Metro-North Railroad
The
Metro-North Railroad (officially the
Metro-North Commuter Railroad Company, and usually abbreviated as
Metro-North) is a
suburban commuter railroad service between
New York City to its northern
suburbs in
New York and
Connecticut. Trains terminate in New York State in
Wassaic,
Poughkeepsie,
Port Jervis, and
Spring Valley, and in Connecticut in
New Canaan,
Danbury,
Waterbury, and
New Haven. Metro-North also provides local service within
the Bronx, and from the Bronx into
midtown Manhattan.
Metro-North is operated by the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which also operates the
MTA New York City Transit buses, the
New York City Subway and the
Long Island Rail Road. The MTA has styled Metro-North as
MTA Metro-North Railroad. The MTA announced in October 2002 that it plans to merge the MNCRR and the LIRR into a new entity, to be called
MTA Rail Road [
1], which requires approval by the
New York State legislature that has failed of passage as of April, 2006. There are also plans to build a new Metro-North station to directly serve the new
Yankee Stadium, which is scheduled to open in 2009.
East of Hudson
There are four Metro-North lines on the east side of the
Hudson River, three running into
Grand Central Terminal - the
Hudson Line,
Harlem Line and
New Haven Line. The fourth, the
Beacon Line, is used for internal equipment moves between the Brewster shop & Danbury station. The New Haven Line has three branches providing connecting service - the
New Canaan Branch,
Danbury Branch and
Waterbury Branch.
Amtrak also operates
intercity train service along the New Haven and Hudson Lines; on both lines, it splits onto its own trackage to
Pennsylvania Station. At New Haven,
Shore Line East connecting service, run by the State of
Connecticut, continues east to
New London. The Hudson and Harlem Lines were originally part of the
New York Central Railroad system, and the New Haven Line and its branches were owned by the
New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.
West of Hudson
Metro-North also operates trains west of the Hudson River from
Hoboken Terminal in
New Jersey in partnership with
New Jersey Transit (with connecting service to
New York Penn Station at
Secaucus Junction). Those trains go to
Port Jervis (the
Port Jervis Line) and
Spring Valley, New York (the
Pascack Valley Line), operating on New Jersey Transit trackage in New Jersey and with
rolling stock characteristic of
New Jersey Transit, although some of it is in Metro-North colors. Both lines were once part of the
Erie Railroad system.
Some services are operated by
diesel, but all services running directly into
Manhattan Grand Central Terminal are electric powered. Most of Metro-North's passenger diesel locomotives are
General Electric GENESIS P32 diesel-electric hybrids capable of switching to a pure electric mode using contact shoes to contact the railroad's under-running
third rail power distribution system. On the Hudson Line, trains are powered by electrified third rail from
Grand Central Terminal to
Croton-Harmon and are powered by diesel north of that station to
Poughkeepsie. The Harlem Line has third rail from
Southeast station and diesel north of that station to
Wassaic. The New Haven Line is special in that electrical
Multiple Unit (EMU) trains are powered through either 700 V
DC from a third rail or 13.8 kV
AC from an overhead
catenary wire. Nominally 13.8 kV (per a MN Power Director), the voltage floats between 13.2 to 13.8 kv. The main line from approximately
Woodlawn to
Pelham (3 miles, or 4.8 km), is powered by third rail, while from
Pelham, New York east to
New Haven, Connecticut (58 miles, or 93 km)), as well as the entire
New Canaan Branch, it is powered by catenary. The
Danbury Branch was formerly electrified but in 1961 became a diesel-only line though plans are underway to reelectrify the line [
2] with a concurrent expansion to
New Milford. Locomotives on the
Waterbury Branch, the only east-of-Hudson Metro North service which has no direct service of any sort into Grand Central, are powered by diesel.
The third rails on the three Metro-North lines (East-of-Hudson) which go into Grand Central Terminal are unusual in that power is collected from below the
third rail as opposed to above, unlike most other third rail systems (including the
Long Island Rail Road and
New York City Subway). This allows the third rail to be completely insulated from above, thus decreasing the chances of a person being electrocuted by coming in contact with the rail. This was important, because until the early 1970s the majority of the suburban stations had low platforms where the third rail was easily accessible; this danger was greatly reduced with the introduction of the high-level platforming of
Budd Company-made
Metropolitans (M1A's) in 1971 and the
Cosmopolitans (M2's) two years later, both purchased by the MTA and practically identical to their sister cars on the LIRR.
West of Hudson trains are usually handled by EMD
GP40FH-2 or
F40PH-2CAT diesel locomotives, although any MN or
New Jersey Transit diesel can show up and the MN diesels based out of Hoboken are banned from the
Pascack Valley Line due to the installation of SES. Passenger cars are basically all
Comet V coaches built by
Alstom, but again anything can show up as the equipment is pooled with NJT.
Tickets for travel may be bought from a station agent, automated machine, online, or on the train. There is a 5% discount for buying tickets online, while buying tickets on the train between $4.75 and $5.50 more than standard price regardless of location. Travel between stations located in
The Bronx (and
Marble Hill, politically located in
Manhattan) costs $2.25 per trip regardless of time of day. Also see
CityTicket.
Again, West of Hudson policies are different due to the trains being operated by
NJ Transit.
The Metro-North
mascot is
Metro Man. A robotic
cyborg in the shape of a train, he educates children about railway safety.
*
MTA Metro-North Railroad
