New Metro-North Schedules Take Effect on Sunday, March 18

The new schedules allow Metro-North to begin an extensive three-year project to transform the White Plains station, making it safer, brighter, cleaner and easier to navigate.

The general scope of the $94 million investment in the station includes improved station entrances, new signage, platforms, energy efficient LED lighting, benches with USB chargers, station dashboards and totems to provide convenient access to information, upgrades to customer restrooms, as well as Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity. The station’s interior will get a major make-over; crews will install new wall panels, ceiling tiles and fixtures.

The White Plains Station is located in two-track territory. Indeed, the two-track segment across the nearly five miles between the vicinity of Scarsdale and North White Plains is the busiest segment of two-track railroad in Metro-North’s system, with more than 200 weekday trains.   

For the duration of the White Plains project, one of the two tracks will be removed from service during off-peak and weekend hours to allow construction crews to have access to the platforms and to perform their work safely. The construction will not affect peak-hour weekday service, and peak-hour schedules remain unchanged.

While the first phase of improvements to the White Plains station is underway, Metro-North crews will also be out in force rehabilitating track between Scarsdale and Hartsdale. This work lays the foundation for plans to begin refurbishing both stations next year and requires off-peak single-tracking between Scarsdale and Hartsdale.

Elsewhere along the line, between Brewster and Southeast, crews will replace switches. This work requires single-tracking on weekends for three months for approximately 10 miles of track between Goldens Bridge and Southeast stations. To accommodate this track work, off-peak service will be reduced from half-hourly to hourly.  Off-peak half-hourly service will return with the fall 2018 schedule.

Details of the changes by line are as follows:

Harlem Line, Weekdays:

• There are no schedule changes to peak-period trains.
• Service levels are not affected on Harlem Line trains operating between Grand Central Terminal and Crestwood.
• Ten mid-day and four night-time local trains to and from North White Plains will no longer operate between Crestwood and North White Plains.
• Some trains to and from Southeast that currently operate express between White Plains and Harlem-125th Street will add stops at Hartsdale, Scarsdale and/or Crestwood to preserve half-hourly service to those stations, and to provide connecting service to and from the Crestwood local trains.
• Up to four minutes of running time has been added to accommodate speed restrictions and to operate at reduced speed past track and station-construction workers on the adjacent track and platform.  
• Up to four minutes of running time has been added to some northbound local trains at Scarsdale to allow southbound trains to clear the single-track between North White Plains and Scarsdale. 

Harlem Line, Weekends:

• Twenty-eight Saturday and twenty Sunday local trains to and from North White Plains will no longer operate between Crestwood and North White Plains.
• To accommodate train meets at the ends of the single-track segments, the northbound schedule pattern for most trains is revised. As is the case during off-peak hours on weekdays, certain trains to and from Southeast that currently operate express between Harlem-125th Street and White Plains will add stops at Hartsdale, Scarsdale and/or Crestwood.
• To accommodate the switch replacement project near Brewster, service between Grand Central Terminal and Southeast is reduced to hourly except inbound in the morning, and outbound in the late afternoon/evening. Half hourly service will be restored with the fall 2018 schedule change.
• The through train service between Grand Central Terminal and Wassaic on weekends in both directions (one train in each direction each day) is replaced with shuttle trains between Southeast and Wassaic, with connections at Southeast. Overall travel time between Wassaic and Grand Central Terminal is about 10 minutes longer than on the through trains.
• Up to four minutes of running time has been added to account for speed restrictions and to operate at reduced speed past track and station construction-workers on the adjacent track and platform.

 Hudson Line:

• Northbound weekend trains to Poughkeepsie depart Grand Central Terminal two minutes later and trains to Croton-Harmon depart one minute later in order to support rescheduled Harlem Line service.

 New Haven Line:

• There are no schedule changes to the New Haven Line.