New York’s Metro-North Is an Economic Mudslide Waiting to Happen
Between damage from falling debris, storm surges and rising seas, it’s time to climate proof the commuter lines that tie the lower Hudson Valley and its workforce to the city.
Storms can make the commute in and out of New York City frustrating.
Photographer: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images North AmericaThe village of Briarcliff Manor is quintessential Westchester County, New York: Leafy, wealthy and named like a sequel to Downton Abbey. It recently suffered a mudslide, a ghastly intrusion, to be sure, but also a portent of climate change snapping the links that hold together the bustling neighborhoods and sleepy suburbs that make New York City work.
On Oct. 21, a Saturday, I saw crowds stranded at Tarrytown’s Metro-North Railroad station, a few miles south of where a retaining wall behind a house in Briarcliff had given way, spilling tons of rocks and earth down onto the tracks. The Hudson Line, carrying 10 million riders annually, is one of three commuter lines east of the river that tie the lower Hudson Valley, and its workforce, to the city. The line runs along the eastern bank of the river for most of its 74 miles between Grand Central Terminal and Poughkeepsie.