GARRISON – Governor Kathy Hochul visited Putnam County on Wednesday stopping at the Garrison Metro-North Railroad station to talk about the MTA’s targeted investments to improve the resiliency of the railroad’s network.
She said while there are those opposed to the just-approved congestion pricing plan for Manhattan, it will be a source of funding for Metro-North and other public transit.
“There are some people, elected officials, who do not believe in investing in public transit – yes, sad but true. Word right now we’re investing $1.5 billion as a result of our congestion plan into Metro-North; $1.5 billion just into this rail line from that one source alone,” she said.
Hochul said than half of the 74-mile-long Hudson Line is vulnerable to coastal surge risk and the Garrison station sits just feet from the Hudson River.
The MTA’s proposed capital plan focuses on addressing erosion hot spots, stabilizing upland slopes, and upgrading drainage in the most vulnerable and highest-ridership segments of the line, protecting more than 20 miles of the Hudson Line.
The governor said during 2024, work on Metro-North stations was included replacement of three-foot-wide portions of all the platforms, new railing, tactile strips, expansion joints and miscellaneous concrete repairs with new staircases in Garrison.
A future project will install police observational devices including security cameras.
During the current year, three Metro-North stations, Hartsdale, Scarsdale, and Purdy’s, were made fully ADA accessible, bringing the total number of accessible Metro-North stations to 124: 112 east of the Hudson River and 12 west of the Hudson.
Metro-North President Katherine Rinaldi reported that investments in rolling stock will improve Metro-North’s service. Metro-North recently took delivery of the first two of 33 new state-of-the-art 4,200-horsepower locomotives that will replace the existing fleet of locomotives used for trains serving Poughkeepsie, Southeast and Danbury.
A new 400,000-square-foot facility, known as the Harmon Shop that opened in May now serves as a vital maintenance and operations hub for the electric fleet serving Metro-North’s Harlem and Hudson lines.
Hochul also reported the capital investments were occurring at the same time as Metro-North is delivering outstanding service and experiencing strong ridership with on-time performance at 99 percent.
Metro-North continues to shatter pre-COVID ridership records carrying 6.5 million riders in October, an increase of 13 percent from September and a 16.2 percent increase from October 2023.
Metro-North’s average weekday ridership of 230,449 is a post-pandemic record, at 79.2 percent of pre-COVID levels in October 2019.