A parasite that makes rodents unafraid of cats could be giving people the courage to become entrepreneurs, researchers told NBC News.

People infected with Toxoplasma gondii were more likely to have majored in business and started their own business, according to a new paper published by University of Colorado management professor Stefanie Johnson and colleagues in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

People get the T. gondii parasite from handling cat droppings or eating poorly cooked meat. It's already linked to a greater risk of "car accidents, mental illness, neuroticism, drug abuse and suicide," according to the paper.

Johnson said she plans on studying the parasite further, to see "if all the businesses started by toxoplasma-positive people fail," among other things.

New Britain Police are searching for a man who they believe assaulted a woman on Sunday.

Officers said they were called to a reported assault where a woman told them that 45-year-old Aaron Alexander Hill, of Bloomfield, attempted to strangle and suffocate her. The woman told police that Hill arrived at her house in the early morning hours. She said he was upset about an incident from earlier in the day and placed his arms around her neck in an effort to strangle her.

The woman said she attempted to fight off Hill and the commotion was heard by other family members who came to help her. Relatives of the woman contacted police and Hill fled before officers arrived. Hill has not been located.

The woman suffered injuries in the attack, officers said. Police did not release details about her injuries.

Police said they obtained an arrest warrant for Hill charging him with strangulation, unlawful restraint, assault, interfering with an emergency call and disorderly conduct.

Anyone who may know of Hill's whereabouts is asked to call New Britain Police at (860) 826-3000. Anonymous tips can be emailed here or called in to 860-826-3199.

It was a close call for the Segal family on Equinox Avenue in Wolcott Wednesday morning when their neighbor’s tree crashed into their house and came through their roof just before 6:30 a.m. 

“I heard this really weird noise,” Linda Segal, the homeowner, said. “I didn’t know if it was a car accident. I looked out the window and I just saw this branch coming right at me and I just froze. Then I just turned around in my bed, and I looked up, and the branch was right through the ceiling.” 

Segal called for her husband and checked on her son, “because the tree had fallen over the whole house. So I went and checked on him and told him to get out of it because I didn’t know if it was going to come down anymore.” 

Wolcott firefighters, police and Mayor Thomas Dunn all arrived within minutes. That’s when the Segal family realized the fallen tree was from their neighbor’s property. 

“The whole tree didn’t come down, it was just the upper shoot. But I probably will remove the whole tree at this point now,” Tom Tella, the neighbor whose tree fell down, said. 

Tella said he’s never been told to remove the tree and he intends to keep the rest on his property despite the close call. 

“I have no intention of removing any trees from my property unless they impose a danger to someone,” Tella said. 

The Segal family continues to monitor the spreading leaks throughout their house as the tree rests on top of recently completed renovations.

Linda’s message to the community is to, “call an arborist. It may a couple hundred dollars – not even – and have them check your surrounding property.”

A salmonella outbreak that has sickened more than 200 people in 44 states is linked to backyard chickens, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday.    

As of July 13, 2018, 212 cases of salmonella infections have been linked to contact with live poultry in backyard flocks, according to the agency. A quarter of the reported cases are children under the age of 5.

More than 70 percent of those sickened in this outbreak, which includes several strains of salmonella, reported coming into contact with chicks or ducklings in the week before their illness started, the CDC said. The live poultry was obtained from several sources, including feed supply stores, hatcheries, relatives and from online merchants. 

The illnesses began between Feb. 15 and June 21, and at least 34 people have been hospitalized. The CDC said no deaths have been reported.

"People can get sick with Salmonella infections from touching live poultry or their environment," the CDC said on its website. "These birds can be carrying Salmonella bacteria but appear healthy and clean and show no signs of illness."

Salmonella can cause diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps. Diagnosing the illness requires a blood or stool sample, as other illnesses cause similar symptoms.

The CDC suggested tips for handling live poultry: Always wash your hands with soap and water after touching live poultry or their environment. Children under five years old should not touch live poultry without adult supervision. Wear separate shoes when caring for poultry, and leave them outside. Do not allow live poultry inside the house or around food.

A pizza delivery driver was robbed and attacked in New Haven Tuesday night and police are looking for the five teens who committed the crime.

The delivery driver had driven to Ford Street just after midnight when the robbery and attack happened, according to police.

