Trickysticks

I used to travel from Fordham to New Roc daily, that platform was always packed in the morning with reverse-commuters for places like White Plains, New Rochelle and Greenwich. More than doubling the price to New Rochelle from $3.00 to $7.75 seems like a surefire way to kill New Haven Line travel from the Bronx to those lower stations (MVE-New Roc). Greenwich and Port Chester going from $5 to $7.75 might be easier to swallow, but it's still pretty significant. I'm not super familiar with the Harlem line, but Fordham-White Plains jumping in price seems like a similar disaster. Bronx fares being affordable is probably a large reason why Fordham is such a popular station. Sure, the trains can get pretty crowded (at least, they did some time ago), but standing for 10 minutes until the train gets to Mount Vernon really isn't that bad. I don't see much of a point in shooing these riders to slower forms of transportation.

With subways and buses there tend to be multiple ways to get to the same place. If Lexington Avenue blows up, trains can run along the West Side instead. If a road is blocked, use another one. Metro-North doesn't have very much redundancy outside of the areas very close to the city where different branches can provide something resembling alternate service. If Fordham is out of service, New Haven Line trains could presumably stop at Woodlawn for example. If the area from Spuyten Duyvil to Riverdale is blocked, there simply aren't any alternatives. The Hudson Line and Empire Corridor will just end up suspending service and probably run alternate bus service while they try to fix it ASAP. The same is true for the issues on the New Haven Line. All trains to Grand Central pass through New Rochelle and there's no alternatives for them, really. The Northeast Corridor also can't deal with that. You could maybe talk about the Beacon Line, but I don't think that's acceptable for any sort of passenger service and even if service could somehow run on those tracks it's a one-track line. The Long Island Railroad is more feasible, but you don't have a lot of creativity with reroutes there either.

It really sucks that the Bronx gets skipped (and forgotten about) when even the slightest thing goes wrong. I guess Bronx riders are less likely to complain than the people of Greenwich, but jeez. Still, I wonder if that new-ish interlocking between Fordham and Botanical Garden will help deal with these problems? I remember reading once some years ago that finishing those switches would be the key to more flexibility and more expresses stopping at Fordham. I really doubt the latter, but I guess I can hope?

If you're trying to contact them while the issue is happening the MTAPD is probably your best bet. Even if they aren't the correct channel they'll definitely be able to pass on that information to the right one. You can email them about a safety issue like that after the fact, though I think they'll ask for the train number/time so they can know who to yell at. Today my trip to Grand Central from New Rochelle was sort of interesting? I missed the 4:01 and the next train was the 4:09, so I sat down and went on my phone for a few minutes. Lo and behold, the 4:09 comes at like 4:06 and by the time I noticed that the train was actually there the doors were closing. Luckily the conductors must've also noticed that the train was early and reopened the doors for a few more minutes. The train skips Pelham as usual and then almost blows past Mount Vernon East. About half the train was past the platform so the train backed up after a bit of frantic talking on the intercom. The rest of the trip wasn't noteworthy (though the engineer seemed much more careful when stopping at Fordham!)

I'm one of those college students who does the Grand Central to New Rochelle commute, and I even did it during the summer for an internship. I think both the 7:08 and 7:35 are reliable, not-too-crowded trains. They aren't perfect - when issues arise the reverse-peak trains always seem to be the first to be delayed - but that doesn't happen that often in my experience. The 7:08 is easy to get a seat on, even if you show up when the doors are closing, and it's decently quiet. It almost makes an 8 AM class bearable. The 7:35 tends to have more people, but even then you'll usually have no problem grabbing a seat if you walk up a car or two. Both trains have some people board at Harlem and then a bunch board at Fordham, but Fordham is 10 minutes from New Roc anyway so it's no big deal to sit next to someone for a few minutes. If you're using the exit at the back of the train, keep in mind that a LOT of people get off at New Rochelle and that exit leads towards both the transportation center and Main St. A lot of people use it and if you're in a rush you'll end up stuck behind people sometimes.