Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is calling for a “crisis summit” to be held soon among state officials, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Metro-North to discuss the continuing failures of the New Haven Line’s 1896 “WALK Bridge” in Norwalk.
“This is now the second major failure in two weeks, leaving thousands of passengers stranded and causing unacceptable delays,” Malloy said Friday. “Let me be clear, this is outrageous. In speaking with MTA and Metro-North, my administration has stressed that every procedure, protocol and engineering solution must get the immediate attention of the most qualified team of experts. It is of the utmost importance that these operating, maintenance, alternative service and customer protocols be completely critiqued and that near term solutions be found to ensure reliable service for Connecticut commuters. It should be noted that these most recent failures punctuate the absolute necessity for replacing this 118 year old bridge – a central link to the entire Northeast Corridor. We simply cannot afford peak service disruptions like this, which is why we have requested and are aggressively pursuing federal Resiliency funding for this exact purpose.”
Further details on the meeting will be announced later.