Connecticut commuters are getting minutes of their days back, as Metro-North on Tuesday announced that new “super-express” trains are now running between New Haven and Grand Central Terminal.
Six trains a day will run the route in roughly 90 minutes — an average of 10 minutes faster than before — making stops at New Haven, Bridgeport, Stamford and Grand Central, railroad officials said.
“Here’s the punch line: Metro-North is now faster than the Acela coming from New Haven,” MTA Chairman Janno Lieber told reporters, referring to the luxe Amtrak line, adding, “Not to mention cheaper, by a lot.”
“Overall, it’s about 3 minutes quicker than the Acela,” said Justin Vonashek, president of Metro-North.
Three super-express trains will run to New York City from New Haven each morning — at 5:08 a.m., 5:32 a.m. and 7:32 a.m.; and three will run back to the Nutmeg State in the evenings — at 4:16 p.m., 4:49 p.m. and 6:26 p.m.
“Our team spent a lot of time simulating the trains, figuring out the best routing patterns to make this the premier service on the New Haven Line,” Vonashek said.
The increased speeds of the super-express trains are also made possible by so-called positive train control, Vonashek said, referring to an automated train safety system mandated by federal regulators as of 2020.
“There really wasn’t a cost. We really utilized the resources that we had available to us,” Vonashek said. “It was really bringing in the right people to be able to fine-tune [the simulations].”
The Metro-North boss told the Daily News that his team hoped to roll out similar improvements on the railroad’s other lines going forward.
Commuters can expect the same strategies to yield 90-minute train rides on the Hudson Line between Poughkeepsie and the Big Apple early next year, he said.