Officers who responded found the 38-year-old deliveryman who said he saw two teenage girls he thought the pizza was for, then he had an uneasy feeling when he noticed three young men running toward him, so he asked the girls to take their pizza.

The girls grabbed the food without paying him and walked off, according to police.

At the same time, one of the three teenage boys jumped behind the wheel of the delivery man’s 11-year-old Hyundai Sonata and another man got in the back seat.

As the victim tried getting the teens out of his car, the other teenage boy pushed a black semi-automatic pistol to the back of his neck and the three boys sped off with the car, as well as a couple hundred dollars in cash, an iPhone X and the man’s wallet, police said.

The victim then caught up with the girls he had given the pizza to, After he wrapped him arms around one of them, the boys returned and started beating him up. Then the girls also started punching him as he shouted for help, police said.

The five attackers then got into the victim’s car and drove off.

The victim and a friend got a hit on the stolen phone, traced it to Harding Place and recovered it, police said. Police canvassing the area found the victim’s wallet, except for his bank card.

Police are looking for a thin 13- to 15-year-old girl who was wearing a white sleeveless shirt and dark pants; a thin, short 13- to 16-year-old girl who was wearing a gray shirt and shorts; a short, thin 13- to 16-year-old boy who was wearing a white sleeveless shirt and black shorts; a tall, 13- to 16-year-old boy with a thick build who was wearing a white shirt and dark shorts and had a black handgun; and a thin 13- to 16-year-old boy who was wearing in a yellow shirt and dark pants.

Canton Police are investigating a report of a sexual assault on the Farmington River Trail between Canton Springs Road and Atwater Road. 

They were alerted through a Facebook post, however police told NBC Connecticut they have not found the victim. 

The Facebook post shared Tuesday states a woman was “raped on the walking trail” around 11 a.m. between the Canton Fire Department and lily pond. 

The description of the suspect is a man around 30 years old who was wearing a gray shirt and black shorts.  

On Tuesday night, police sent a detective down to the trail on Canton Spring Road near the Ladder Engine Canton Street Station. The detective tried to find evidence but did not find anything. 

Canton Police are investigating and encourage the victim to come forward. You can reach Canton Police at 860-693-0221.

There is a gaping hole where the window of a basement apartment on Edgewood Avenue in New Britain was after a car slammed into the building Wednesday morning.

Fire officials said the crash happened at 17 Edgewood Ave. at 8:08 a.m. and no one was injured. The driver was out of the car when first responders arrived and the tenant of the unit was at work.

The car is gone now, but photos from the scene showed the vehicle suspended in the middle of a room after the crash.

Atijah Mitchell said she was asleep and woke up to a loud boom.

"We looked out the window, it was a car halfway in the building," she said. 

Police said the damage to the building is minimal.

The manager of the building estimates the damage to be around $10,000. According to the manager, the driver said a bug was in the car, but officials said only that the driver reported being distracted. 

The driver was issued an infraction for failure to obey a stop sign. 

A Beacon Falls man is accused of assaulting and robbing a 90-year-old man in Ansonia, leading police on a chase and additional crimes during a two-hour crime spree, according to police.

Police arrested 21-year-old Anthony Rodriguez-Horvath, of Beacon Fall, Tuesday.

They said Rodriguez-Horvath went into the 90-year-old man’s Clark Street home just before 11 a.m. Tuesday and demanded the man’s car keys. When the victim refused, Rodriguez-Horvath knocked him to the ground, took the man’s wallet and car keys, ripped the house phone out of the wall and stole the car, according to a news release from police.

Police found Rodriguez-Horvath driving the stolen car on Woodlawn Avenue and he fled from police at speeds exceeding 70 miles per hour on North Main Street, so police said they called off the chase.

Around 45 minutes after police called off the chase, they started receiving several 911 calls about a man trying to break into cars in the Big Y parking lot on Main Street.

After a foot chase, police took Rodriguez-Horvath into custody and found him with a bag of marijuana in his mouth, police said. They also found additional narcotics.

Rodriguez-Horvath is also accused of breaking into a house on North State Street, but police said he did not take anything from the house.

He is also accused of stealing several cars.

After abandoning the stolen car in the parking lot of 540 Main St., he stole a Jeep Wrangler from Road Ready Used Cars, abandoned it in front of 252 Main St. and walked back to the Big Y Shopping Center, where he tried to break into two more cars before witnesses chased him from the lot and police took him into custody, according to police.

