A Publication for MTA Metro-North Railroad Customers May 2010 We’re Fixing Up Our Front Door(s)… platforms with canopies, as well as new enclosed overpasses. (Philipse Manor That’s how we like to think of each of will have its existing overpass rehabili - our stations—as a front door to our tated, while a new one will be installed train service, and to the communities at Scarborough. At Ossining, the exist - we serve. ing elevated walkway will also be reha - So, it is essential that we be “good bilitated.) neighbors” and make “home improve - In addition we are installing: ments” just like everyone else on the • New elevators and enclosed stairs, block. and a wind wall for the inbound plat - Here’s a quick overview of work oc - form at Scarborough. curring at key stations on our territory • Seven new staircases connecting funded through the MTA’s Capital Pro - the elevated station building/vehicular gram and our federal and state part - overpass to the east and west side ners. parking areas and ferry dock, as well as On the Hudson Line: We're nearing to the platforms, at Ossining. There will completion of the rehabilitation work on also be four new elevators stretching Philipse Manor , Scarborough , and from the station building to the plat - Ossining stations. forms and to the east and west parking They are being renovated as part of facilities. The enclosed elevated walk - the larger Hudson Line Stations Reha - way connected to the station building bilitation Project. This phase of the proj - will also be renovated. ect, started in January 2010, will be At Tarrytown Station , new center is - completed later this year in November. land and side platforms are in the (To date, thirteen Hudson Line station works along with new fully enclosed platform complexes have been com - and heated overpasses, one of which pletely rebuilt going north from Morris will boast new elevators. Heights through Irvington.) We'd like to point out that a key com - As we go to press, both Scarborough ponent of this rehab work is the new el - and Philipse Manor are almost com - evators being installed, which will pleted, while at Ossining 75% of the provide greater station accessibility for project is finished. our customers with disabilities. Major “home improvements” at these Platform amenities range from stations include new inbound/outbound canopies, heated shelters, lighting, and benches, to new public address and vi - overpass. sual information systems. These projects, key to maintaining the Work at Tarrytown started in October quality of our service, are a good exam - 2009 and this federal stimulus project ple of how we at Metro-North make is expected to be finished by 2012 . every dollar count. Further up the line, our Poughkeep - sie Station renovation is still under - way; all doors and windows on the historic Poughkeepsie Station are being replaced, including the five monumental arched windows. The internal walls will be cleaned and the east exterior wall cleaned and repointed. (We’ve already replaced the Spanish clay tile roof and cleaned the building’s terra cotta facade.) The next phase at Poughkeepsie will …And We’re Sporting include finishing and repointing the ex - New Concrete Ties… terior walls. The multi-year project is expected to be finished by 2013. Expanded parking is always a much No, they are not the newest fashion sought-after improvement at most sta - trend. (But “fashionistas” tell us they tions, and at Cortlandt Station work match concrete shoes quite nicely.) has begun on adding up to 720 park - On the New Haven Line, we’ve just ing spaces (bringing parking capacity wrapped up installing some 16,500 to 1,605 spaces from 885) that will be concrete ties along a 7-1/2 mile stretch available to all commuters. on the Grand Central-bound local track Additional improvements include an between Port Chester and Stamford. intermodal plaza, and pedestrian over - Meanwhile, on the Hudson Line, tie pass extension leading to the west side installation is currently occurring from of the station’s tracks, and a new pas - north of Beacon to south of Pough - senger waiting and vendor area in the keepsie. Here, we are placing approxi - overpass. mately 29,000 concrete ties over an Also, to improve access, we are re - 11-mile span of track. This work will fin - configuring the Route 9A intersection ish up around June 20th, in time for the leading to the station. next timetable change. This project, which began in Novem - The concrete ties are installed using a ber 2009, is expected to finish by No - Track Laying Machine (TLM). It’s a so - vember 2011. phisticated piece of machinery using On the New Haven Line: By year's conveyor belts and gantries to remove end, we anticipate