Letter: New Shore Line East Schedule Not Good For Ridership

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To the Editor:

I’ve been taking the Shore Line East to and from New York once or twice a week for about 25 years.  One of the constants has been that train times continue to increase.  My heart sank when I saw the latest, supposedly improved, schedule. 

Going west continues to take about three hours between Old Saybrook and New York, regardless of the time of day.  To get back east, however, and I’m specifically talking about the morning, now takes roughly three and a half hours. Not that long ago, one could take the 6:55, the 8:24 or the 11:04 out of Grand Central and arrive in Old Saybrook in roughly three hours.  No longer.  Now, the first three-hour trip after the 6:55 is the 1:04.  That’s not acceptable scheduling, and it’s obviously not conducive to building ridership.

The connection between the Connecticut shoreline and New York is strong and vibrant, and I used to see it in play on almost every ride I took on the Shore Line East.  Now I often feel like I’m riding on a ghost train.   I don’t presume to have all the answers, but better scheduling would help.

Jane Chesnutt
Old Lyme, CT