We here at Trainjotting have been harping on this for years: the railroad’s “on-time performance” is a very misleading figure.

Metro-North touts an “on-time” percentage in its monthly Mileposts mouthpiece that’s about as high as the temps this past weekend–the Harlem line is “on-time” 98.7% of the time so far this year, and the Hudson is 98.3%.

Of course, “on-time” means any train arriving within six minutes of when it’s supposed to.

The New York Times pushed the MTA to release its full on-time records, and found the trains were much later than the railroads reported in 2009. Rush-hour trains may be late as much as 25% of the time.

The good news is, and you probably already know this, Metro-North is best of the local bunch. New Jersey Transit is the worst, and the LIRR is somewhere in the middle.

At the peak of the rush, from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m., about 25 percent of New Jersey Transit trains entering Manhattan arrived late; about 2 in 5 of the late trains were tardy by at least 15 minutes.

Things are better for Metro-North riders–at least those who don’t live along the Sound shore.

Metro-North’s lines to Connecticut and Westchester, which have the best performance in the region, benefit from having spacious Grand Central Terminal to themselves. Still, trains on the New Haven line perform worse than the others, primarily because the cars are holdovers from the 1970s and some of the track uses overhead electrical wires that are nearly a century old and prone to damage.

The various railroads’ on-time percentages look sweet because the non-rush hour trains are mostly on time, boosting the overall percentages. The rush-hour trains–the ones that affect most of us–are a much different story, as crowded tracks, tunnels and platforms make for significant delays.

Give it up for the Times, they did their homework on this one.

These are among the findings of an examination by The New York Times of the more than 685,000 trips in 2009 involving the region’s three major commuter railroads, using records requested by The Times that had not previously been made available to the public.

The review found that the official figures for on-time performance, often used as a promotional tool, contrasted sharply with the experience of tens of thousands of passengers who regularly ride the trains at peak hours. In fact, the most important trips for daily commuters, those that can make or break breakfast with a client or dinner with a spouse, experience far more delays than the statistics may let on.

Trips to and from Penn Station during rush hours, for instance, were two and a half times as likely to be late as trips taken at any other time. The disappointment among riders can be further appreciated by considering the record of specific commuter lines. For example, morning commuters on New Jersey Transit who passed through the Summit station were late on 1 of every 6 trips, nearly a third by more than 20 minutes. And Long Island Rail Road commuters who traveled from Huntington to Manhattan at rush hour arrived late on 1 of every 10 trips, twice the average for the railroad.

The ripped up wood floors from the renovated Mamaroneck train station were simply scrap to the builders, but someone else saw serious value in them.

Polly Kreisman’s Westchester news site TheLoopNY.com tells the story of a local man carting the more-than-a-century-old wood away from Mamaroneck station, and turning it into something useful.

On the 7:05 New Haven train Friday, sitting next to a skinny Stamford student with a gleaming new iPad and white headphones drinking a Bud. 

Next to him, sitting alone, is a fat 35-year-old guy in a painted-on red and white striped polo shirt, dark blue chinos and a feathered 80’s haircut drinking a Big Gulp-sized Pepsi.  He’s easily taking up the seat space of three people. 

The fat chinos guy bragged earlier to nobody in particular that he had one of the carts at Grand Central top his Pepsi off with booze.

The bar car has been very quiet tonight — unusually so.  Nobody has said a word for about 20 minutes. 

Then I hear the fat guy laughing.

Now he’s really laughing.  And then he says, “He’s dreaming in Star Wars!” 

He’s watching the skinny Stamford kid’s iPad from three bench seats away, taking in Family Guy without the benefit of sound.

Laughing loudly just now, he said, “Dewey.  You gotta love Dewey.”

I know he’s talking about Stewie.

–Saugatucker

Metro-North doesn’t seem to envision bar cars in its future, reports the NY Times, which says it looks unlikely those bygone-era relics will fit into the long-awaited rollout of the M8 cars on the New Haven Line last this year.

Much as I enjoy and respect the Times, I have to say–reporter Michael Grynbaum includes every last cliche about commuting to the suburbs in his story. Reference to Don Draper and Mad Men? Check. Reference to John Cheever’s short fiction? Check, mate. Weepy homages to bar car bonhomie?

He squeezes them all into one sentence, in fact:

The bar car is a mainstay of the commuting life, a lurching lounge on wheels inseparable from the suburbia of Cheever and “Mad Men.” “The commute is so bad as it is,” explained Paul Hornung, a financial worker, as he sipped a Stella Artois. “This is the one thing you can look forward to.”

