The good news is that the problem was resolved relatively quickly.
The bad news is that this issue pretty much could not have happened at a worse time of day.

Metro North’s area for improvement: Communications. There was a one-hour-and-fifteen-minute stretch of silence from Metro North…at the height of rush hour (5:08 PM to 6:23 PM).
In this window, there were no e-mail alerts sent by Metro North.

The good news: Clever Commuters stepped up and filled the information void.

Here is a color-coded breakdown of how the news flowed during this evening’s incident.
Color key:
Red – Information from Clever Commute 
Blue – Information from Metro North 

[4:39 PM] Hudson, Harlem and New Haven Line Service is temporarily delayed into and out of Grand Central Terminal due to power issues.  As more information becomes available we will notify you as soon as possible.  Please listen for announcements at your station.

[5:08 PM] Hudson, Harlem and New Haven Line Service is currently experiencing delays of 30 to 40 minutes into and out of Grand Central Terminal due to earlier power issues. Please listen for announcements at your station.

[5:14 PM] No northbound trains since 4:30

[5:24 PM] Track numbers are only posted for 2 trains. The rest of New Haven line is standing around waiting for a track number

[5:45 PM] 536 Grand Central to Croton tried to leave at 540 but now stalled 50 yards along platform.

[6:23 PM] Hudson Line Service is currently experiencing delays of up to 25 minutes due to earlier power issues in Grand Central Terminal. Please listen for announcements at your station.

[6:25 PM] 536 Grand Central to Croton took 20 mins to clear Park Ave tunnel…but moving full speed since

[6:27 PM] Harlem Line Service is currently experiencing delays of up to 35 minutes due to earlier power issues in Grand Central Terminal. Please listen for announcements at your station.

[6:31 PM] New Haven Line Service is currently experiencing delays of up to 35 minutes due to earlier power issues in Grand Central Terminal. Please listen for announcements at your station.

 [6:33 PM] 6:13 Stamford to Bridgeport was 19 mins late departing

But this is really applicable to a lot of things on Clever Commute

We know it stinks when the commute is bad. Heck, that is why we built Clever Commute. But there are 3 questions to ask yourself before you send an “alert” to the group:

“Does the message I am about to send contain actionable information
1. … that people can use in order to plan their commute?
2. … with tone and content that you would find on a radio/TV traffic report?
3. … that is an objective statement (e.g., not a rant…not a question…even a rhetorical one)?
If it’s NOT yes-yes-yes…then you may just be venting. If that’s the case, then you should check out clevercommute.com/vent (yes…that’s a real thing).
Other notes:

• Clever Commute is not affiliated with the transit providers. According to Clever Commute terms and conditions, they do not receive / read these messages.
• Do NOT initiate any call-to-action or other advocacy on Clever Commute (e.g., direct commuters to “call the governor” etc.)
• Please remember to use the “Was this alert helpful?” found at the bottom of every mail we send you.

Here is a color-coded breakdown of how the news flowed during this morning’s incident.
Color key:
Red – Information form Clever Commute 
Blue – Information from Metro North 

The incident began at approx 8:05 AM…and was immediately reported by the commuters.
The first e-mail from Metro North comes almost 40 minutes later. 

8:05 AM – 641 cannondale to gct is broken down in the bronx with engine failure – and no ac – expect backups behind us
8:21 AM – 741 cannondale to gct still broken down after 20 minutes – outbound train just stopped with mechanical forces – expect major delays
8:22 AM – 7:07 SoNo to GCT is disabled for 15 mins now. E of Fordham
8:30 AM – Rescue train will take disabled train to 125 where we can tranfser – engine overheated and low oil pressure – already 30 minutes late – first day of a hot week

8:43 AM – New Haven Line Customers should anticipate delays of 5 to 10 minutes traveling into Grand Central Terminal due to a disabled train in the vicinity of Fordham. Please listen for announcements at your station.

8:48 AM – Disabled train waiting for rescue engine after being stopped fo 50 minutes – and metro no just sent an email blast – delays will be much longer than the 5 to 10 minutes they claim 
9:13 AM – Disabled train moving with rescue engine after 75 minute breakdown 

9:18 AM – New Haven Line Service is now operating on or close to schedule. We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced as result of this incident.

Here is a color-coded breakdown of how the news flowed during this morning’s incident.
Color key:
Red – Information form Clever Commute 
Blue – Information from Metro North 
Green – Comments 

—

The chronology.  Metro-North spokesman Aaron Donovan said the suspension started at about 6:15 a.m

o Note that the first e-mail from Metro North comes almost 40 minutes after the suspension (and the first Tweet from Metro North was about 10 minutes after that).
o The commuters had been sharing info for almost a half-hour before MNR made any public announcements.

