Gov. Dannel P. Malloy personally expressed his frustration Friday morning to the MTA’s chairman, Tom Prendergast, over the previous evening’s power outage that stranded commuters on all three major Metro-North lines.
“The power outage on the New Haven Line last evening was totally avoidable and frankly, unfathomable given that it occurred due to inappropriate actions on the part of Metro-North,” Malloy said. “On behalf of the thousands of Connecticut citizens who rely on this crucial rail service every day, I am outraged that any maintenance procedure would be performed on the signal control system during the peak evening commuter period.”
A power failure at the railroad’s control center at Grand Central Terminal in New York left Metro-North without a computer system that controls and tracks train movements. Controllers then ordered a shutdown of the system.
“I expressed my anger and frustration in a call this morning with MTA CEO Tom Prendergast, asked him for a full explanation and an action plan to prevent any recurrence, and also requested that the MTA hire a third-party, independent authority who can serve as an advisor when crucial maintenance decisions like these are made,” Malloy said. “I have also asked for a face-to-face meeting with Mr. Prendergast and the incoming President of Metro-North, Joe Giullietti, as soon as Mr. Giullietti starts in his new position.”