Since a fire destroyed critical equipment that controls switches and signals near Greenwich on the New Haven Line on May 10, Metro North has installed a locally-controlled manual panel in the damaged control house.
The panel, installed May 23, allows them to change the direction of trains manually and make three of the four tracks available for morning peak (inbound) trains and evening peak (outbound) trains, and ease train congestion.
Metro North said there is a limited ability to switch trains from one track to another. Switching, normally performed by a Rail Traffic Controller in the railroad’s Operations Control Center in the City, is instead being done manually out in the field, which can take up to 30 minutes.
Rescue locomotives are on standby to assist should any train become disabled.
When fully operational, the control house at Greenwich will trains to switch between all four tracks in the area. During peak periods, trains normally use three of the New Haven Line’s four tracks.
Peak-direction trains have been limited to two of the four tracks in the 9-miles between Stamford and Port Chester, resulting in a bottleneck and delays.
Long Term Plan
This plan is to rebuild the damaged control house by the end of this year.