Metro North Infrastructure Work

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Metro-North’s SMARTRACK Program Makes Progress in the Bronx

After completing work in Mount Vernon on the New Haven Line earlier this year, our SMARTRACK program moved over to the Bronx this summer.

where multiple work groups have had uninterrupted track access to get work done.

Part of our Way Ahead initiative, our SMARTRACK program enables Metro-North to undertake critical infrastructure work by strategically shutting down continuous segments of track, giving multiple work groups uninterrupted access to maintain and improve the system.

This allows us to improve our infrastructure expeditiously with minimal outages, and in turn, provide a better ride for our customers.

We’ve made great strides in the Bronx.  

And even though it has meant temporary busing for our customers at Melrose and Tremont stations, ultimately it means fewer and shorter track outages and less inconvenience overall.

The work was undertaken in the 7-mile section from Melrose to Woodlawn in the Bronx.

By early August we had:

• Installed over 700 new ties,
• vacuumed over 169 tie cribs in fouled ballast locations,
• installed new switches at Melrose,
• installed 17 new insulated joints and 10 – 80-foot plug rails,
• removed more than 128 concrete ties,
• completed 44 rail welds, and
• distributed 4 cars full of new ballast.

Our work crews also surfaced Track 4 between Melrose and Fordham and surfaced switches within the Melrose interlocking.

Do you recall all those rainstorms we have been experiencing?

To meet the hurricane season (which is right now) head-on

our crews cut down large or dangerous trees along Tracks 3 and 4 between Melrose and Fordham, with more to be completed north of Fordham soon.

Then our crews got to work on the Right-of-Way

cleaning up trash and debris, and disposing of four loads of a 20 cubic-yard container.

To help secure our right-of-way, our crews made plans for a new security fence at Botanical Garden, and repaired multiple fence openings along Track 1.

Taking advantage of the outage, contract workers started the work to lay important PTC (Positive Train Control) related fiber optic cables, by completing test pits, and starting cross-track digs. They are currently installing cable trays with fiber optic cable for the implementation of PTC along Track 3 between Fordham and Woodlawn.