Last winter’s railroad-that-couldn’t managed to offer near-normal service following the heavy snowfall of January 22-23.

In the winter of 2003-2004, Metro-North, particularly its New Haven Line, saw huge service outages as fine powder snow infiltrated older engines and other parts and froze the trains’ workings.

Connecticut elected leaders and transit officials have worked hard to spare New Haven Line commuters from another service disaster. Though news reports have focused on the state’s purchase of rail cars from Virginia Railway Express, a Washington-area commuter railroad, these trains are not yet rolling in CT. Metro-North officials told the NY Times that they sheltered-snow vulnerable trains prior to the storm, and used their most durable rolling stock over the weekend. "We have made a vast change in how we operate," Dan Brucker of Metro-North told the paper. "We don’t strictly throw equipment out to do or die." 

MTR back issues:

Go to index of all Mobilizing the Region back issues.