Here’s my issue. Is the bar car really, truly a “mainstay of the commuting life”? Grynbaum notes in his story that bar cars have long since been phased out on Long Island Railroad and New Jersey Transit. They’ve also been phased out on the Hudson and Harlem Lines….assuming those lines ever had those stankin’ basement-bars-on-wheels.

[By the way, what the heck is Paul “Golden Boy” Hornung doing drinking on the train? to Stamford]

I don’t know that I’ve ever consumed a potent potable on Metro-North, and I, ya know, follow the intersection of commuter trains and booze pretty carefully. While bar cars are surely meeting spots for friends old and new to enjoy a tipple, I’m guessing most New Haven Line riders would prefer to quaff their Bud tallboy in a normal seat in a normal car, instead of on these anachronistic oddities.

Metro-North officials say the decision to possibly eliminate the bar cars is all about–surprise surprise–money.

A new fleet of cars will soon replace the 1970s-era models now used by commuters on the Metro-North Railroad line heading to Connecticut. But with money tight, railroad officials said they could not yet commit themselves to a fresh set of bar cars, citing higher costs for the cars’ custom design.

“They’re being contemplated,” said Joseph F. Marie, Connecticut’s commissioner of transportation. “But we have not made any final decisions.”

Defenders of the boozy commute say it helps raise revenue: After expenses, bar cars and platform vendors made $1.5 million last year, up from $1.3 million in 2008. (Officials would not say if a bar car makes more money than a car with the normal number of seats.) So far, 300 new train cars have been purchased, featuring airline-style headrests and graceful luggage racks. But officials say the bar cars remain a low priority, and may not be ordered.

“A decision was made early on that more seats on the trains was our top priority and that bar cars — as popular as they are — could wait,” said Judd Everhart, a spokesman for Connecticut’s department of transportation, which operates New Haven Line trains in conjunction with Metro-North. “It was about that simple.”

Nutmeg State correspondent Saugatucker shared Friday’s 7:05 out of Grand Central with one of the world’s less-bright bulbs.

Guy, pulling two Heinekens out of his bag.
Girl, looking both ways for authorities: Wait. We can drink on the train?
Guy, straighter than straight-faced: This is the bar car.

The Best Damn Commuter Town Period title stays in Westchester, as Larchmont was selected by Trainjotting readers as the best mix of relatively easy transit to the city, low-ish a**hole ratio, lively downtown, parks, taxes, and other quality of life issues involving the tri-state area.

Pleasantville won the prize the first/last time we held the Best Damn Commuter Town Period poll, in 2008.

New Jersey was very well represented in the voting, especially among towns starting with the letter ‘M’: (Montclair, Maplewood, Metuchen, Millburn, Westfield, Summit, New Providence). Long Island got a token mention (Mineola). In the 914, there were nominations for Tarrytown. Connecticut, meanwhile, was altogether snubbed.

But Larchmont, pushed over the top by a swell of nominations from its blog community, won in a relative landslide–most nominators citing walkability and easy access to Manhattan via Metro-North.

Writes “Sean”:

The neighborhoods are beautiful and established, with great architecture (virtually no teardowns and/or McMansions). Most of it is walkable to the train and the two ‘downtowns’ with a wide variety of shops, restaurants, and bars - and many of us can walk to the schools as well.

We also have a 29 minute express train to NYC, and it’s just over a half hour to drive to Manhattan in off hours - which helps add up to a feeling that we’re very ‘connected’ to the city.

Adds “Jeff”:

Very close to the city, walkable and less pretentious then some of its neighbors despite its affluent population.

So enticing is Larchmont to commuters that new Met Jason Bay announced recently that he’d bucked the trend of MLB ballers living in the wilds of Greenwich and scored a place smack in the middle of Yankee country in the 10538. Like so many voters in the Best Damn Commuter Town poll, he cited the commute.

“We actually have a place in the burbs, out in Westchester County,” Bay told MLB.com. “In Larchmont. Larchmont was about as far as we wanted to go from the ballpark. Everybody was like, ‘Greenwich, Greenwich, Greenwich.’ But Greenwich is like 45 minutes without traffic. New York, an hour commute is like 15 minutes for everybody else … 20 minutes, tops. I don’t want to drive forever — especially with traffic.”

To celebrate Bay’s arrival, Larchmont mayor Elizabeth Feld will rename the piece of the Long Island Sound that marks Larchmont’s southern border “Long Island Bay” on the Mets’ home opener April 5.

Congrats to all residents of Larchmont–or, as they’re known locally, “Larchmartians.”

