Op-Ed: Give a Round of Applause to Our Crews at Metro-North

By Catherine Rinaldi, President, Metro-North Railroad

As we enter the fourth week of New York State “pause” during the COVID-19 crisis, I can’t express how proud I am of Metro-North’s frontline employees who come to work every day to answer an all-important call to duty, by providing essential workers with transportation to their vital workplaces.

What would our hospitals do without doctors, nurses, technicians, and ambulance drivers to treat the many sick flooding their doors every day? And how could our grocery stores provide food for our communities if their cashiers and food stockers didn’t show up to unload new deliveries and make scarce commodities available to shoppers --like disinfectant sprays, gloves, paper towels and orange juice?

Our operations crews have risen to the challenge during these difficult times and put the needs of our customers first. Night and day, our locomotive engineers and conductors have shown up to operate the trains, assist customers and provide important information. And even when we have lost 95 percent of our ridership due to COVID-19 precautions in the tri-state region, we continue to provide essential train service.

Many of our employees make the trains run from behind the scenes, and they have shown true grit during this national emergency. Our Maintenance of Way crews are coming to work to maintain and repair track, and our Communications and Signals workers are on the scene to correct malfunctions across the territory. Every day our mechanical crews make sure our trains are in good operating condition. Our train dispatchers work in our control center to make sure our trains run safely and efficiently. And our trainmasters are out there, rain or shine, to respond to any operational incidents that may arise.

At the same time, while also providing train service for essential healthcare workers, we have been able to give a lending hand to the medical profession by donating one of our trucks so medical supplies can be delivered to hospitals in New York State.

In our offices, essential workers who have seen their colleagues go out on quarantine, are answering calls on our 511 line. Our custodians and customer service managers are traveling from station to station two times a day, conducting thorough cleaning and disinfection. And our public address operators are ready at their microphones to inform customers with up-to-the-minute changes in train service.

Metro-North employees are demonstrating amazing dedication to providing service during this unprecedented time, and the essential workers who are doing their part are perhaps the humblest and the least likely to be heralded by the public for their exceptional service.

I am truly proud to be working with such a professional work force. The entire team at Metro-North continues to amaze me, and their dedication is inspiring. Let’s give a word of thanks to our Metro-North employees who show up every day to keep our region moving, and help us all make it through this difficult time.