Metro-North Railroad Announces Biggest, Most Ambitious Service Expansion In Its 30-year History

This information was written and provided by Metro-North. It was posted on Madison Patch by Pem McNerney: 

Our schedule change effective on Sunday, April 7 completes Metro-North Railroad's biggest and most ambitious service expansion in its 30-year history. The new timetables will include increased off-peak and weekend train frequencies as well as faster service for many customers. 

This second round of service investments provides an additional 187 trains per week in addition to the 56 trains added last October. Together this is an increase of 5.6% in the number of trains Metro-North operates each week. 

By adding off-peak and weekend trains and by adding stops at key stations, we are able to increase frequency and provide faster trip times system wide. 

Key improvements include: 85 additional weekday and 22 additional weekend trains on the Hudson Line; 65 additional weekday and 6 additional weekend trains on the Harlem Line; and 9 additional weekend trains on the New Haven Line.

On the New Haven Line improvements will:

• Provide additional half-hourly service on Sunday between Stamford and GCT. 

On the Hudson Line improvements will:

• Provide new half-hourly service at Spuyten Duyvil, Riverdale, and Irvington stations during weekday off-peak times and most of the day on weekends. This increase is warranted as ridership continues to grow at these stations. To accomplish this at no additional cost, about 20 trains per day on weekdays and about 30 trains on Saturdays and 23 trains on Sundays will make these additional stops.
• Provide three trains per hour at Ossining and Tarrytown, which are two of the highest ridership stations on the Hudson Line.
• Provide additional service at most Hudson Line Bronx stations in the key reverse commuting time periods.
• Provide additional Upper Hudson Line service on weekdays and weekends at key high-ridership and reverse commuting time periods.

On the Harlem Line improvements will:

• Provide new half-hourly service at larger stations during the key higher-ridership times of the day on weekdays between Southeast and GCT.
• Provide additional PM Peak service between GCT and Southeast.
• Provide three trains per hour during select off-peak hours at Scarsdale and Hartsdale, and four trains per hour at White Plains and North White Plains stations, all of which are the highest ridership stations on the Harlem Line.
• Provide additional half-hourly service on Sunday between North White Plains and GCT.

In addition, a rock slope remediation project will take place from April 8 through June 2 on the Harlem Line between Pawling and Harlem Valley-Wingdale. To accommodate this project, trains will be replaced by buses between 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM on weekdays, and between 9:00 AM and 3:00 PM on Sundays. The bus schedules will be included in the April 7 Harlem Line timetables.
 
For more details visit our schedules page. Or you can pick up a new timetable in Grand Central Terminal or at outlying stations.