After more than a week of headaches for commuters, Metro-North announced Friday that it expects to restore full service on the New Haven Line by Monday.
That’s a full day sooner than expected and more than a week before the scheduled end of the project Con Edison was working on when the power went out. Of course, the restoration of full service assumes that the new substation delivered is found reliable during testing over the weekend.
In addition, Metro-North said it has figured out how to reimburse weekly and monthly ticket holders inconvenienced by the Sept. 25 power failure.
The MTA Board authorized the credits at an Oct. 1 meeting and agreed to compensate commuters for their troubles during the non-weather related event.
The exact credit amount will be based on the ticket type and purchase price. Starting Oct. 9, weekly ticket holders will be able to begin applying for the credit. Monthly ticket holders will have to wait until Oct. 20 when the November monthly tickets go on sale.
Also depending on how you received your ticket will dictate how you can redeem the credit. Additional ticket windows will be open at Grand Central Station and other New Haven Line stations. It’s still unclear exactly how much of a credit will be given to commuters. But they will be able to apply for the credit until March 31.
One of the two main electrical feeder cables failed while Con Edison was repairing the other one, causing an eight-mile stretch of track between Stamford and New York to go dark on Sept. 25. In the first few days of the outage, diesel trains helped carry passengers until enough transformers were brought in to help restore some of the electrical service.
Fives days after the power failure, the trains were operating at about 50 percent capacity, but for thousands of commuters it was standing room only on many of the trains.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy advocated for Metro-North and the MTA to compensate commuters for the inconvenience since it wasn’t caused by a weather event or an act of God. Other leaders, like U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty, called for Congressional hearings to identify problems in rail infrastructure where immediate investment may be necessary.
The New Haven Line is one of the busiest in the country carrying about 125,000 commuters per day.
For more information about how to redeem your weekly or monthly ticket visit the website: http://new.mta.info/mnr or call 877-690-5114.