York was for the most part left intact except
for some late evening and night service which did come off.
The commuter operation was the key to the railroad and what kept it with
four tracks etc.
Amtrak today has made great progress with the through New York-Boston
service but the backbone of the railroad between New York and New
Haven is still the Metro-North commuter trains.
The biggest problem with Amtrak on here is the delays some of which
were justified and some of which were not. This is not new, it has been an
on-going problem for over thirty years.
One thing that is not helping either operation right now is the massive
number of construction projects that are taking place, they are necessary
but a pain to operations. I guess you could call them a necessary pain.
As much as I hated being stuck behind a local on an Amtrak train,
probably still the logical operator between New Rochelle and New Haven
is Metro-North.
Noel Weaver

One thing that is not helping either operation right now is the massive
number of construction projects that are taking place, they are necessary
but a pain to operations. I guess you could call them a necessary pain.
As much as I hated being stuck behind a local on an Amtrak train,
probably still the logical operator between New Rochelle and New Haven
is Metro-North.

Yeah I noticed that lately especially dring my ride downthere last week, so mane track personnel on the right of way, and one out of the four tracks at times would either be missing or out of service and some stations along the way would have those temporary bridge walks attached to the platforms, it's been like that for the past 19 years.

Seems like the Savin Hill Red Line Boston Station construction site x 100!!

Back to the original question:

Didn't MetroNorth or its predecessor "get" New Rochelle to New Haven before 4/76, when Amtrak got the rest of the NEC?

MTA did get the New Haven line and CDOT got the CT part at sale of Penn Central assets I believe.

There were a lot of PennCentral assets that never made it into MetroNorth, Amtrak, etc.

The trackage north of Wassaic, for example. And, the Berkshire line north of Danbury. Did CDOT purchase the line from Danbury to Brewster, or did MTA do that directly?

Non-PC

The NYNH&H trackage on the west side of the Poughkeepsie bridge.

The Erie line from Harriman to Greycourt to Middletown. It's sad to see Middletown descend deeper and deeper into the abyss. With some commuter rail, maybe there would be some hope for gentrification

Dover Plains to Wasaic was bought by MTA from Housatonic RR.
And State line to Brewstewr and Beacon were purchased from Housatonic RR who bought both from Conrail two years earlier.

Thanks, Dutch.

I knew they didn't go directly from the PennC to MTA

The New York MTA and ConnDOT jointly acquired title to Penn Central's former NH trackage between Woodlawn and New Haven on January 1, 1971. At the time, PC remained as the contract operator of the service. Amtrak was still five months away at that point, and Amtrak didn't get the rest of the Shore Line until after the 1976 creation of Conrail.