Black Sunday: A Bad Year for Metro-North

This morning, tragedy struck Metro-North Railroad, when a morning train from Poughkeepsie derailed in Spyuten Dyuvil, in the Bronx, about 15 minutes from Grand Central Terminal, the trains destination. That could have been me on that train. Regardless, my heart goes out to the friends and family of those on the train, and especially to the families of the four who died. As far as I can recall, this is the first fatal accident in Metro-North's thirty-year history (and the "experts" at Wikipedia can back me up on that), but looking at that, Metrolink, which serves the nation's second largest metropolis, has had two fatal accidents in the last ten years.

Years ago, I considered working for Metro-North, even the idea of being the rail carrier's president crossed my mind. To have Howard Permut's job for me would require me doubling my meds. This has not been a good year for my favorite commuter rail carrier, and this is also the thirtieth anniversary of Metro-North's 1983 launch. The reasons are numerous: (quoting NBC New York)

— On Sept. 25, a feeder cable in suburban Mount Vernon, N.Y., failed, knocking out power for 12 days to Metro-North's New Haven line, which carries 132,000 commuters daily. NOTE: that resulted in me forgoing plans to see my stepaunt and stepuncle.

— On July 18, 10 freight train cars hauling garbage derailed in New York City, and service was suspended.

— On May 28, track foreman Robert Luden was struck and killed by a passenger train in West Haven, Conn. The National Transportation Safety Board says he had requested a track section be taken out of service for maintenance, and the section was placed back in service too soon by a student traffic controller who didn't have the required approval.

— On May 17, an eastbound train derailed in Bridgeport, Conn., and was struck by a westbound train. The accident injured 73 passengers, two engineers and a conductor. NOTE: that was caused by a broken rail, and took two sets of M8 railcars out of service.

Some weird coincidences: In the Hudson Line schedule, the 5:44am weekend train out of Poughkeepsie is numbered 8808. Four people died this morning. Four people also died in a plane crash in Alaska as well. And eight people died in a helicopter crash in Scotland. What am I saying here? The number 8 ain't so lucky anymore. 8 is divisible by four. But that's regardless. As a frequent rider of both Metro-North and Amtrak (MNRR is Amtrak's sixth busiest host railroad!) I am ANXIOUS about finding out the results of this investigation. I am only seven years younger than Metro-North, and I rode on Metro-North intensely during it's adolescent years. 

Whatever it is, it's going to take money to fix: track improvements, positive train control, enhanced crew training. In the end, it's going to mean a safer railroad, and the four who died this morning will have not died in vain, even though it appears this accident could have been clearly avoided. Who knows if the train had gone a safe speed it might have arrived at Grand Central only five minutes late. I'd rather be late and safe than on-time and dead.

And the Spuyten Duyvil location? Home to a wreck in 1882.