BLE Focus

Metro North

The second largest commuter line in the U.S., MTA Metro North Railroad, serves New York City and provides more than 240,000 customer trips each weekday and some 71.8 million trips per year.

Metro-North was founded in 1983, when the MTA assumed control of Conrail commuter operations in New York and Connecticut. Metro-North traces its antecedents back to the New York & Harlem Railroad, which began in 1832 as a horse-car line in lower Manhattan. Metro-North is a subsidiary of the Metropolitan Transit Authority.

Metro-North currently has a fleet of more than 950 cars and engines, 384 route miles, and 775 miles of track. The railroad goes to 119 stations distributed in seven counties in New York - Dutchess, Putnam, Westchester, Bronx, New York (Manhattan), Rockland, and Orange - and two counties in Connecticut - New Haven and Fairfield.

Three main lines - the Hudson, the Harlem, and the New Haven - operate out of Grand Central Terminal in New York City, and two lines west of the Hudson River - the Port Jervis and the Pascack Valley lines - operate out of New Jersey Transit's terminal in Hoboken, N.J. The Hudson Line extends 74 miles from Grand Central Terminal to Poughkeepsie; the Harlem, 82 miles to Wassaic; and the New Haven, which also has three branch lines - the New Canaan, Danbury, and Waterbury - 72 miles to New Haven. The Port Jervis Line runs 95 miles from Hoboken to Port Jervis, with 30 of those miles in New Jersey; the Pascack Valley Line extends 31 miles from Hoboken to Spring Valley, 25 of those miles being in New Jersey.

Metro-North and the BLE

The collective bargaining rights on Metro North have been taken over by an upstart union, Association of Commuter Rail Employees, but there are still BLE members persevering on this railroad, according to Vice-General Chairman Tom Gleason.

There are approximately 40 members still represented by the BLE on Metro North, but this number fluctuates because of pressure from the company and ACRE.

"The company is trying desperately to force us off the property, in favor of the company-sponsored union, ACRE," said BLE Division 127 Vice-President Mary Donch. "The ACRE people have been given carte blanche by the company to deny our claims, charge seniority maintenance fees, and generally run roughshod over us."

The relationship between the BLE and Metro North is contentious, according to Donch.

"The railroad sincerely wishes we would just go away. So does ACRE."

In spite of all the problems with the company and the competing union, BLE members persevere.

"We face a tremendous fight for the hearts and minds of the ACRE members who aren't truly satisfied with their little experiment in company unionism," said Donch. "We do have our elected officers, of course, but in practice we all pitch in to help one another, and our members know they can call any of us and get a straight answer. We're very cooperative-minded, not hierarchical."

This cooperative strategy may make the difference for the BLE on Metro

North. These BLE members have maintained their unity and cohesiveness through hardship and have shown the ability to endure. In time, perhaps, the perseverance, unity and fighting spirit of these BLE members will win.

PATH

Run by the Port Authority of New York-New Jersey, PATH trains travel through the New York-New Jersey metropolitan region, which consists of the five New York City boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Richmond (Staten Island), and the Bronx. It also includes the four suburban New York counties of Nassau, Suffolk, Rockland and Westchester; and the eight northern New Jersey counties of Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Middlesex, Morris, Passaic, Somerset, and Union.

PATH is a short turn-around railroad with less than 50 miles of track. In spite of its small size, it carries over 200,000 passengers per day. PATH estimates that it carries over 72 million passengers per year and ridership is approaching maximum saturation.

The carrier is in the process of extending stations to accommodate larger car consists.

While the railroad used to be fairly one-directional with passengers going into New York City in the morning and back to New Jersey in the evening, development on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River has caused ridership to swell enormously in both directions into and out of New York City.

BLE and PATH

PATH may be a small railroad, but that does not make the BLE members' jobs any less difficult.

PATH has approximately 160 BLE members who operate trains both below and above ground. The signal system has a great number of signals for a small railroad, according to General Chairman Ralph Nunziato.

"To squeeze as many trains as it can into a limited amount of tracks and tunnels, and engineer can pass 1,200-1,500 signals in a work week," said Nunziato. "We have our share of signal run-throughs, which is probably our second greatest fear - fatalities being the first."

The BLE's main concerns in negotiations with PATH are the improvement of pensions and wages.

"We look forward to enjoying the benefits of the efforts of the BLE in getting Congress to pass the Railroad Retirement bill," said Nunziato.

Continued on Page 11

Back to Fall 2001 Journal

© 2001 Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers