Battle of the Bills

With the that MTA is actively reviewing their own Passenger's Bill of Rights, the Connecticut Rail Commuter Council, who have been working on their own Metro-North Bill of Rights since July, are expressing disappointment over the idea that CT commuters may have no say in what "rail rights" they have, on paper.

"Though Metro-North has been in operation for 25 years they’re never discussed a Passenger Bill of Rights…until US Senator Schumer suggested the need for one (on the LIRR) following the Jamaica lightning outage.  Suddenly, MTA is running around like crazy trying to draft a document and look like it was their idea," CRCC president Jim Cameron said. 

"The Council had discussed this idea about five years ago but we got nowhere.  The real spark this time was the 7/22 stranding incident near Westport and MNR’s inept handling of the crisis.  In the aftermath, State Senator Toni Boucher suggested there should be some codification of what passengers should expect from Metro-North.  She drafted a lengthy list and we took it from there."

According to Cameron, he heard rumors of a MTA Bill of Rights before taking a vacation in Europe. At Oct. 19's CCRC meeting, MTA representative Susan Doering confirmed that not only was MTA reviewing their own Bill of Rights completely separate of CCRC's, but that it would be ready within a few weeks.

"Given that all members of the Commuter Council are commuters, 100% of the input into the draft has come from commuters.  I also asked on our Facebook page what riders thought should be included," Cameron said.

Comments on CRCC's Facebook include: 

• "At least one quiet car ( no phones) on each train."
• "Many good ideas but unfortunately won't go anywhere, because of expense. The MTA has their act together compared to the ConnDOT staff who oversee the service, and politicians who talk nonsense showing they know very little about the transit system."
• "I would definitely add respectful treatment by all conductors. There are many who I would go out of my way to praise, while I've also see conductors antagonize passengers. Not asking for charm school graduates, just conductors who operate with some degree of human/cultural sensitivity."

Doering could not elaborate on the exact contents of MTA's Bill of Rights at CCRC's latest meeting, as she did not have enough information on it at the time.

"...Did they even look at or consider our draft?  No.  Will ‘their’ Bill of Rights have commuter input thru the NY, LIRR and our Commuter Councils?  Don’t know," Cameron said.