Metro-North making schedule improvements to “supper express” trains from upper Hudson Valley into NYC

So in a press conference held a couple days ago, Metro-North announced that they’d be tinkering around with the times for the super express trains from the Upper Hudson Line into Grand Central. They’d be shaving time off of many of the super express trains from Poughkeepsie to Grand Fentral (specifically the ones during rush hours that run nonstop between New Hamburg, Beacon, and Harlem-125 St and Grand Central). These new schedule improvements, listed as it follows, will go into effect on Monday, October 6th.

• The 6:08am express from Poughkeepsie to Grand Central will arrive into Grand Central 5 minutes earlier.
• The 6:42am express from Poughkeepsie to Grand Central will now depart Poughkeepsie two minutes later, and will arrive into Grand Central 7 minutes earlier! 
• The 7:03am express from Poughkeepsie to Grand Central will now depart Poughkeepsie two minutes later, and will arrive into Grand Central five minutes earlier. 
• The 5:08pm express from Grand Central to Poughkeepsie will now depart Grand Central at 5:09pm, and will now shave off 7 minutes off the runtime. 
• The 5:30pm express from Grand Central to Poughkeepsie will arrive into Poughkeepsie 6 minutes earlier. 
• The 6:11pm express from Grand Central to Poughkeepsie will now depart Grand Central one minute later and will arrive into Poughkeepsie 7 minutes earlier.

I think this is a great thing. People that commute from the upper Hudson valley into Manhattan already have some of the longest commutes on the railroad, and by shaving even a couple minutes off their commute, that’s time they’ll be able to spend with their families, and overtime, that adds up. Metro-North already has a lot of fat in their schedules, specifically on the express portions, and it’s a really good thing to see them trim away some of that extra padding. 

They claimed that they used “specialized train simulation software and in-depth analyzes of GPS and signal data to find-tune the schedules to shave off up to 7 minutes off the schedule. They also said that improvements to signal infrastructure also helped to allow for speeds to be increased. Kathy Hochul also said that the new SC42DM’s that entered service last week also had something to do it it. 

While all of this is likely somewhat true, and the signal infrastructure probably helped a lot, I think the main culprit for slower speeds is really excessive schedule padding. I personally feel that schedule padding is especially unnecessary on express portions, since you can easily make up time by going slightly faster. 

I personally think that the LIRR should also look to adopt a similar mindset. They specifically pad a lot in the Hamptons, and while it’s necessary on some of the summer getaway trains, on many of the overnight trains it just isn’t necessary. Trains on the Ronkonkoma Branch also used to be advertised to be able to go from Ronkonkoma to New York in one hour, but now it takes up to 80 minutes! The one train that could almost do it in an hour (a super express from Ronkonkoma to Hicksville and New York) was eliminated. That train should be restored because it would help to reduce crowding on other trains! 

In the end, it’s good to see Metro-North cracking down on schedule padding, something they’ve been doing a good amount recently as they did it with some of those New Haven-GCT super express trains too. It’s definitely an improvement that can be made relatively easy, but now what it comes down to maintaining the schedule. Since leaving Grand Central, they now have 5, 6, or even 7 minutes less before they become marked late, they must make sure that the line is clear so they can get these trains out of the traffic and congestion in Grand Central and around Harlem-125 St and get them onto the racetrack which is the Hudson Line.