All Aboard !
I am writing this from a new Metro North train car, all fluorescent and clean.
Running for my usual photo finish on track 110 this afternoon I was certain, for a moment, that it was one of those other MTA lines with the nicer cars. But it said “Stamford” clear as day in dot matrix lights. Wow. This really was my train. A new M-8.
I was almost reluctant to open a snack on these nice new red seats. How come everyone on this car isn’t jumping for joy over this? Are they just simply in shock? Don’t they read theLoop Forum? Or years of local editorials on how dreadfully downtrodden our New Haven line trains have been?
The new cars are here! Sixteen new cars, two trains’ worth, right now, on the Red Line.
There’s an electronic two-tone beep. A computer voice: “This. Is. The. Train. To. Stamford. The. Next. Station. Is. Mount. Vernon. East.” I realize I am not listening to the conductors having public conversations over the loudspeakers.
The A/C is on. There’s no spilled coffee creeping down the aisle. There’s a new car smell. The bathrooms don’t have one at all. And no one is locked inside. And no exit doors open while the train is moving!
It’s a new day on Metro North. Not as colorful, perhaps, a little impersonal, too.
But all the way to Larchmont, those ultra bright lights overhead don’t turn off even once.
Category: From the Editor, Larchmont, Mamaroneck, New Rochelle, Rye, Scarsdale
Just a thought: Don’t allow people to eat/drink on the trains! This is done in other commuting areas and guess what: it works! Cars are cleaner and more welcoming. What better time to implement this new change–a new cars are being introduced into the fleet!
….and the fleet might be complete by 2014…no new trains yet during peak travel since they are still working out the “kinks!” Recently we got stuck right outside of Larchmont and had to return to the platform after about 1/2 hour or more….next day we got stuck in the GCT tunnel, today we had a long delay…trains are short, late, dirty, smelly and totally overcrowded…conductors are unkempt, not very friendly and not at all professional….this is what we pay $220+ for. NICE!!!!