New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority approved a ticket credit for weekly and monthly pass customers of Metro-North Railroad’s New Haven line, where service has been disrupted since last week because of the Sept. 25 failure of a Consolidated Edison feeder cable.
The MTA’s board approved the credit toward future purchases at a special meeting late Tuesday afternoon.
A Con Edison feed loader between the Harrison, N.Y.., and Mount Vernon, N.Y., failed, disrupting electric train service for tens of thousands of commuters in New York and Connecticut and forcing overcrowding on trains that do run.
“One of the most important questions we need to address is what happened and what we need to do to prevent a recurrence,” MTA chairman Thomas Prendergast said.
Metro-North President Howard Permut also said service on the line would increase to about 65% of normal on Wednesday.
According to Prendergast, the agency is still totaling the cost, and is considering claims against ConEd and other parties for rebate and overtime.
The MTA is developing an implementation plan and intends to announce specifics later this week on its website. Any customer with a monthly or weekly ticket for transportation during this incident should hold onto the ticket, Prendergast said.
New York and Connecticut governors Andrew Cuomo and Dannel Malloy, respectively, had pushed for the credit.
“Approving a refund to commuters isn’t just the right thing to do it’s what they need to do,” Malloy said in a statement before the meeting. “It’s incumbent on the MTA and ConEd to deal with this problem and get it fixed, and it’s critical that Connecticut residents get reimbursed as quickly as possible.”
Board member Jonathan Ballan said some trains on the alternative Harlem line had as many as 100 standees on Tuesday morning. He also said some MTA employees at Grand Central Terminal last weekend were befuddled about alternative timetables. “There was great confusion in Grand Central, that’s a fact,” he said.
The authority is one of the biggest issuers in the municipal marketplace, with $32.3 billion of debt outstanding. Moody’s Investors Service assigns an A2 rating to the MTA’s primary credit, transportation revenue bonds, while Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor’s assign A ratings.
