Not enough buses for commuters

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If you are thinking you’ll just give yourself some extra time tomorrow morning and take a Metro North bus to the nearest working train station, think again.

commuterbus

 

Metro North will not be able to provide bus service for the 15,000 to 20,000 passengers who ride the train along the affected stretch of track on weekdays, Aaron Donovan, the Metro-North spokesman said Sunday morning.
“Moving 15,00 to 20,000 people by buses presents some enormous logistical challenges,” he said.

Check back for commuting updates. We’ll be checking with the Railroad and letting you know what your options will be.

Categories: General

Latest on Metro-North train service

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Service on the New Haven Line between South Norwalk and New Haven remains suspended Sunday.

Trains to and from South Norwalk are running at a reduced, hourly rate.

Metro-North Railroad says regular service is running between Stamford and Grand Central, but suggests travelers use the Harlem Line if possible, as trains on the New Haven Line are expected to be crowded.

Regular service is in operation on the New Canaan and Danbury branches.

Bus service is running between Waterbury and Bridgeport.

If you’re taking the train to Yankee Stadium, you’ll need to get on in Stamford.

Officials have not announced when full regular service will be restored, and repairs will have to wait until after the NTSB’s investigation into the crash is finished.

Click here for Metro-North’s train schedule.

Categories: General

Passenger details terrifying moments

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The above photo was taken inside one of the trains that collided at the Bridgeport/Fairfield line Friday. Photos were taken by passenger Helen Dodson of Fairfield.

The above photo was taken inside one of the trains that collided at the Bridgeport/Fairfield line Friday. Photos were taken by passenger Helen Dodson of Fairfield.

The above photo was taken inside one of the trains that collided at the Bridgeport/Fairfield line Friday. Photos were taken by passenger Helen Dodson of Fairfield.

The above photo was taken inside one of the trains that collided at the Bridgeport/Fairfield line Friday. Photos were taken by passenger Helen Dodson of Fairfield.

Helen Dodson usually drives from her home in Fairfield to her job in the public affairs department of Yale University in Fairifield. But, on Friday, her daughter was in town and wanted to use the car. So Dodson took the train, making her one of the many people who was on board of one of the two trains that collided at the Fairfield/Bridgeport line Friday evening. Above are some photos she took from the inside of the train after the collision.

Dodson, who was on the train from New Haven, said she knew something wasn’t right when the train began slowing down after the Bridgeport stop. Shortly thereafter, “you heard sort of a screeching sound and it just jolted to a stop.” Dodson said she saw clouds of dust and the lights went out in the car. Then someone came on the PA system asking if there were any doctors or nurses on board. “No one knew what was going on,” Dodson said. “We were just sort of stunned walking around.”

Passengers were then asked to evacuate. Dodson said she was lucky — she wasn’t hurt, and didn’t see anyone who was badly injured. Mostly, she just saw people who were scared. “A lot of people were in shocking,” she said. “They were crying and very upset.”

 

Categories: Fairfield, General

Hector Santiago: The man of ‘no’

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Leaning over a railing of the Fairfield train station Saturday afternoon, Hector Santiago looked from a distance like just another prospective train passenger, waiting for the rest of his party to show up at the station. But Santiago wasn’t a sad passenger waiting for a train that wasn’t coming. He was the man of ‘no.’

Santiago, district manager for Metro North, was posted at the train station for much of Saturday mainly to tell people that there would be no train. Service to and from that station, and other, was suspended following a train derailment and crash at the Bridgeport/Fairfield line Friday evening. Santiago was one piece in a multi-faceted warning system, which also included a long PA announcement about the suspension and an illuminated sign announcing the suspension.

Luckily for him, Santiago didn’t see a lot of angry commuters while standing vigil on the platform.

“Things have been pretty slow,” he said. “I’ve been noticing a lot of people swinging by who seem to know the trains are suspended, but are looking for a contingency plan for Monday morning.”

So far, Santiago said, he isn’t aware of a contingency. He said he’s been referring most people seeking a train into New York to the South Norwalk station, where train service was still running. But he only saw a few people who didn’t seem aware of the suspension.

One of the few groups who ventured to the station Saturday afternoon was one led by Deirdre Colon of Wolcott. But Colon wasn’t a frustrated commuter looking for a train. She was just a frustrated mom who left her car at the train station on Friday and boarded a train to New York to take her son to an audition for an AT&T commercial. She and her son Gemini, 11, were supposed to be on one of the trains that crashed, but they took a later one because Gemini wanted to stop and visit the Empire State Building after his audition.

“I saved everybody’s life,” Gemini declared.

Deirdre said it became clear that something was wrong when the train was delayed, but train personnel weren’t telling passengers anything. “Nobody really knew what was happening, but if you were on Facebook, you saw what was going on,” she said. She said she was on the train for an hour and a half and “I was starting to get claustrophobic.”

Eventually, the train stopped in South Norwalk, and her husband came to pick her up.

 

 

Categories: Fairfield, General, Traffic

TV and video coverage of train crash

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Categories: General

Train crash mystery

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Officials said that it would take some time to figure out the cause. At this point, nothing obvious stands out.
The tracks in that stretch of Bridgeport are relatively straight. The speeds could not have been excessive because the crash was centered between two closely-spaced stations, the Fairfield Metro and Bridgeport stations. Also, the tracks were recently installed and both trains were the new M8 cars.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, in fact, credited the new cars with reducing the number and severity of the injured. He had toured the scene of the derailment just prior to the Saturday morning press conference.

Categories: General

Poll: What is your Plan B?

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Rail service is suspended on Metro-North’s New Haven Line between New Haven and South Norwalk indefinitely, leading many weekend tourists and regular commuters alike to seek alternate transportation.

What is your Plan B?

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Update on injured train passengers

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Seventy people were injured in Friday evening’s Metro-North accident in Bridgeport.

Three patients remained in critical condition Saturday, with two of those stable, according to officials at two Bridgeport hospitals.

The nursing supervisor at St. Vincent Medical Center said Saturday that 44 people from the crash had been treated there, and that five of those were admitted.

One of the five remained in critical but stable condition, the supervisor said.

Bridgeport Hospital spokesman John Cappiello said two patients were admitted in critical condition, and one of those was now stable.

The hospital treated 24 other patients from the crash, and many had been released already, with the rest expected to be released by late Saturday morning, Cappiello said.

 

Categories: General