Metro-North train delays skyrocketed in early 2014 as the beleaguered railroad ramped up its track repair work after a year of deadly failures, according to new data obtained by The Post.
Maintenance work is responsible for delaying more than 4,500 trains in the first two months of the year, compared with only 456 delays the year before — or a nearly 900 percent increase, a new operating report reveals.
Track work isn’t the only reason trains are running behind schedule: The extreme winter weather was responsible for delaying 1,030 trains — a 485 percent spike over last year’s milder winter.
Metro-North began intensive repairs throughout its system after an outside group called TCI was brought in to inspect all of its tracks.
They came in after a train derailed in Connecticut last year — injuring 51 people — in an area where maintenance work had fallen behind schedule.
The much-needed repair work makes the railroad safer but also slows down trains– driving up complaints about service.
“On-time performance has taken a hit as Metro-North concentrates its resources on safety, and our customers are reacting,” said spokeswoman Marjorie Anders. “We are working to restore high-service quality, and this includes a lot of track work. But we must ensure safety first.”
Customers logged 4,375 complaints through the end of February — up from 2,800 over the same period last year.
Complaints were also on the rise every month last year, from a low of 915 in January to a high of 1,402 in December, when a Bronx train derailment killed four people and injured 70 others.
The Metro-North’s president, Howard Permut, resigned in January after the deadly derailment.
Riders advocate Jim Cameron of the Commuter Action Group created a Web site in January to make it easier for riders to send their gripes to the railroad — with a link to the official Metro-North page and tips on how to complain effectively.
“The problem is what happens after the complaints are filed,” Cameron said.”People get a nice boiler-plate e-mail response, then nothing happens.”
To get action, he urges riders to be as specific as possible about their gripes and to copy their lawmakers on the complaints.
To open up dialogue with riders, the new Metro-North president, Joseph Giulietti, is holding six informal meetings at stations to listen to customer concerns. His first meeting was Wednesday at Grand Central Terminal.
Some frustrated riders have created several angry Metro-North twitter feeds that air their gripes and provide real-time pictures from their hellish commutes.
@MetroNorthHell, @FireMetroNorth, and @SrcasticCommutr tweet rider grievances regularly.
“I started it to catalog all the gross things the riders do,” said the Westchester man who runs the @MetroNorthHell feed but declined to give his name. “It switched to bitching about the train. The crimes of the riders seemed much less interesting than the overall shortcomings of the train itself. Twitter handles have popped up because people kind of had it.”
He said he hopes the railroad goes back to its once-stellar reputation so he can return to his snarky tweets about riders who open up cans of tuna and remove bandages from their feet mid-ride.