Metro-North's New Haven Rail Yard Project Chugs Along
David Ames
Governor Jodi Rell is pushing for new improvements to the New Haven rail system.
If you ride the Metro-North rails, we probably don’t have to tell you that the cars are in need of an upgrade. They could do with a tweak or two and Governor M. Jodi Rell wants the improvements to come soon. She is pushing for quick action on the New Haven rail yard project.
In fact on, last week she moved forward with plans to borrow $100 million so that the state can build a key part of the rail yard.
One of Connecticut's biggest contractors recently offered to build a 293,000-square-foot maintenance center for rail cars that was only about half as expensive as transportation officials and a consultant had projected, reported the Hartford Courant.
O & G Industries of Torrington offered a bid of $124.8 million. Rell hopes to secure that price. It was back in 2005 when the governor proposed the idea of the Metro-North upgrade project. While the rail yard is part of the plan, it’s the “change out shop”, where mechanics will swap out malfunctioning components for new ones, that’s the focus.
"To keep to our timetable, it is critical that we move forward with work on the 'change-out' shop as soon as possible. Doing so will also have the added and always-welcome benefit of creating new jobs," Rell told the Courant.
Rell says its crucial to keep this project on budget. This plan will improve reliability of MTA’s busy New Haven to Grand Central line by replacing most of its deteriorating fleet of 30- to 37-year-old passenger cars.
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