State budget cuts under negotiation in Connecticut could cause significant service reductions on the Metro-North Railroad’s New Haven Line, MTA officials said Wednesday.
A budget proposal before the Connecticut Legislature would lop as much as $40 million off the $267 million Connecticut pays to fund its portion of the line.
“We will go from 309 trains daily to 260. Both peak and off-peak trains will be affected,” Edward Valente, a Metro-North conductor and head of the Association of Commuter Rail Employees, told the MTA board at its meeting Wednesday.
“Do you remember the old days of packed cars with commuters and families standing in the aisle?” Valente asked. “Unless something happens, it will be worse — but add severe gaps in service as well.”
The service cuts would include peak-hour trains from Connecticut into Grand Central. MTA officials say they will try to make sure the cuts do not affect service to New York stations.
The New Haven line is the busiest of Metro-North’s three main routes.
“We have had, for 40 years now, an excellent working relationship with the state of Connecticut,” Metro-North head Catherine Rinaldi said Wednesday.
Rinaldi said the proposal floated by legislators in Hartford put service to somewhere around 85% of pre-COVID pandemic levels. Trains are currently operating close to 100% of 2019 service.
“It would be very difficult if not impossible to hold the peak-hour trains harmless,” she said. “There would potentially be cuts in the peak, which is obviously extremely concerning given the ridership we’re seeing in the peak.”
Rinaldi said the railroad was working on schedules that would allow service to the line’s eight New York stations to continue unaffected. “But obviously that’s a real challenge given how integrated the service plan is,” she said.
“We will do our level best to ensure that New York commuters are unaffected by these cuts,” she said.
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