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Discussion relating to the operations of MTA MetroNorth Railroad including west of Hudson operations and discussion of CtDOT sponsored rail operations such as Shore Line East and the Springfield to New Haven Hartford Line

Moderators: GirlOnTheTrain, nomis, FL9AC, Jeff Smith

 #1542840  by Jeff Smith
 
https://i95rock.com/danbury-traffic-upd ... struction/
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Danbury's Metro North branch will move from train service to bus service starting this Saturday morning (May 16.)

Metro North announced that the rail service from Danbury to South Norwalk will be replaced by bus service until further notice, to support track work and other infrastructure improvements. In addition, the 4:52 AM run will only run Monday through Friday. An updated schedule for the branch can be found here. There is no timeline for the completion of the project. As commuter traffic into New York City is obviously pretty light right now, this seems like a good time to do this project with minimal inconvenience to NYC and lower Fairfield County commuters.
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 #1542841  by Jeff Smith
 
More, with specifics:
MassTransitMag.com
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CTDOT and Metro-North Railroad are working together on a $15-$20 million capital improvement project, which will provide reliable infrastructure on the Danbury Line rail service. The capital work includes track improvements with the installation of 16,000 to 18,000 wood crossties between Wilton and Danbury, surfacing the track between Norwalk and Danbury, cleaning up and disposal of old crossties, repairs to three bridges and five grade crossings and removal of fiber cable from old metal and wood poles and disposal of the poles.
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 #1542844  by Jeff Smith
 
I was thinking the same thing... speaking of catenary, they don't mention Dock Yard, for which we have a separate topic, but I have to imagine this helps that along.
 #1545086  by apodino
 
Is the reconstruction of Merritt 7 station part of this? If not, what is the status of that project?
 #1545136  by Jeff Smith
 
Did a little tour of the line last weekend; I saw some MOW vehicles on the line at Redding station where they were "disembarking" the rails at the crossing just above the station. Looking at the tracks, it looks like a good amount of tie replacement was going on.
 #1549167  by Fishrrman
 
Some (not all) trains are back running on the branch again, but driving by the Bethel station -- even on weekdays -- next-to-no one seems to be riding again. At least not yet.

How is ridership during off-hours on the New Haven line?
 #1549213  by J.D. Lang
 
I took an Amtrak regional to NYP on July 20th out of NH. I got there at 9:30am for my 10:27am departure so I had time to see an SLE and a MN to GCT depart. I would say on both trains there weren't more than 5 or 6 people boarding each train and it looked like only a couple dozen at most on each train. Doesn't look good for ridership.
 #1549240  by CTG
 
Fishrrman wrote: Fri Jul 31, 2020 2:07 pm Some (not all) trains are back running on the branch again, but driving by the Bethel station -- even on weekdays -- next-to-no one seems to be riding again. At least not yet.

How is ridership during off-hours on the New Haven line?
I took a late morning local from Stamford to GCT last Thursday and then a mid-afternoon express back. There were people on board, but not crowded at all. At the maximum, each train had someone sitting in every other row. People seemed to socially distance on their own. I sat in one seat, there was someone two rows behind me and another couple two rows behind them. Someone sat in the seat across the aisle and one row back from me, and then people seemed to sit every other row, so there was almost a zig-zag pattern to how people were sitting. Everyone wearing masks, although you could see some people pull it down seemingly within milliseconds of getting off the train!
 #1549241  by GirlOnTheTrain
 
This doesn't break it down by line but overall, MNRR ridership is still down about 80%. It's updated every weekday.
https://new.mta.info/coronavirus/ridership