Rodriguez-Horvath was charged with home invasion, assault in the third degree of a victim over 60 years old, robbery in the third degree, burglary in the first degree, two counts of burglary in the third degree, criminal attempt burglary third degree, two counts of larceny in the second degree, larceny in the third degree, two counts of criminal attempted larceny in the sixth degree, criminal mischief in the first degree, criminal mischief in the second degree, criminal mischief in the third degree, possession of narcotics, possession of marijuana, interfering with an emergency call, possession of burglary tools, disobeying an officer’s signal, engaging in pursuit, reckless driving, traveling unreasonably fast, failure to obey stop light and failure to obey stop sign.

He was held on bonds totaling $290,000.

A 26-year-old securities analyst who died on 9/11 was positively identified on Wednesday, nearly 17 years after the twin towers fell.

Scott Michael Johnson on Wednesday became the 1,642nd person to be identified following the attacks, according to the New York City medical examiner's office. More than 1,100 others who died that day still haven't been positively identified.

“In 2001, we made a commitment to the families of victims that we would do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes, to identify their loved ones,” said Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Barbara Sampson. “This identification is the result of the tireless dedication of our staff to this ongoing mission.”

Johnson worked for the investment banking company Keefe, Bruyette and Woods. NBC 4 New York has reached out to his former firm.

Johnson was survived by his parents and two siblings. His father, Thomas Johnson, is a board member at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. He told the New York Times, which first reported the identification, that Wednesday's news was a painful reminder.

"He was one of the kindest people that anyone around him had ever known," his father said. "The pain of losing someone like that was tremendous."

Johnson's identification is the first since August 2017, when examiners got a match on the remains of another man whose family didn't want him publicly identified. 

Scientists at the missing persons unit of the medical examiner's office has spent the last 16 years working to ID every one of the victims of the attack using forensic methods and advanced DNA testing to bring closure to families who lost loved ones.

DNA testing methods have led to 89 percent of all positive victim identifications, the medical examiner's office said; in total, about 60 percent of those killed in the attacks have been positively identified.

Nearly 3,000 people in New York, at the Pentagon and near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, died in the attacks orchestrated by the terror syndicate al-Qaeda.

Less than six months after losing her mom, 26-year-old Ashley Roberts will ride in her first Closer to Free.

The bike ride now in its eighth year raises millions of dollars for research and patient care at the Smilow Cancer Hospital and Yale Cancer Center in New Haven.

“I’m definitely doing this to share my mom’s story to create awareness,” Roberts told NBC Connecticut, “cause I think if it was caught earlier maybe there could have been a different outcome.”

Joan Roberts’ battle with cancer started with a cough in November 2015.

“She went to the doctors and they said it was bronchitis,” Ashley said. “In February of 2016 and they said it was pneumonia, but that’s when my dad and mom started asking more pressing questions. My mom knew she didn’t feel right, there was something more.”

By the time doctors diagnosed Ashley’s mom with non-small cell lung cancer, it was too late for surgery.

“When we found out it completely like just turned our family upside down,” Ashley recalled. “We were this happy go lucky family, she never smoked so it just came out of left field.”

Ashley said her mom refused to be an in-patient during intense treatment at Smilow.

“She was like, listen to me I’m gonna beat this, I’m gonna do this, and I’m gonna be OK,” Ashley said, “and I knew she was really strong, I knew she was scared, but she put on a front for all of us.”

Last September, shortly after buying a new mountain bike, Ashley could not take part in Closer to Free because it was too close to her wedding day.

“So I said mom, you get better, you get healthy and you and I will do it next year together,” Ashley said. “She made that promise, but obviously odds became not in her favor anymore.”

Ashley’s mom’s battle with lung cancer ended on April 13, 2018.

“She wasn’t giving up, it’s the cancer in her body that gave up on her, she never gave up,” Ashley said.

Joan Roberts was 54 years old.

“I mean she was my best friend,” Ashley said. “She’s truly missed by everybody.”

This September on team “Jogs for Joan” with family and friends, Ashley is riding 25 miles to raise money for Smilow and to spread awareness.

“So maybe next time if someone had a cough, they would ask more pressing questions and catch it a little earlier,” she said.

Since her mom peacefully passed away at their home in Cheshire, Ashley has worn a necklace with Joan of Arc on one side and her mom’s fingerprint on the other.

