NEW YORK — Metro-North will cut in positive train control for Extended Revenue Service Demonstration on a 40-mile segment of its Harlem Line as of Saturday, more than doubling the PTC mileage on the route.
Metro-North President Catherine Rinaldi reported the advance as part of Tuesday’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority committee meetings. The 40 miles between Mount Vernon West and Southeast will join 39 miles between Southeast and the end of the line at Wassaic that are already in the extended demonstration process.
Still to come on the nation’s third-largest commuter carriers are ERSD cut-ins from Grand Central Terminal to Spuyten Duyvil and Mount Vernon West, enabling full PTC operation on both the Hudson and Harlem lines. This leaves the New Haven and West of Hudson lines, and the Waterbury Branch, for cut-in to full PTC. Interoperability work has already been completed at Poughkeepsie, with completion expected by this at Spuyten Duyvil, New Haven, New Rochelle and Stamford.
Testing of upgraded PTC hardware for the M8 electric MUs used exclusively on the New Haven Line is expected to start in February with software integration tests to start in March. There is not yet a master plan for full installation of equipment on the 405-car fleet to meet the Dec. 31, 2020 PTC deadline.
Tuesday presentations also included a look by Metro-North Vice President-Planning Michael Shiffer at a comprehensive 2017 Metro-North Origin and Destination Survey. The survey, done every seven to 10 years and answered by 40% of Metro-North ridership, documents ridership trends which in part reflect the generational change as Baby Boomers retire and Generation X and Millennials become a majority of the workforce.
Trends noted by Shiffer include:
— Peak Period ridership has grown, which in turn, will drive railroad capital needs.
— Total weekend ridership is up.
— Reverse commuter trips seemed to have reached a peak, notably at the three largest reverse commute hubs, Stamford, Conn.; White Plains. N.Y., and Greenwich, Conn. The economic pull of Manhattan, including Hudson Yards and other new developments. may play a part.
— An increased number of riders are walking to their station, with the exception of the Hudson Line, whose communities are often in somewhat hillier areas than other Metro-North Lines.
— Ridership increases are greater to the south of Stamford, White Plains, and Croton-Harmon than north of those points.
While board members questioned details including the duration of the survey, Shiffer said one purpose of the survey was for support of federal funding. With automated passenger counts not available, data collection needed to be done by people.
The next comprehensive survey for the MTA will be by the Long Island Rail Road, which last reported results in 2014. That survey is expected to begin in a couple of years.
