Senate committee to hold field hearing on Metro North power failure

{mosads}”This hearing will explore the causes of the recent power outage on Metro-North’s New Haven Line, which resulted in significant delays and service reductions for nearly two weeks,” the committee said in a statement announcing the hearing.

“The purpose of the hearing is to understand what went wrong, how it could have been prevented, and the economic impact of this major service disruption,” the hearing noticed continued.

The September power outages represented the second major disruption of service on Metro-North’s Connecticut tracks this year. Service in the state was shut down in the spring after a crash in Fairfield that injured more than 70 people. The railway was also damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which operates Metro-North, attributed the initial power-related delays on the Connecticut railway to a “continuing Con Ed power outage to a crucial 8-mile segment of the New Haven Line.”