“She was a fighter,” Ashley said. “She was the strongest person I know, even before she got sick, she was so strong.”

NBC Connecticut is a proud media sponsor of the Closer to Free Ride on Sept. 8. You can still sign up here.

After a 15-year legal battle, the Puerto Rican government began a policy which allows transgender people to correct their birth certificate to reflect their gender identity.

This change comes into effect on July 15, three months after Lambda Legal brought the case, Arroyo v. Rosselló, to the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico on behalf of three transgender Puerto Ricans: Daniela Arroyo-González, Victoria Rodríguez and a transgender man identified as J.G, and the NGO Puerto Rico Para Tod@s. 

“This fight began a long time ago and we have finally succeeded,” Omar González Pagan, an attorney for Lambda Legal, told NBC.

In 2005, Alexis Delgado Hernández, a transgender woman, filed a suit to have her gender modified on her birth certificate and driver’s license, he said. Her request was denied on the grounds that there would have to be a change in Puerto Rican legislation.

Lambda Legal argued that the legal decision had no rational justification in law or practice.

“Years ago Puerto Rico did not have the political capacity for this change. It was one of the jurisdictions that prohibited the change,” said González Pagan. “The State finally recognizes the identity of transgender people born in Puerto Rico which is a vital step against the discrimination of this community. They are finally respecting their identity and dignity.” 

There are still three jurisdictions in the U.S. that do not allow the modification: Kansas, Ohio and Tennessee.

District Judge Carmen Consuelo Cerezo who signed the order, stated: “The right to identify our own existence lies at the heart of one’s humanity. And so, we must heed their voices: 'the woman that I am,' 'the man that I am.'"

She said the historic change would give a voice to a community greatly harmed by discrimination, adding  “They cannot wait for another generation, hoping for a lawmaker to act.”

Daniela Arroyo González, a public relations student and one of the plaintiffs, has become a spokeswoman for her community. At 19, she was contacted by Victoria Rodríguez, also a plaintiff, and González Pagan to put her name on the case.

“I felt great responsibility to be a part of this case,” said Arroyo González in an interview conducted in Spanish. “Transgender people, especially women, tend to fall into a stereotype which usually portrays us involved in sex work or pinpoints ways in which we are discriminated. The media needs to report our needs. We need to bring visibility and talk about transgender students, transgender children, our families. This way we will bring more inclusive policies.”

Arroyo González said that growing up she often faced discrimination at school. “Teachers refused to call me by my female name,” she said “I wasn’t allowed to use the girl’s bathroom, and it was hard for me to find the right medical treatment for my transition…it was very painful.”

She began her transition at 14 with the help of a professor in San Juan who directed her to a doctor. Although it was difficult for her family at first, Arroyo González said that she had their full support through her transition.

“In that sense I’m very privileged,” she said. “Most people in my community do not have that kind of support which makes this policy all the more urgent. Puerto Rico is now a more free and inclusive country, one that brings hope to future generations who will not have to deal with these complications. It will open doors and make our community visible with dignity.”

Although the advocates called the win an historic one for Puerto Rico, journalist, scholar and lawyer Manuel Clavell Carrasquillo said that there is still plenty to be done for gender inclusive policies. 

"To categorize and think in terms of male and female is unprecise and does not fully resolve the problem. Gender non-conforming people, for example, are still not protected by this decision," he said. 

Jury deliberations continue in New London Superior Court for the murder trial of Dante Hughes.

The 32-year-old is accused of shooting and killing Joey Gingerella in the parking lot of Ryan’s Pub in Groton in December of 2016.

Court documents said Gingerella and others tried to stop Hughes from assaulting a woman in the parking lot. That’s when witnesses said they heard three gunshots.

Two days later Hughes was caught at the U.S./Canadian border trying to flee the country, according to Groton police.

Hughes claimed he was acting in self defense when it appeared Gingerella was reaching for a gun. But the 24-year-old had no weapon.

Deliberations started late Monday afternoon. Court reconvenes at 10 Thursday morning.

An experimental drug being tested to see if it can treat Alzheimer’s disease helped slow the inevitable loss of clear thinking and memory that comes with the condition, researchers reported Wednesday. 

It’s a rare success in a field littered with failures. No drug has yet been shown to reverse the symptoms of Alzheimer’s, which affects more than 5 million Americans and has no cure, NBC News reported. 

