After decades of prohibiting commuters at a Bronx station from boarding Metro-North Railroad trains traveling into Manhattan, city Comptroller Scott Stringer is demanding change.
The Fordham Road station on the Metro-North’s New Haven line is designated as a "discharge only” stop, according to Stringer’s office. Manhattan-bound commuters waiting at the station, located steps from Fordham University, are turned away.
Stringer said the MTA and Connecticut Department of Transportation are "barring Bronx communities from trains that connect them to their jobs, schools and loved ones" through extenstions of an agreement between the New York-New Haven and New York-Harlem rail companies that dates to 1848.
"Metro-North and the Connecticut DOT’s decision to uphold this exclusionary policy of bypassing and neglecting Bronx residents is abhorrent and irresponsible," Stringer said. "Your zip code should never determine your quality of life; not in this city or anywhere else in America."
Aaron Donovan, a spokesman for the MTA, said they are reviewing the agreement and continue to discuss their arrangement with officials in Connecticut.
“It is essential to ensure that we’re providing the best service possible to all of our customers,” Donovan said. “Metro-North offers frequent, convenient service between Fordham and Manhattan, serving 1,900 people per day, via the Harlem line, and the railroad just completed a $15 million upgrade of the Fordham station."
Metro-North officials are also trying to work with Amtrak to bring four new New Haven line stations to the borough, according to Donovan.
The Connecticut DOT did not respond to a request for comment regarding Stinger’s statements.