[image: panoramio]

Saugatucker overheard this on the loudspeaker on the 6:34 express to New Haven:

Conductor 1: You know how I like astronomy? You gotta see the moon coming up ahead. Dude, it’s like a pumpkin!
Conductor 2: Mark, you’re a werewolf.
Conductor 1: SOOOOUTH Norwalk is next.

[image: Saugatucker’s blackberry]

From November 6, 2007

Thanks to Little G, we end up spending a lot of time in Sodor—that is, the mythical island on which Thomas the Tank Engine and his train friends operate. All of the trains in Thomas’ world have unique personalities, whether it’s the narcissistic engine James or the perky young train Percy.  

That got us thinking—if Manhattan was Sodor, and vice versa, where would the Metro-North cast of characters fit in in Thomas’ little technicolor world? 

New Haven Line = Henry

Henry is a long train that “tends to be somewhat highly strung and prone to illness,” according to ThomasandFriends.com. The New Haven Line is highly strung as well–as in those arms extending to the electric catenary wires strung above the tracks. The most susceptible to foul weather of the three lines, New Haven is indeed prone to illness. Just ask any veteran rider of the line. 

The Harlem Line = Peter Sam

Peter Sam is “a happy and kind engine, but is a little vulnerable and often teased by the others.” Like Peter Sam, the Harlem Line suffers from a severe case of Middle Child Syndrome–not quite the doddering doofus that the New Haven Line is, not quite the beacon of efficiency that the Hudson Line is. 

MTA Board Member Mitchell Pally = Lady Hatt

Lady Hatt is Sir Topham Hatt’s wife and “a kind and gentile woman…who will also scold the engines when they act up or behave improperly.” Pally is the schoolmarm who wanted to do away with drinking on the trains.  

Slippery Rail Season = Lead Paint from China Used on Thomas Trains

Both lead paint and oily residue left on Metro North tracks force trains out of commission and leave their users gravely agitated.  

Finally, where, you ask, does our humble narrator, Thomas himself, fit into the equation? Thomas is described as a “cheeky, fussy little engine. He often gets into scrapes…but clouds never last long in Thomas’ world and he’s soon bustling about again.” 

Yes, that’d be you and me—the working stiffs shrugging off the floods and snowstorms and rude riders to turn up at our jobs in Sodor…er, Manhattan…each day.

From “M-J”:

I just found your site today.  I’m not a huge blogging fan, but I have to give you credit for grabbing my attention.  After just a day, I’m already addicted.  I have so many of my own stories from my former New Haven to GC commute (now I live in Manhattan and enjoy the simple A-Train commute).  Keep the good stories coming!  I have to get back to work, but I’ll drop you a line one of these days.
 

I don’t know if it’s all those delays, but the New Haven Line sure leads the league in passenger skirmishes.

ConnecticEnergy saw a beauty last night on the Stamford bound 8:0-something out of Grand Central. The train was full and the conductor made his announcement about making all seats available. Two men were sitting cattycorner in a four-seater. Another man approached, neatly attired in a decent but not ostentatious suit, and indicated his desire to take one of the two remaining seats in the four-top.

Of course, nobody likes That Guy. Ideally, it’s two people in the four-top (OK, in a perfect world, it’s one person in the four-top), because once that third person’s in there, two people have to sit face to face in a tight spot and have to wordlessly decide who gets to be the male and who gets to be the female. (If you’ve sat in a four-top with at least two others, you know exactly what that means.)

Well, the seated man, also in a suit, also around 45, was having none of it. He loudly told the standing man that both seats belonged to him.

The standoff ensues. The standing man will not back down. The other passengers pick up on it and start shouting encouragement to the standing man: Take the seat! Sit! Make him move!

Still, the seated man will not budge his legs.

“Have you ever ridden this train before?” asks the standing man.

The seated man suggests he get the conductor to mediate. The standing man says he’s happy to take it up with the man in blue upon his arrival.

More cries from the Greek chorus: Take the seat! Don’t back down!

“We all pay for a ticket,” the standing man says, then forces himself into the seat. 

The car breaks out in applause! The originally seated man hurriedly burrows through his bag for a book that will give him some cover. He and his hated seatmate don’t even bother enmeshing their knees together; they’ll simply rub patellas for the next 40 minutes to Stamford.

But wait, it’s not over. Some 30 seconds after the standing man won the battle and took his hard-earned repose, a small woman jumps on board and makes for the increasingly full four-top. She points to the one remaining seat and meekly says, “Can I sit there?”

The car full of passengers is silent, then bursts out laughing as the train makes for points north.