As Metro-North Railroad works to rebuild deteriorated infrastructure while posting record ridership aboard an unprecedented number of trains, President Joe Giulietti says the top goal is safety, followed by on-time performance.
By comparison, achieving faster station-to-station travel times is further down the priority list — and not likely to happen in the next couple of years, he said.
"If you look at where we were 16 months ago, there was absolutely no confidence in schedules. People were taking earlier trains to get in on time, and even the earlier trains were 20 minutes late," Giulietti said.
Conditions have changed a lot since then. Trains are reaching the on-time standard — arriving within six minutes of the published schedule — more than 90 percent of the time now, Giulietti said in an interview at his Manhattan office.
Passenger complaints are down, safety measurements are better and despite a bad 2013, the railroad broke its ridership record in 2014 by carrying nearly 40 million riders in Connecticut and New York.
But new, slower train speeds mean longer commutes, and Giulietti predicted that's not going to change soon.
"You can expect that I'm not going to be able to meet the request that we run trains faster into Grand Central. We still have at least two to three years of infrastructure [rebuilding] to go through," he said.
Some passengers have told the Connecticut Commuter Rail Council that they're frustrated by trains running slow on the New Haven Line, the busiest commuter rail route in the country.
The Federal Railroad Administration directed Metro-North to reduce speeds at curves and the major lift bridges along the route after a series of derailments and crashes in 2013, and those orders remain in place. In addition, track maintenance crews have begun modernizing rails, ties and drainage systems that were allowed to deteriorate for years, and that work frequently forces engineers to go even slower at spots.
The railroad extended the time for some runs in its newest schedule, and is focused on meeting that timetable. In May, its performance was substantially improved over May 2014. New Haven Line trains arrived within six minutes of a target 92.3 percent of the time, compared to 88.9 percent the year before.
For commuters, the difference was even more pronounced: 90.1 percent of morning peak-hour trains were on time, compared to just 78.9 percent the year before.
Over the same period, Metro-North crews have reduced the number of trains that were canceled or arrived late by 15 minutes or more, a figure that fell from 245 in May 2014 to 194 this May. The railroad had an additional 25 trains running during that time, which was a welcome increase in service for riders but which also put more strain on the congested tracks in and near Grand Central.
Metro-North's schedule has been growing for years, and expanded again this year to accommodate more frequent midday runs between New Haven and Manhattan. All the extra trains make its Grand Central operations a bit similar to Southwest Airlines, which is known for maximizing use of its fleet and crews through a fast turnaround of planes at each terminal.
In the past, the railroad could leave trains idling for longer periods at Grand Central or have them run empty back to Stamford or New Haven, but the busier schedule doesn't allow that.
"We don't have that luxury anymore," Giulietti said.
With the railroad's first priority on safe operations, a key goal is bringing the infrastructure back into top condition. Metro-North's management team estimates two to three years of extensive track work is necessary. A new labor contract will help because it allows managers to schedule track crews to work on nights and weekends, when train traffic is light and they can accomplish more. Some weekend trains are running slower than before to allow for that.
Giulietti took over the railroad in February 2014 following two years of troubles under former President Howard Permut, and was surprised by how far conditions had deteriorated since he'd worked there previously.
Giulietti worked with Metro-North from its founding in 1983 until 1998, when he took an executive position at the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority.
"Something fell apart here. In 1998, we were the premier railroad. We were setting the standards for the industry," he recalled.
"What I walked into [in February 2014] was shocking from the standpoint that we'd put everything in place to ensure the integrity for the next 15 to 25 years," Giulietti said. "The challenge is how do I get back to that level and make sure all the safety checks are in place to make sure this doesn't get dropped?
Something happened when it got dropped in the past, and we have to make sure that doesn't happen."
Connecticut transportation officials say their relationship with Metro-North has been on the upswing in the past 16 months, and John Hartwell, vice chairman of the Connecticut Commuter Rail Council, said he's seen more transparency from the railroad in that time.
Giulietti credits improvements to the more than 5,000 employees.
"I give this to all the employees who are here. Everybody is concerned with the image and reputation of Metro-North — they all want to see it restored to where it was," he said. "I have employees who said, 'When I hired here, I was so proud to tell my neighbors I worked for Metro-North. I don't feel that way right now.' They want to go back to feeling proud about the system."