New Triangle in Commuter Service

The paper describes the successful negotiations of the States of New York and Connecticut to secure control of the New Haven commuter service, and gives a history of the railroad commuter crisis with emphasis on the New York metropolitan area. It also shows how the new triangle could apply generally, such as Railpax. The paper outlines the proposed capital improvement project costing over $100,000,000 including new cars, stations electrification, and others. The service operating agreement which provides for a publically supported private carrier operation is described in some detail. Also shown are how accounts, operations, management, financial support and other aspects of the agreement will be handled. Efforts by various jurisdictions to cope with the ever deepening commuter problem that culminated in public support or bankruptcy for virtually all commuter service in the East are reviewed quite extensively. How the various levels of government finally originated a successful effort to formulate a permanent long range solution to the problem is illustrated.