6:30 AM – 602 new haven going backwards near Bridgeport. Police activity. Going back to Stratford
6:35 AM – Suspicious package on bridge over Fairfield RR station. All service halted
6:38 AM – All four tracks involved in police activity in Fairfield indefinite delays in both directions
6:45 AM – 6:34 wpt to GCT 10mins late so far and no announcements yet.

6:56 AM – New Haven Line service is temporarily delayed for trains traveling through the vicinity of Fairfield station due to Police Activity.  More information will  be provided as it becomes available.  Please listen for announcements at your station

6:58 AM – 6:51 Grns Farms to GCT delayed due to Police Activity @ FFLD

7:12 AM – New Haven Line service is temporarily delayed for trains traveling through Fairfield station. Trains are restricted from traveling through this area while Police are investigating a suspicious package. We expect delays of 30 – 60 minutes at this time. Please listen for announcements at your station.

During the crucial 7:12 AM to 8:03 AM period, Metro North did not share ANY information via e-mail…but the commuters did. 

7:17 AM – No service below ffld. Suspicious package found
7:25 AM – East bound train at Southport turning around and GCT bound
7:36 AM – 7:44 Train next to arrive at SONO to GCT all stops to Stamford
7:45 AM – Announcement: Get on the 7:44 because we don’t know when the next train will be

8:03 AM – New Haven Line service continues to be temporarily delayed for trains traveling through Fairfield station. Police Special Units are on site investigating a suspicious package. We expect delays of 1 to 2 hours at this time. Please listen for announcements at your station.

During this 22 minute stretch (8:03 AM to 8:25 AM), there is no news from MNR…but Clever Commuters fill the information void

8:07 AM – Train departing Darien towards NY 804am. No announcements at Station, not even on electronic signs

8:25 AM – New Haven Line service has resumed through Fairfield station. Police have completed their investigation. Residual delays of 1 to 2 hours can be expected. Please listen for announcements at your station. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by this incident.

MNR goes silent until 9:41 AM. Their next mail is effectively a re-post of the earlier message (saying New Haven Line Customers continue to experience residual delays of 1-2 hours due to earlier police activity in the vicinity of Fairfield)
During this time, there were more alerts from Clever Commute regarding the ad-hoc schedule, and conditions on board the trains

8:26 AM – Conductor said train just left Bridgeport towards Stamford
8:29 AM – 8:24 Rye-GCT running local. Already SRO
8:45 AM – 843 from southport all local stops to Stamford then express to 125th

As you read this chronology of events, please think about these key questions:

• How prompt and accurate was the news reporting?
• How prompt, accurate and actionable was the information shared by your company?
  (e.g., did your disaster recovery team send value-added alerts to employees?)

Thanks to all the commuters who shared info this morning…and welcome to all the new people! Please continue to send people to clevercommute.com/signup to get “on board.” A few things to note:

Here is what you need to know…

Earlier today, we published a posting of web resources for Metro North riders. In addition to that, here is some additional info

• Remember our zen: Share [information]…don’t ask [for it]. For those of you who are new to Clever Commute, please check out our best practices. We have 20,00+people in our network…so stepping in and asking questions of the community simply don’t work at this scale.
• If you have info that will help others…then share it. In the aftermath of the May 17 derailment, there may be new crowdsouring opportunities (e.g., car parking information for displaced train commuters). If you think you have good info for your fellow riders, then share it with the group. If you have questions about suitable use, the please contact us via the web site…or reach out via feedback [at] clevercommute-dot-com
• Regarding the branches.  We generally have one “community” for each major train line on Metro North (Hudson, Harlem and New Haven). However, we recently added new communities for each of the branches on the New Haven line (Waterbury, Danbury, New Canaan), so please signup for and use those for branch-specific sharing.
• Tweets and Texts – If you simply want to receive real-time alerts from your fellow commuters (via Twitter…or their texting feature), then you may do so via https://clevercommute.com/twitter

There is a lot of great information out there regarding the overall MNR experience…and we hope to cover those in a future blog post. But for now, we wanted to highlight the ones which will help in the aftermath of the May 17 derailment. Please send us any others you have (via the Contact Us feature of the web site).

• http://www.facebook.com/mtamnr – The Metro North Facebook page – It has 4,784 Likes…and it is a good source of info from MTA…as well as some good engagement with the commuters
• Metro North on Twitter – @MetroNorthTweet It as about 12K followers.
• http://new.mta.info/mnr – Metro North home page
• http://web.mta.info/mnr/NewHaven/new-haven-line-service.html – Special updates for New Haven line riders
• http://www.mymtaalerts.com/LoginC.aspx – E-mail alerting service from Metro North
• http://www.mta.info/mnr/html/mnrmap.htm – Metro North Railroad service map
• @CTRailCommuter – Connecticut Metro-North Rail Commuter Council (Excellent advocates for improved commuter rail service in Connecticut)
• And of course we feel that every Metro North commuter should be a Clever Commuter.
  To sign up, go to clevercommute.com/signup