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“I’m very impressed so far with the commuters,” First Selectman Michael Tetreau said. “The commuters really listened. We asked them to find alternatives to using the rail system, and they did.”
Fairfield police had patrol officers stationed at the Fairfield Metro and Fairfield train stations to help commuters get on the buses that took the place of Metro-North trains while crews continue to repair the damage caused by Friday's train derailment and collision. Fewer commuters than expected showed up at the two Metro-North stations during Monday morning’s commute.
“We prepared for the largest contingency of people,” Police Chief Gary MacNamara said Monday. “And we received the least amount of train commuters today that we’ve seen in a long time. That doesn’t mean that we aren’t prepared for the larger crowd tomorrow and Wednesday.”
On the roads, Fairfield police added patrols to high-traffic areas to direct traffic coming off Interstate 95 and the Merritt Parkway during rush hour. They also turned some stoplights into blinking mode to give right-of-way to higher-traffic roads such as Post Road.
Police and Metro-North also designed the shuttle-bus routes to keep the buses off the main roads. No major accidents were reported Monday morning as a result of higher traffic.
Fairfield’s three train stations will stay closed as the Department of Transportation works to repair the tracks, even though the construction work is mostly in Bridgeport. Unlike the Westport station and all others south, the three Fairfield stations are on the same power grid as Bridgeport, so electricity cannot be restored to those stops until construction is finished.
Until then, Southport parking passes will be honored at the Fairfield center station. The Fairfield Metro lot also has more parking available for the normal $6 day rate and is better designed to accommodate the bus loop, Tetreau said.
“We got through day one,” he said. “This is a five-day event that we have to plan for, so we’re keeping our fingers crossed that whatever folks did today, they’ll be able to do tomorrow also.”
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