unveiling our newly old ties and install new ones that would renovated Port Chester and Rye sta - make Rube Goldberg envious. (If you tions. (Work started at these stations in don’t know why, Google him.) July 2009.) But the installation isn’t all done by We are bringing both stations back to machine. There are about two weeks of a state of good repair. Look for new prep work prior to tie installation. It then platforms, canopies, stairs, ramps, takes almost three weeks of work to re - platform amenities, and public address turn the tracks to operational shape by and visual information systems. unloading and tamping ballast, secur - Additionally, Rye Station will have its ing the rails, and re-installing the signal overpasses/underpasses rehabilitated. system circuitry. Its station building will also be reno - This work is part of an effort to renew vated and include an extension of the our concrete ties which began in 2005. station building’s canopy to the west Next year, we will do the final phase of work on the New Haven Line, bringing to a close this massive project which has seen us install 200,000 new con - crete ties during this six-year project. And the end result is a faster, smoother ride for you. …And Putting in New Flooring… At Grand Central, our five-year program to restore and repair the broken and New Location, cracked marble tiles and terrazzo sec - Same Great Service tions of the Terminal’s floor continues. We've just finished the second year of Our Customer Service Center repre - this program; we are repairing about sentatives—who field in-person cus - 5% a year to minimize disruption to the tomer inquiries and issues—are 700,000 people who pass through the being temporarily relocated to the Terminal each day. (We expect this re - fourth floor of 345 Madison Ave. The habilitation project to be completed in phone number (212-672-1290) and 2012.) hours of operation (8:30 AM – 5 PM, Depending on the area of the Terminal Monday – Friday) remain the same. that needs repairs, we have been re - placing broken tiles with either newly hardest task is the acquisition, selec - quarried Tennessee pink marble ones tion, and emplacement of the marble or with custom terrazzo panels (a type and terrazzo so that it is indistinguish - of flooring consisting of marble chips able from the original, adjacent sec - set in cement or epoxy resin that is tions. poured and ground smooth when dry). To acquire an exact match of the Ten - (About 25% of the floor needs re - nessee pink marble, we went to the placement—we're talking about some quarry from which the original stone 45,000 square feet of Tennessee pink was cut. It had been closed since the marble and 67,000 square feet of ter - late 1980s, but the owners agreed to razzo that will be installed. ) reopen it so that Grand Central Termi - The very process of chiseling out the nal could attain identical marble to that broken floor sections and then setting of the original. in new ones is difficult enough, but the The original slabs of marble were placed just 1/16th of an inch apart. This tight fit, however, left little room for “give” when the building vibrates due to trains traveling on the Terminal’s loop tracks (which actually run behind the famous Oyster Bar). The replacement slabs are placed with double the space between them. The 1/8th inch separation that is now the standard is invisible to the casual eye and will prevent cracking. To duplicate the original terrazzo’s unique color and make-up is more challenging, as the original “mixture recipe” was lost to history. So a laborious and exacting process games. ) of trial and error ensued with multiple For full details, visit mixtures, combinations, and processes www.mta.info/mnr . Please note: until, finally, a perfect color match was You can now access game-day train achieved. service using our interactive schedules (Like Kentucky Fried Chicken, we page. keep the new written recipe for this per - fect mixture a secret, and in a secure, What a Day! locked drawer within Grand Central.) The terrazzo slabs, which are actually softer and more prone to wear and We achieved a 100% On-Time Per - cracking than the Tennessee pink mar - formance system-wide—meaning East- ble, now have an almost imperceptible of-Hudson AND West-of-Hudson brass border on all sides. service—on Thursday, April 29th. This This stops any cracks that have de - accomplishment, along with the many veloped in one slab, from transferring successes we've attained in the past, to the next slab...and then the next. results from our employees' hard work You can try looking for the new and and commitment to making Metro- shiny sections of the Terminal’s floor, North a brand name for excellence.