And this one is no home run. Everyone who took the drug continued to get worse. But those who got the highest doses got worse more slowly.

Time is running out for a New Haven woman facing deportation back to Bangladesh. But her family has not given up hope.

“I was like that's my mother, she's not a criminal. She didn't do anything,” Samir Mahmud told NBC Connecticut.

The last few days have been difficult at the Mahmud home.

“I'm a first-generation college student. She's not going to be there. I don't know how to feel,” Samir said.

The 17-year-old’s family is preparing for him to begin his freshman year at Quinnipiac University. But they may have to do it without his mother Salma, who’s been ordered to leave the United States.

“My dream is my son,” Salma Reza Sikandar said.

An immigrant from Bangladesh, Salma overstayed her 1999 tourist visa, but eventually filed a hardship application to remain in the country because of her son, and American-born citizen. While awaiting a decision in her case’s appeal, a few days ago, Immigration and Customs Enforcement told her to go.

“This country is built on immigrants. We are not taking anything, we're giving. So they have to think about it, the good people,” Salma’s husband Anwar Mahmud said.

Anwar, a restaurant manager, said the close-knit family would struggle immensely in Salma’s absence. He wonders why political directives from the nation’s capital are targeting families like his.SALMA'S HUSBAND “They're separating families not at the border. They're separating families in the mainland,” Anwar said.

For now, the family is cherishing the time they have together, and preparing for Samir’s next chapter. But for them, each family meal is bittersweet, as they wonder how many more they have left.

“I won’t know how to survive. My parents are my everything,” Samir said.

August 23 is the date the Mahmuds say ICE has ordered Salma to leave the country by.

NBC Connecticut spoke with State Rep. David Yaccarino, who says he’s been in touch with ICE and is trying to find a way to keep Salma in the country.

We reached out to ICE and the attorney for the Mahmud family, but have yet to hear back.

A Wilton man is accused of posing as the owner of the NHL Boston Bruins in order to get special favors.

The investigation began when Wilton police received a complaint from the actual owners of the team. According to police, 37-year-old Jeffrey Jacobs misrepresented himself as the owner of the team, then scammed people into doing work in his home or granting special favors under this pretense.

Jacobs was arrested on Sunday and waived extradition. He was returned to Connecticut and charged with criminal impersonation. He was released on a $5,000 bond and is due in court on July 30.

Jeremy M. Jacobs, the actual owner of the Boston Bruins and chairman of the NHL Board of Governors, has a variety of accolades to his name and is involved in a variety of organizations and charitable efforts.

A Newington man is accused of brandishing a gun during a road rage incident in Wethersfield Wednesday.

Connecticut State Police said 21-year-old Kyle Cataldo waved a gun at another driver on Route 3 in Wethersfield. Cataldo told police he showed the gun to stop another driver from harassing him.

Cataldo was arrested and charged with first-degree threatening and breach of peace.

No injuries were reported in this incident.

Filling up her car at the BJ’s Wholesale Club on the Tolland Turnpike was part of Alysia Duke’s routine.

What wasn’t routine was the way Duke says her car performed after one particular fill-up in June.

"It was bucking a little bit and if I pushed on the pedal, it didn't even sound like it was revving up," Duke said.

Duke said she was afraid the car would stall on the highway, so instead of driving to work, she headed straight for the dealership.

Duke assumed the problem was mechanical. But she says the dealership told her it was bad gas.

The dealership explained its testing process to NBC Connecticut Responds in an email.

“We put 50% gas and 50% water in a clear container shook it and let it settle out,” the email read.

After settling, the water was foggy, which the dealership says indicates poor quality fuel.

Service technicians removed the fuel pump and flushed the fuel. They then reinstalled the pump and put four gallons of new fuel in the tank. The dealership says the car ran without problem.

Duke went back to BJ’s with the results and says employees filed a claim on her behalf with the gas station’s insurance, Sedgwick Claims Management.

Duke says a representative for Sedgwick contacted her, but stopped communicating after a few days. Then came the denial letter.

It said, “The gas tanks at this Club are monitored by an electronic system that is in place to detect contaminants such as such as water and sediment. Our investigation states that on the date you purchased gasoline there was zero water present in the tanks.”

Duke says she didn’t fill up anywhere else.

She contacted NBC Connecticut Responds at a friend’s suggestion.

