I Ride The Harlem Line

Tagged: april fools

Humor / Videos

Grade Crossing Safety: Metro-North’s New Pilot Program

This morning Metro-North announced a new plan to get people’s eyes focused on grade crossings – literally. In a new pilot program, the railroad will be hiring people to wear costumes and protect grade crossings, reminding drivers not to stop on the tracks, or attempt to go around lowered or lowering crossing gates. Grade crossing incidents have been at the forefront of railroad safety recently, after three high-profile incidents caused major derailments, many injuries, and seven deaths. The three incidents occurred in New York, California, and North Carolina, proving that this is not merely a local problem, but a national...

April Fools’!

Humor

April Fools’!

As many of you surmised, yesterday’s post about the Metro-North Heritage Unit Program was most definitely an April fools’ joke. Here are some of the reactions from our little bit of tomfoolery: I was about ready to share this with a friend when I remembered what day it is. Enough of this nonsense. Just try to get me home on time. Unless there is a formal press release by the MTA or CDOT, no one should buy this. That is the UGLIEST paint scheme on a Genny I’ve ever seen! Nope. Not real. Admittedly, I designed the scheme to be...

Metro-North Railroad Announces Heritage Unit Program

Photos / Train Stories

Metro-North Railroad Announces Heritage Unit Program

Metro-North’s new president, Joseph Giulietti, has been on the job over a month now, and it seems apparent that things are slowly starting to change at the beleaguered railroad. One certainly cannot change an entire railroad in such a short amount of time, but Mr. Giulietti has made it a point to ensure riders that safety is the railroad’s primary goal. In a more light-hearted move, Giulietti has also announced the beginning of a Heritage Unit program for Metro-North. Such programs have been highly successful and well liked on other railroads, most notably Norfolk Southern. While discussing the subject, Giulietti...

Construction on East Side Access Project Halted Indefinitely

Humor

Construction on East Side Access Project Halted Indefinitely

While celebrating Grand Central Terminal’s 100th anniversary, we discussed a wide array of topics regarding GCT’s history, and its place in our lives today. The one thing that we failed to mention was one of Grand Central’s futures – a major one being the East Side Access project. Designed to connect the Long Island Rail Road to a new station underneath Grand Central, the new facility was estimated to open by 2019. Unfortunately, that timeline has been called into question after the discovery of fossilized remains in one of the underground tunnels where construction is currently going on. The first...

AWESOME new Harlem Line service – To Millerton!

Humor / Train Stories

AWESOME new Harlem Line service – To Millerton!

I cannot believe that Metro-North managed to keep this a secret… I nearly had a heart attack when I grabbed one of the new timetables that came out today. Harlem Line service to Millerton is returning! Although there is no time frame of when the stations (Millerton and Amenia) will be reopening, the timetables give us a sneak peek. In Grand Central you can even find a local timetable from both Millerton and Amenia, which are in the newly-created Zone 11 on the line. A monthly ticket from Millerton to Grand Central will cost a whopping $506, but it the...

Looking back at 2010… a countdown of the most popular

Humor / Train Stories

Looking back at 2010… a countdown of the most popular

Ah, 2010. You were the first full year that I actually operated this blog. Lots of fun and shenanigans were to be had. I decided to take a look back at what was popular on the site this year, as a wrap-up for 2010… 1. BPGlobal Billboards The first entry here is not train-related in any way… however it was such a major news story at the time I couldn’t not have some fun with it – though fun is actually a terrible way to describe it, as the Gulf Oil Spill was quite tragic. To me the two standouts...