Metro North Upgrades

The Connecticut Department of Transportation (DOT) announced that commuters on the Danbury Branch of the New Haven rail line may now use credit cards to purchase tickets on board the train.

It is part of a pilot project before opening up the entire New Haven Line to credit card usage next year. Many commuters have expressed a preference for the convenience of using a credit card.

November 9 Schedule Change Adds New Haven Line Service

On Sunday, November 9, for the first time, there will be new half-hourly service between New Haven and New York in the off-peaks and on weekends. There also will be minor adjustments on all three lines to improve reliability.

Six weekday off peak, 12 Saturday and 10 Sunday trains are being added to the schedule.

Metro-North President Joseph Giulietti said, “We expect that the assurance that you never had to wait more than half an hour for a train should make Metro-North an even more attractive transportation option.”

With this initiative, Metro-North will now offer off-peak, half-hourly service on the outer New Haven Line as follows:

• Weekdays: inbound from after the AM Peak until 6:47 p.m. from New Haven, outbound from Grand Central Terminal from 5:49 a.m. until midnight (except during the PM Peak, when service is more frequent)
• Saturdays: inbound from 6:46 a.m. until 6:46 a.m. from New Haven, outbound from 10:04 a.m. until 10:34 p.m.
• Sundays: inbound from 7:46 a.m. until 7:46 p.m. from New Haven, outbound from 11:04 a.m. until 10:34 p.m.

Two new super express trains – with travel times of one hour and 39 minutes – also are being added on weekend mornings.

• A new Saturday train will depart New Haven at 9:20 a.m., stopping at Bridgeport only at 9:42 a.m., before going express to Grand Central Terminal.
• A new train will depart New Haven at 10:41 AM on Saturdays and Sundays, make a Bridgeport stop at 11:03 a.m., then go express to Grand Central.

Finally, a new train will operate Saturday and Sunday evenings, departing New Haven at 10:46 p.m., closing a two-hour gap before the last train out of New Haven.

Metro-North also is adding a new PM Peak train to relieve overcrowding on the train to New Haven. The new train will depart Grand Central Terminal at 6:35 p.m., making stops at Greenwich, Stamford, Noroton Heights, Darien, Rowayton and South Norwalk.

In conjunction with this change the 6:47 p.m. train to New Haven will depart six minutes later at 6:53 p.m., and the 7:06 p.m. train to New Haven will depart at 6:49 p.m., 17 minutes earlier and no longer stop at Stamford.

On the Waterbury Branch

In response to recent requests from riders and at CDOT’s request, two new trains are being added on weekends and the schedule will be adjusted so that intervals between departures are consistently three hours throughout the day.

• A new train will depart Waterbury at 10:10 p.m., which is two hours later than the current last train.
• A new train will depart Grand Central at 10:04 p.m. and Bridgeport at 11:41 p.m., one hour later than the current last train.

I hope this information is helpful to you.