Month: November 2016

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Board today approved an order for at least 60, and up to a total of 94 additional new M8 rail cars that provide train service on Metro-North Railroad’s New Haven Line. The cars, the first of which are expected to enter service in three years, will allow the railroad to lengthen rush hour trains, retire its last 36 older M2 cars, increase safety, and have flexibility to increase train service in the years ahead to meet ridership increases. The cars will supplement the 405 M8 cars already in use on the New Haven Line and New Canaan Branch.

 

The order approved today consists of a base order of 60 cars and an option for an additional 34 cars. The base order is expected to include the retrofit of 10 existing M8 cars into café cars.

 

The M8 cars have improved customer satisfaction levels and have achieved very high mechanical reliability, far in excess of expectations. Additionally, the new M8 are designed to be enabled with Positive Train Control from the time they enter service. Through September, the cars are averaging 460,277 miles between mechanical breakdowns, the best rate for New Haven Line cars in decades and 53% above the railroad’s goal for the cars.

 

“The approval of these additional railcars will improve service for commuters throughout the region on the nation’s busiest commuter rail line,” said Governor Dannel P. Malloy. “For decades, we as a state and nation have failed to make investments in transportation a top priority – and we have witnessed the results with failing roadways and aging public transportation systems. But today we are taking a new approach. Through actions like today’s, we are showing the public that investments in infrastructure must be made to continue the level of service the public, and our economy, have come to depend on. If we want to remain competitive, giving our residents and businesses the best chance to prosper, we must continue to make desperately needed investments across our entire transportation infrastructure.”

 

The M8 cars are the most technologically sophisticated in Metro-North’s fleet. They have third rail shoes that can receive 700- to 750-volt direct current to power the trains between Pelham and Grand Central Terminal, and the capability to run under two types of alternating current from overhead wire, known as catenary. The New Haven Line and its New Canaan Branch use 60 cycle, 12.5 kilovolt power. The cars can also operate at the higher, 60 cycle, 25 kilovolt power, which is used on the Shore Line East route east of New Haven.

 

“We appreciate this vote of confidence in our rail investment strategy,” said Connecticut Transportation Commissioner James P. Redeker. “Connecticut commuters can look forward to the extremely high reliability of these cars and increased service on the New Haven Line. I want to thank the MTA Board for this prompt action on our request.”

 

Three hundred eighty of the current cars are in permanently coupled pairs; each pair’s “A” car has 110 seats and each “B” car has 101 seats plus a handicapped-accessible, airline-style vacuum toilet and space for wheelchair seating or bicycles to be stored on wall-mounted hooks.

 

Each row of seats is outfitted with electrical outlets, grab bars, coat hooks and overhead luggage racks. The color scheme is a vibrant red, the historical color of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, a predecessor to Metro-North. Outside, customers see prominent electronic destination signs and hear public address announcements from external speakers. Single leaf doors provide high reliability and less susceptibility to snow intrusion.

 

The existing M8 cars, like the rest of Metro-North’s fleet, are being upgraded to enable them to operate with enhanced Positive Train Control, a safety system designed to reduce the risk of human error contributing to derailments or collisions caused when a train travels too fast into a curve, onto tracks already occupied by another train, or through a misaligned switch. The existing cars are also being retrofitted to include security cameras in engineers’ cabs and in the customer areas of the trains. The new M8 cars will not need to be retrofitted, they will come enabled with cameras and Positive Train Control equipment when they are delivered to the railroad.

 

The M8 coach cars for use on the New Haven Line are funded 65% by the State of Connecticut and 35% by the MTA Capital Program. M8 café cars are funded entirely by the State of Connecticut.

 

Work to build the M8 cars was initiated in August 2006, when the MTA and Connecticut placed an initial base order for 300 cars with Kawasaki Rail Car, Inc. The first eight M8 cars entered service on March 1, 2011.

 

Since the initial order for the cars, New Haven Line ridership growth has been at or above the high end of expectations, and the railroad has responded with significant service increases every year since 2012. The M8 car fleet size has grown to meet increasing ridership and service levels. The initial contract contained two options for additional cars. The first contract, for 42 cars, and the second, for 38, were both exercised early in 2011. Then in July of that year, the MTA and Connecticut Department of Transportation agreed to amend their contract with Kawasaki to order an additional 25 M8 cars configured not as permanently coupled pairs, but as unpowered single cars, bringing the railroad to today’s total of 405 cars. Today’s announcement reflects a second amendment to the contract, and will bring the total number of M8 cars in existence to 465, or up to 499 if the option is exercised.

 

The M8 cars are manufactured in Lincoln, Nebraska; final testing takes place in New York and Connecticut.

