Commuter Crisis Continues. So, Where Are The New Cars?

by John Dankosky - The Chairman of Connecticut’s Commuter Rail Council wants to know why new Metro-North train cars still aren’t in service.  He’s asked officials from the manufacturer and the company testing the cars to attend a meeting tonight in Stamford.

The new Kawasaki M8 cars were purchased six years ago at a cost of $866 million dollars.  They were meant to solve a big problem on the busiest commuter train service in America – the Metro-North New Haven line.

“The cars we have are a legacy of the neglect that the state has paid to transportation for decades.  They are 35 years old – they’re older than many of the passengers on the trains – they’re falling apart,” said Jim Cameron, the Chairman of the Connecticut Rail Commuter Council.  ”The real question is where are the new M8 cars?”

Well, the answer is, they’ve been delayed again and again – first by a shortage of steel to make the cars, then because of problems found during testing.  Cameron has asked – unsuccessfully – for officials from Kawasaki and LTK, the consultants running the testing to appear in front of his council.  They’re not expected to be at the Commuter Council’s gathering at Stamford’s Government Center at 7 p.m. tonight.

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