"I've seen it on the news before but I didn't even think anything of it for myself to be honest with you," Duke said.

Our consumer team sent Sedgwick a copy of Duke’s invoice from the dealership, which explains their findings, along with a photo of the gas sample. Soon after, Duke says Sedgwick offered her a resolution of $306.43.

Duke says that’s enough to cover her repair bill and a tank of gas, and says her car is running smoothly.

“I’m very happy with the result,” she said.

A spokesperson for BJ’s said the company did not receive any other complaints about fuel quality at the Manchester location.

New Haven Public Schools has rescinded layoff notices sent to some part-time employees earlier this year.

In June, 1,100 part-time New Haven public school employees received layoff notices. At the time, city officials said it was possible some of them might be rehired after officials look into adjusting job descriptions after summer vacation. The layoffs were a cost-cutting measure. The district is wrestling with a $19 million deficit.

The New Haven Board of Education was startled and upset when they learned of the notices.

In follow-up letters sent this month, Supt. Carol Birks rescinded at least some of those notices.

”It was never my intention to create any confusion or frustration in regards to your part-time employment status with New Haven Public Schools. Therefore, I would like to rescind the letter that you received dated June 22, 2018.”

The letter went on to say “As is the case every year, administrators and human resource team are identifying essential part-time positions that align with federal, national and state accountability indicators to support our District and School Improvement efforts. This year job descriptions will be updated or changed to meet those requirements.”

It was not immediately clear how many of the employees who originally received notice have had their jobs secured. NBC Connecticut did reach out to the school district and the school board, but officials were not available for interview Wednesday night.

The American Red Cross says they’re a summer blood shortage, and they’re asking for donors to come forward.

“That need for blood is constant. You can’t just stock it up on the shelves and leave it there. It needs to be replenished constantly,” said Red Cross spokesperson Stefanie Arcangelo.

The summer months are typically slow for blood donation, in part because many donors are on vacation and students who host blood drives aren’t in school.

Typically, Connecticut needs about 300 units of blood each day to benefit families like the Ciriellos.

Two of their children have a rare blood disorder that requires transfusions every three weeks.

“It’s not something we can give to them. It’s not something that they can get any other way other than the generosity of strangers donating blood to help people like them stay healthy and stay alive,” Plainville resident Daniel Ciriello explained.

Their kids are thriving, especially 6-year-old Daniela who loves to show off her gymnastics skills, despite her conditions.

“I could not imagine if we were there to get her blood if we were there to get her blood that she needs to live and they said hey, we’re out. Or we don’t have any. What would we do? ,” Daniel said.

Even in the summer, there’s somewhere in the state where you can donate blood every day. For more information, click here.

A potentially life-saving technology is costing Metro North big bucks to install, and a reputation for being on time.

Now the railroad may ask the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to relax requirements on installing something known as PTC, or Positive Train Control.

A week earlier Metro-North told NBC Connecticut Investigates it was on track to meet its milestones.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal is now giving the railroad grief for possibly missing its PTC deadline, but what may anger riders even more is that the railroad just reported its worst monthly on time figures in five years for its New Haven line, and says PTC work is partially to blame.

Metro-North says more than 14 percent of its trains were at least six minutes late over the month of June.

Railroad president Catherine Rinaldi told her board this is “…just not acceptable…we cannot go the way that we have gone on this summer. We have degraded our on time performance to a point where it is not fair to our customers.”

Metro-North blames much of this on installation of new PTC equipment, something mandated by the FRA 10 years ago, with a deadline at the end of this year.

John Kesich, an operations vice president, explains that during off-peak times, three-quarters of Metro North’s track capacity can be out of service due to PTC.

And all this disruptive work may still not be enough to ensure Metro-North meets year-end federal milestones for PTC.

At its July monthly meeting Metro-North PTC project manager Debbie Chin said the railroad may now as the Federal Railroad Administration for “substitute” criteria.

It would require Metro-North to have fewer miles of track with PTC being used and tested on a daily basis by year’s end.

“It’s a security blanket. It’s like an insurance policy, and this is something that the FRA has pretty much endorsed. They’re pushing us to consider submitting it,” Chin explained.

Metro-North still believes it will meet the PTC milestones set by the FRA.

The railroad says easing the requirements will allow it to concentrate on other parts of the project.

However, Metro-North says it is not expected this will improve train arrival times, at least in the next few months.