A Bridgeport woman was arrested for stabbing her husband in the buttocks (is there a funnier word than “buttocks”?) over the weekend, following a long day of (presumably) drinking.

StationStops says:

Cheryl Madison of Bridgeport was arrested on charges of second-degree assault and second-degree breach of peace for stabbing her husband on the South Norwalk Metro-North platform Saturday night.

Witnesses said the husband had been lambasting the wife for her behavior at a block party they had attended earlier, and that Madison had made a thrusting motion towards her husbands buttocks.

The so-called City That Works will have to work a little harder to stay productive in 2010. Yes, the already tight parking situation at the massive Metro-North stop in Stamford just got a bit tigher, reports StationStops, as a building project to commence in 2010 will see 800 spots get shut down for two years.

That was Topic A at the Connecticut Commuter Rail Council meeting last night.

SS reports:

In general, the theme of how Stamford commuters should prepare to deal with this situation was to look for parking at Greenwich and Glenbrook (!!?) (sorry that last line just made me spit-take coffee all over my keyboard!)

I love how the three photos offered on Stamford’s Wikipedia page depict the following:

1. Stamford’s Metro-North station

2. Stamford’s Metro-North station

3. World Wrestling headquarters

StationStops offers some intriguing video–and commentary–on the Generation Xbox pastime of jumping from train platform to train platform, over the tracks and the dreaded third rail. The video appears to have been shot along the 7 line in Queens.

SS writes:

What really makes me mad about platform jumping is that if you don’t make it, and you break your leg and are stuck on the tracks, someone is going to have to go down there and help you get out, then you both get killed. How fun.

NYC Transit spokesman Paul Fleuranges addressed the issue with an email to AMNY Subway Tracker: It goes without saying the conduct seen on this video is blatantly unsafe and we strongly advise this young man, or anybody else so inclined, to refrain from jumping on or over subway tracks. Not only is this unsafe, but it is probably a violation of the Rules of Conduct and subject to summons, fine or worse.

Putting bruises and broken bones aside, there are 600 volts of electricity flowing through a live 3rd rail – more then enough to kill these young men or anybody else who comes in contact with it.

In other news, the X Games announced they’ll debut station platform jumping as an exhibition sport in 2010.

The Connecticut Rail Commuter Council holds its “Meet the Railroad/Meet the Commuter” day tomorrow from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. at South Norwalk station.

The Council, a volunteer group of commuters who meet with Metro-North on behalf of all Connecticut riders, will be there, along with reps from Metro-North, the CT Dept of Transportation, and various others.

“The Meet The Commuter event will take place on the platforms and in the waiting room where commuters can informally meet face to face with railroad officials to discuss train service,” says the Council.

I fully expect StationStops will have a full story on it, along with high def video, and a detailed account of his run-ins with South Norwalk station security personnel.

A reporter and camera man from Hartford TV station WFSB were arrested late last week by MTA police while filming a piece on a new train station in West Haven, Connecticut, reports the New Haven Register.

Leon Collins and his photographer face criminal trespassing charges for entering and area that was marked “Employees Only.”

The TV station says they were filming a segment on the new train station, but some wondered if the reporter was doing an investigative bit about lax security in the train station.

I guess StationStops is lucky he shot this video without ending up in some Nutmeg State gulag.

Our Metro-North blogger brethren StationStops has some very well-produced video taken at the New Haven Metro-North station that offers a glimpse inside the futuristic M8 cars that are slated to pop up on the New Haven Line next year.

StationStops likes the vacuum toilets, the headrests and larger windows–things us Hudson and Harlem liners take for granted–as well as outlets for charging phones and PDAs and for plugging in laptops (ah, the live-blogging capabilities!).

It’s a tidy little video that’s available in HD as well.

Our Metro-North-obsessed brethren Station Stops has some great video of an R&B singer named Alice Tan Ridley belting some tunes out in the subways. It’s the kind of stuff that makes you remember how great it is to live in (or at least commute to) New York.

Note how much fun everyone is having in the “Let’s Stay Together” vid.

The new 5:57 a.m. train rolling out of Waterbury, Conn. yesterday kicked off with much more of a whimper than a bang, reports the Hartford Courant. The good people of Waterbury petitioned the MTA for the early train (the earliest used to be the 6:40), and Metro-North obliged.

Only problem is, the petitioners don’t seem to be riding the new train.

The new 5:57 seemed almost deserted for much of the trip, with some of its seven cars entirely empty. Conductor Theresa Murdock collected about three dozen tickets between Waterbury and Bridgeport, but predicted many of the usual 6:40 riders will switch when they hear about the early train.

Some 36 riders across seven cars…that’s about five people per car, folks.

Our blogger brethren StationStops says Metro-North’s marketing efforts, or lack thereof, are to be blamed for the lack of riders on the 5:57.

Know what would be a good way to let people know about the train? How about instead of Nickelodeon ads on the posterboards on the train, they put up a notice letting people know THERE IS ANOTHER TRAIN AT 5:56 STARTING APRIL 7th AND ITS NOT CROWDED!

I think that would work pretty good.

Or how about this - while she is collecting tickets on the 6:40, the conductor lets everyone know about the new 5:56 train starting on April 7th ?

[photo Michael Kodas/Hartford Courant]

Our fellow Metro-North blogger Station Stops wonders why Metro-North doesn’t offer hotspots for wireless webcrawling. He notes that the Gotham Gazette addressed this issue with a well-researched article way back in 2004, when laptops were the size of suitcases and hotspots were something only women over the age of 50 got. (Sorry, sorry.)

Writes the Gazette:

The resource is already being provided for public transportation and commuter rail users in such major cities as London, Paris, Seattle, the Bay Area, Tokyo, and Chennai, India. Lufthansa and other airlines are also already offering Wi-Fi upwards of six miles in the air.

New York City, in comparison, provides Wi-Fi on no transportation mode other than the Hampton Jitney and the LimoLiner luxury bus to Boston. The MTA has responded to queries that it has no intention of providing wireless Internet resources.

Station Stops’ short answer seems to be a dash of ignorance on Metro-North’s part as to what its riders want, some serious financial hurdles, and the simple fact that the seats typically don’t offer enough room to flip open a laptop.

…here’s another killer on the New Haven Line: Only the face-to-face seats near the exit doors allow enough forward space to even *open* a notebook computer. Wifi on today’s New Haven Line could never recoup the costs for this single reason alone.

That, and most riders would rather sleep or sip a beer–two exercises that are generally frowned upon at work.