Darienite (https://darienite.com/tag/cameron-on-transportation-2018)
What follows is a public apology. Not to you, dear reader, but to future generations. “To my grandchildren: I’m sorry we left you with this mess. We should have done more, when we still had time.”
What am I referring to? Not the national debt.
Each year, I share my predictions for the coming months — and grade myself on last year’s crystal-ball gazing. Upon reflection, I was way too pessimistic last year, predicting fare hikes, service cuts and delays in new M8 car orders for Metro-North. I must have had some bad eggnog when I said the Special Transportation Fund lock box would be defeated. Bah, humbug. I’ll admit it: I was wrong.
How bad has service been on Metro-North? Ask Chris Golier, a Fairfield family man in his 40s who rides the train daily from Southport to Grand Central. “Commuting is a soul-sucking exercise,” he says. What used to be a 60-minute ride to and from New York, now takes 75 minutes. His trains are rarely on time.
Why do men have a reputation for never asking for directions, even when they’re lost? Is it because they’re macho, or just don’t like maps? Why do we enjoy the hunt over finding the prize? Technology has made that debate moot with the invention of GPS — the Global Positioning System. The history of GPS isn’t that old, but it is fascinating.
We all know what happened when Boston decided to bury its downtown elevated interstate highway, known as the Central Artery. What was intended to be a seven-year, $2.6 billion project ended up taking a decade and costing $14.6 billion. Head’s up: New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority — the parent company of Metro-North — has similar designs for our beloved Grand Central. Nicknamed the East Side Access project, the goal is to bring some Long Island Rail Road trains into Grand Central. The plan would use the lower level of the already built 63rd Street subway tunnel, allowing some LIRR trains from Queens to enter Manhattan and then follow a new, very deep tunnel under existing Metro-North tracks beneath Park Avenue.
The 20th Century Limited was arguably the most famous train in American history, running between Grand Central Terminal and Chicago, offering the finest in accommodations and services for 65 years. The first of these trains ran in 1902, making the journey in 20 hours, four hours faster than before. By 1905, the running time was reduced to 18 hours. The operator, New York Central Railroad, offered each passenger $1 per hour for any delays because it was so confident in its on-time performance. That was when a one-way fare was about $50 for a sleeping section.
How would you like to commute above the traffic by aerial cableway? Thousands do it daily in cities around the world and more places are looking at this technology as a solution. Many Americans have used aerial cableways — small, enclosed cabins carried up and over the terrain, attached to moving cables — at DisneyWorld or ski resorts. But here we’re talking about much bigger transit systems.
Maybe you’ve ridden on the Roosevelt Island Tramway in New York City. Opened in 1976 to connect the island’s residents to the Upper East Side, it once carried 5,500 passengers daily, though ridership has dropped since a new subway station opened.
As if crumbling bridges and pot-holed highways weren’t enough to worry about, America’s transportation network now faces a new crisis: a shortage of truck drivers. According to the American Trucking Association, trucks carry more than 70 percent of all domestic freight, bringing in $719 billion in revenue. It’s trucks, not trains, that deliver our Amazon purchases and fill the shelves of our favorite big box stores for the holidays. So while we hate to drive behind them on our highways, we love what trucks deliver. The half-million remaining truck drivers in the U.S. are continuing to dwindle as more people retire and their positions are unfilled.
I’m usually a huge Amtrak fan. But not today. Sure, I love to zip along to Boston at 145 mph on Acela, enjoy a land cruise through the western scenery on “The Southwest Chief” or even poke along for 27 hours from Chicago to New York on “The Cardinal.” If you’re a rail fan, what choice do you have but to take Amtrak? But Amtrak is also responsible for running commuter trains, including two lines in Connecticut. And here they have been failing spectacularly.
How much should it cost to ride mass transit? Are our fares too high? Would lower fares increase ridership? If so, why not make the trains free? As I’ve noted any number of times, fares on Metro-North in Connecticut are among the highest commuter fees in the country.
Have you been following the race for governor? I have, and I’m deeply disappointed. Almost none of them is talking about transportation. How can we create jobs, stop people from moving out of state, encourage entrepreneurs or do anything to save our economy when we are in a literal and political gridlock? How much time do you waste in bumper-to-bumper traffic getting to or from work?
International aviation is about to face a crisis: a shortage of pilots. Domestically, regional carriers, which represent 42 percent of all passengers, are already canceling flights and eliminating service to smaller cities. Qantas, the largest carrier in Australia, is pulling old 747s out of mothballs because it doesn’t have enough qualified pilots for its 737s, the most dominate — and much more fuel efficient — aircraft in its fleet. Europe’s biggest airline, Ryanair, canceled thousands of flights last November because of inadequate staffing. Japanese airlines are so desperate for pilots they are raising the mandatory retirement age to 67.
Do you ever wonder how trains move on a busy line like the New Haven division of Metro-North? How do they switch from track to track, make their scheduled stops and try to stay on schedule? It’s all controlled by computer-assisted dispatchers working near Grand Central Terminal, handling 700 trains per day. But until the 1980s, the dispatchers were decentralized, working in one-man towers along the line. Each tower handled a section of track, manually throwing massive switches to send trains on their appointed routes following a master schedule.
What country has the largest interstate highway system in the world? Hint: It’s not the United States. What country has the most miles of high-speed rail? Hint: It’s not France or Japan. The answer to both questions is: China.
Last spring, Japanese railroad officials apologized for a huge mistake: one of their trains left a station 25 seconds early! This was the second time such an egregious error had been made and I imagine that the offenders were severely disciplined. Meanwhile back on Metro-North’s New Haven line, the railroad’s latest OTP (on time performance) statistics stand at about 82% — a new low. To make matters worse, what the Japanese railroads and MNRR consider “on time” are two different things. “On time” in Japan means the 7:12 am train departs at 7:12, not 7:11 (as in this horrendous incident which prompted the apology) nor at 7:13. “On time” means ON TIME. Metro-North, however, defines a train is being on time if it arrives or departs within five minutes and 59 seconds of the scheduled time.