(MTA Press Release)

This news report is made possible by:

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and U.S. Representatives John Larson (CT-1), Joe Courtney (CT-2), Rosa DeLauro (CT-3), Jim Himes (CT-4), and Elizabeth Esty (CT-5) on Wednesday applauded over $600,000 in federal Long Island Sound Futures Fund grants to eleven community conservation projects throughout Connecticut. The projects will focus on coastal habitat restoration and improving water quality in the Long Island Sound and waterways that feed into the Sound. The federal funds are from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

 

“Our state relies on a healthy Long Island Sound. Whether it’s training student conservation workers, creating fish passages at dams, or restoring coastal habitats for wildlife, community organizations across the state are doing incredible work to protect our coastline. These federal funds will go a long way to leverage increased investment in their projects. Congratulations to all the organizations that received Long Island Sound Futures Fund grants,” said the delegation.

 

Further details on the grant awardees are below:

 

• Bridgeport: Coastal Stewardship and Youth Conservation Training Program at Pleasure Beach

The Connecticut Audubon Society will receive $35,000 in federal EPA funds, along with a grantee match of $35,100, to employ ten students at Pleasure Beach in Bridgeport to conserve beach-nesting coastal birds and provide training to twenty-five city employees on conservation efforts at the beach.

 

• Bridgeport: Green Infrastructure for Beardsley Zoo
  The Connecticut Fund for the Environment and Save the Sound will receive $149,833 in federal EPA funds, along with a grantee match of $75,880, to install green infrastructure, including enhancing existing lawn areas with bioretention gardens and tree pits and replacing 4,000 square feet of pavement to better capture and treat 1,000,000 gallons of stormwater runoff each year.

 

• Centerbrook: Planning for Restoring Fish Passage on the Falls River

The Nature Conservancy of Connecticut will receive $59,982 in federal EPA funds, along with a grantee match of $40,960, to design fish passages at two dams along the Falls River, opening up 45 acres and a mile and a half of stream habitat for alewife and blueback herring. The Nature Conservancy will also expand public education programs on river health and the critical connection between freshwater habitats and Long Island Sound.

 

• Fairfield County: Coastal Youth Stewards

The North American Marine Environment Protection Association will receive $6,917 in federal EPA funds, along with a grantee match of $5,236, to engage in beach clean-ups with 150 students from Bridgeport, Stamford, Ridgefield,  Southport and Fairfield. The project will prevent over 1,500 pounds of debris from entering Long Island Sound waters and encourage students to become environmental stewards through hands-on education on the Sound.

 

• Fairfield County: Engaging Student Scientists for Long Island Sound

Earthplace – The Nature Discovery will receive $32,829 in federal EPA funds, along with a grantee match of $34,050, to engage over forty high school and college students in Fairfield County in practical learning programs to prepare them for careers in conservation.

 

• Farmington Valley: River Smart Community Stormwater Education in the Farmington River Watershed for Long Island Sound

The Farmington River Watershed Association will receive $31,173 in federal EPA funds, along with a grantee match of $32,810, to develop a community outreach program aimed at reducing polluted stormwater in towns along the Pequabuck and Still Rivers, including Simsbury, Farmington, Avon, Barkhamsted, Winsted, and Bristol.

 

• Groton: Sound Engagement for Families at Mystic Aquarium, Barn Island Wildlife Management Area, Pawcatuck, and Bluff Point State Park

The Sea Research Foundation at Mystic Aquarium will receive $9,300 in federal EPA funds, along with a grantee match of $11,895, to conduct community engagement programs, including a Long Island Sound Day celebration.

 

• Norwalk: Village Creek Salt Marsh Restoration Demonstration

The Norwalk Land Trust will receive $20,000 in federal EPA funds for the restoration of eight acres of salt meadows in Norwalk.

 

• Storrs: A Blue Marine Plan for Long Island Sound

The University of Connecticut will receive $34,997 in federal EPA funds, along with a grantee match of $29,997, to create an online resource for the Sound’s watershed along Connecticut and New York. The resource will help to develop a “Blue Marine Plan” to keep track of ecological, economic, and recreational activity along the Sound to better protect and restore it.

 

• Stratford: Coastal Dune Restoration at Stratford Point

Sacred Heart University will receive $200,000 in federal EPA funds to restore 1.5 acres of coastal dune habitats of coastal birds and the tiger beetle at Stratford Point.

 

• Stonington: Stonington Harbor and Coastline Water Quality Monitoring and Education Initiative
  The Sea Research Foundation at Mystic Aquarium will receive $24,671 in federal EPA funds, along with a grantee match of $24,710, to monitor and identify local pollution sources, including nitrogen pollution, along the coast and conduct a public education program.

(Senator Murphy Press Release)

This press release is made possible by: