TOR = TRANSIT ORIENTED RECREATION

The recent cool and weather aside, it’s officially summer!   Time to get out and enjoy our state’s wonderful parks and beaches and take advantage of TOR.

You know what TOD is, right?  Transit Oriented Development… building homes and offices near mass transit facilities.  Well, I’m going to suggest you think about TOR… Transit Oriented Recreation.

Did you know you can travel to many state parks and beaches by train and a connecting bus shuttle?  Details on this year’s program are still to come, but CDOT and DEEP have partnered since 2021 to offer ParkConneCT from Memorial Day through Labor Day.

In years past, beach and park shuttles meeting in-coming trains have been free on weekends and holidays, taking you to places like Sleeping Giant State Park in Hamden or Hammonasset Beach State Park in Madison.

While many state parks close their gates on weekends when their parking lots are full of cars, the shuttle buses can still deliver you to Mother Nature without the hassles.

The state’s modest marketing efforts to attract tourists seem to be working as the number of visitors was up 2% last year.  Officials say tourism brings Connecticut $18.5 billion each year… more than what’s seen in Maine, which bills itself as “Vacationland”.

And it’s clearly our beaches that are a main draw.  Who needs to endure I-95 when you can take the train to visit…

Sherwood Island State Park in Westport:  Just take Metro-North to Westport Station and grab the Sherwood Island Shuttle from the station to the park to enjoy swimming, picnicking and great views of LI Sound.

Silver Sands State Park in Milford:   Metro-North gets you to Milford Station where a walk or bike ride to the beach presents newly refurbished boardwalks, pristine beaches and bird-watching spots.

Bluff Point State Park in Groton:  Take Shore Line East or Amtrak to New London Station, then grab the SEAT (Southeast Area Transit) Route 11 bus to the beach where you can enjoy walks along the coast, biking and fishing.

 

Beyond TOR, how about TOE…. Transit Oriented Entertainment?

 

You wouldn’t think of driving to NYC to see a Knicks or Rangers game.  You’d take the train, right?  Well, you can take Metro-North directly to Yankee Stadium too.  Or to Bridgeport to see Ringo Starr at the Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater… also walking distance from Amtrak and the Port Jeff Ferry.

 

Going to see a play at The Shubert in New Haven or Andrea Bocelli at the XL Center in Hartford?  Ditch the car and try mass transit.

 

And if you’re a railfan, visit the Essex Steam Train & Riverboat by training to Old Saybrook and hopping into a cab for the quick ride back into history.

 

If you’re city-bound, check out Metro-North’s “MTA Away” packages… train and event tickets, often at a discount… for venues both in NYC and the ‘burbs.  You can go star gazing or catch an outdoor concert in Forest Hills without a car.

 

Whatever your destination for summer fun, think twice before enduring the traffic and maybe consider taking mass transit.

 

 

FUN FACTS

Over the twenty years I’ve been writing this column, I’ve come across some “fun facts” about transportation.  Try dazzling friends at your next BBQ with some of these gems.

HIGHWAYS:

·       The average distance driven on I-95 in Connecticut is 11 miles.

Some 180,000 vehicles drive all or part of the 112 miles that I-95 runs through our state.  But even factoring in true interstate drivers (think Florida to Maine), the average distance driven in Connecticut is tiny.  Why?  Because we use I-95 like a local road to avoid Route 1, not just for interstate travel.

·       Trucks are banned from the Merritt Parkway.  But in 1943 trucks were allowed on that roadway as part of the war effort.

But trucks in those days were much lower, easily clearing the bridges.

AVIATION:

·       The supersonic Concorde was a real gas-guzzler.  In the 15 minutes from leaving the gate until takeoff, the jet burned two metric tons of Jet A gas… enough to fly a conventional jet for an hour to Paris.

Carrying just 100 passengers, The Concorde would burn about a ton of fuel per passenger crossing the Atlantic.

·       The busiest airport in the world is Atlanta’s Hartsfield International (ATL), handling 108 million passengers last year… almost 296,000 a day.

And most of them fly Delta, which hosts 165 of the airport’s 192 gates, a 86% share of the capacity.

 

METRO-NORTH:

·       Did you know that a fully loaded eight-car train on Metro-North can carry over 1000 passengers… more than double the capacity of a fully loaded 747.

·       The 24-mile-long Danbury branch line used to be electrified.  But the wires were ripped out in 1961 to save money by running diesels. The copper was sold as scrap.

·       Grand Central Terminal has 67 tracks and 44 platforms, more than any station in the world.

And never call it “Grand Central Station”.  That’s the name of the post office and subway station nearby.

 

HIGH SPEED RAIL:

·       America’s only “high speed train” (Acela) can go up to 160 mph.  But the average speed it runs traveling 456 miles from Washington DC to Boston is just 70 mph.

·       China has the largest high speed network in the world covering more than 29,000 miles and carrying 4 billion passenger trips.  Its trains run as fast as 260 mph.

 

TRANSIT FARES:

·       In Portland Oregon the trains don’t have “Senior” fares.  Instead, Seniors, Veterans, active-duty military personnel, handicapped and low-income residents are called “Honored Citizens” and get 50 – 75% off regular fares.

 

SHIPPING:

·       The biggest container ships sailing today can carry over 24,000 containers.

But those mega-ships are too big for the Panama Canal… but not for the Suez Canal, which has no locks.

·       New York’s Staten Island Ferry can carry over 6000 passengers per trip.  That added up to 25 million passengers in 2019… more than double the population of Greece.

And yes, the Staten Island Ferry is free.  The old 50 cent fare was dropped in 1997 in a nod to the city’s efforts to make access to the tiny borough more affordable.

 

 

 

WHY OUR AIR STINKS

Our air stinks.  In fact, Fairfield County ranks in the top 25 of most polluted areas in the US, mostly due to ozone levels.

And while much of those noxious gases drift our way from New Jersey and New York City,  a large part of our pollution is home-grown:  it’s due to heavy volumes of traffic, especially diesel trucks, which emit nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs)—key ingredients in ozone formation.

Yes:  I-95 is hazardous to your health.

And all of this gets worse in the summer due to the heat which increases ozone production, often trapping it over our heads due to temperature inversions. By one estimate, almost 200 CT residents die each year due to our air quality.

We will all remember back to June of 2023 when our sky turned orange due to smoke from Canadian wildfires.  That created truly hazardous conditions that literally made breathing bad for you.  With global warming, we’ll see things like this happening again.

Canadian wildfire smoke - June 2023

So, what does any of this have to do with transportation?  Mother nature’s pains (like the Canadian wildfires) notwithstanding, it is transportation’s pollution that  is the #1 source in our state, EPA blaming it for half of all our bad air.

TRUCKS:     These are the vehicles responsible for most of our air pollution.  While medium to large trucks represent only 6% of traffic they cause 53% of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions, 45% of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), linked to respiratory and cardiovascular health issues, and 25% of greenhouse gas emissions.

Better air filters may help as does burning biodiesel and enforcing no-idling rules. But the real solution will be electric-powered trucks.  However, the Trump administration has slashed tax credits for new buyers and frozen plans for the rollout of charging stations.

TAKE THE TRAIN:            Riding Metro-North is five to six times more fuel efficient than driving.  Those electric trains’ power-generation gives them the equivalent of 125-160 MPG.  And that’s improved further by the trains’ regenerative braking which means that, even when stopping, they generate more power.

Getting more folks on the train also reduces highway traffic, making those vehicles more fuel efficient because they’re not spewing exhaust in stop-and-go traffic.

But our diesel locomotives (which run on the Danbury, Waterbury and Hartford lines) are a different matter.  For their runs in Connecticut they are big polluters, just like trucks.  The World Health Organization and EPA call diesel exhaust a Class 1 carcinogen, right up there with tobacco and asbestos.  New locomotives that are on order will improve that with battery operation and improved filtration.

SHIPS:         Yes, both commercial and pleasure craft contribute to air (and in this case noise and water) pollution, again because of their diesel engines.  It’s not by chance that wind-powered sailors refer to powerboaters as “stink potters” and “blow boaters”.  There are some electric-powered boats under development, but they’re more expensive and don’t offer the same range.

So, whether your travels take you on the open waters or (hopefully) open roads, remember that there’s more to the cost of your trip than fuel: there’s the cost to our shared environment.

 

DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE

Don’t believe everything you read or see in the media.

Sage advice on any topic, but especially when it comes to coverage of transportation.  A couple of recent stories illustrate my point.

IMPROVED CELL SERVICE ON METRO-NORTH:

The Governor and CDOT’s Commissioner held a media event recently in Stamford to promote the fact that AT&T has improved its cell coverage along the New Haven line.  That telco spent $60 million installing 30 high-powered macro towers and small cell nodes, some of them on CDOT land, in a public-private partnership. Many are specifically aimed at dead-spots in service on the trains.

Small Cell Nodes - AT&T

This is good news… if you are an AT&T subscriber.  If you use Verizon or T-Mobile and find an area with no cell coverage on your commute, this won’t help you.  The AT&T enhancements are for its customers only.

There is no word from the other companies on how they might be filling holes in their service.  But… it’s a start.

However if you read the media coverage, you’d think every commuter’s cellphone coverage had been improved!  “Cellphone service to get upgrade on Metro-North rail line,” proclaimed the Hearst papers.  "Wireless service upgrades coming to New Haven line for CT commuters," said WSHU public radio.

Improved cell coverage is a crucial issue for commuters looking to be more productive during train-time.  But attention-grabbing headlines such as these may lead to a perception of better service.  The more you’re told “cell service is getting better” the more you’ll think it is.  Or so they hope. 

But… don’t believe the hype.

FASTER THAN ACELA?

In April another media event, this time at Grand Central, celebrated faster train service from New Haven:  three early morning (5 – 7 am) super-express trains, one of them cutting ten minutes off its old running time, making that single train “faster than Acela”.

Great news… if you’re a pre-dawn-commuter from New Haven.  Again, kudos to Metro-North for much needed signal and infrastructure improvements.  But has the average commute to Grand Central really improved?  Not really.  The exception is not the rule.

With limited stops these super-express trains still average only 52 mph.  Regular express trains get about 46 mph and locals run just 38 mph.  Remember: the M-8 cars on Metro-North are capable of 80 mph.

How did the media portray these improvements?

“New Metro-North schedule, with shorter trips on New Haven line, now in effect,” trumpeted the Hearst papers. “Metro-North Is Faster Than Acela,” promised Bloomberg (quoting MTA chairman and CEO Janno Lieber).

The “faster than Acela” claim is technically true… for one Metro-North train.  Keep in mind that New Haven to GCT is 73 miles but to Penn Station (on Amtrak) is 75 miles.  But not wanting to always sound like a grouch, I say good for Metro-North.

What worries me is the media coverage which over generalizes and lacks the caveats I’ve cited.  Telling commuters repeatedly that their trains are running faster, when they are not, may be persuasive but it is not accurate.

So, take media coverage of transportation with a grain of salt.  The headlines don’t always tell the full story.  And don’t believe the hype.

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I am proud to report that “Talking Transportation” recently won an award from CT-SPJ, the Society of Professional Journalists, first place in the General Column / Commentary category… just one of a dozen such awards to CTMirror.

ENJOYING THE VIEW

Commuting can be “Oh so boring”, especially if you’re driving.  But when you’re on the train, you’ve got plenty of time to do work, read a book, take a nap or just look out the window.

Enjoying the view from the train is one of the perks of being car-free, and some parts of the ride are especially beautiful.

Traveling along the coast, especially east of New Haven (on Shore Line East or Amtrak) the water views are spectacular.  Even on the wetlands side, there’s often wildlife to be seen… egrets, ospreys and such.

Walk Bridge - Norwalk CT

Crossing the soon-to-be-replaced, 125 year-old Walk Bridge in Norwalk, there’s a nice view out to the water or into downtown South Norwalk.  Westport’s Saugatuck River Bridge (known as Saga) is also a delight.  Same thing in Greenwich crossing the Mianus River where a glimpse to the north brings back memories of the collapse of the I-95 bridge in 1983 that took three lives.

But my favorite part of the ride into New York City on Metro-North is between Portchester and New Rochelle, that nine-mile straight section of track that engineers call “The Raceway”.  Running right alongside I-95, the trains used to have a speed limit of 80 mph, and they’d do it.

Is there anything more satisfying than whipping past drivers on that busy interstate, showing them that the train is a faster choice?  I’ve even been known to wave as we hurtle past.

Just south of Westchester County, as trains enter The Bronx (near Woodlawn), is where the New Haven and Harlem lines converge, complete with a soaring rail overpass.  Again, a great view for a railfan such as myself. 

Another favorite of mine is crossing the Harlem River into Manhattan as the trains traverse the Park Avenue Bridge.  There’s a great view of the city skyline and brief views down the avenues.

Some stations are also memorable, even when passed at high speed.  Just who was Greens Farms named after?  And just why doesn’t the stylish new Fairfield Metro station have a waiting room?  But special mention goes to Milford where the usual advertising posters on the platform have been replaced with huge photos of the beautiful town itself.  Nice promotion.

A nice as those views are, there’s much of the ride which is far less scenic.

The seemingly bombed out factories of Bridgeport hold such memories… and promise.  And Portchester’s old Lifesaver building, complete with its terracotta candies as ornamentation, remind us of the whimsy of architecture.

Railroads are built around business, and looking into the backside of industrial sites along the right of way ain’t exactly pretty.  Even in corporate office buildings, it’s funny how landlords spend so much adorning their street-facing façade but forget that thousands see only the backs of the building, covered with graffiti and neglect.

And much of the trackside, strewn with debris, old rail ties and rusting equipment, could also use some TLC.

What’s your favorite “view from the train”?  Share your thoughts at CommuterActionGroup@gmail.com

 

 

 

FIVE WORST IDEAS FOR SOLVING TRAFFIC CONGESTION

Everybody loves to complain about our traffic.  And for some, the solutions are simple, if impractical.  If there were easy answers to our woes, they’d have been implemented by now.  

Look… this is really a matter of supply and demand: too much demand (highway traffic) and not enough supply (space on those roads).   I think the solution is to manage the demand.  But others say it’s a “supply side” issue. 

So here are a few of the crazier ideas for fixing our traffic that I’ve seen proposed over the  years:

1)    DOUBLE-DECK I-95:        Seriously, this was once proposed by the Stamford Chamber of Commerce.  Can you imagine the decades of construction and billions in cost, with “upper level” roads having to soar hundreds of feet over existing bridges? 

Katy Freeway in Texas

2)    ALLOW TRUCKS ON THE MERRITT PARKWAY:       There are two words to explain why this can’t happen:  low bridges.

3)    BAN TRUCKS FROM OUR INTERSTATES:          This was once suggested to me by a Fairfield County First Selectman.  But as I reminded him… trucks are high-occupancy vehicles delivering goods to the stores where you drive your single-occupancy vehicle to shop.  No trucks, no goods, no shopping.

4)    DRIVE IN THE BREAK-DOWN LANE:      This was then-Governor Rowland’s idea in 2000 and he even wasted a million dollars studying it.  But if you think of that far right-hand lane instead as the “emergency rescue lane”, you’ll see why this doesn’t make sense.  This plan would also require re-striping the road to create narrower lanes, making driving even more dangerous.

5)    WIDENING I-95 TO FOUR LANES:       Again, billions in cost and decades of construction.  And if you build it, they will come.  The immutable law of “induced demand” means that traffic will expand to fill available space.  Then what, a fifth lane?

I-95 in Miami

There are better ways to manage congestion, some of them already being implemented:

OPERATIONAL LANES:     Adding a fourth lane from on-ramps to the next off-ramps gives traffic a better chance of merging on and off the highway without blocking the through-lanes.

WIDENING CHOKE-POINTS:      For example, the exit 14-15 bottleneck in Norwalk.  But this widening project (for less than one mile) cost $50 million and took three years.  The I-84 / Route 8 “Mixmaster” rebuild in Waterbury took six years and cost $253 million.  Both projects were funded mostly with Federal funds, but it’s anyone’s guess what will happen to that money pot under the new administration’s budget cutting.

ADD A ZIPPER LANE:      Sure, this may require highway widening, but just one lane that’s reversible depending on demand, a system that was used successfully on the Tappan Zee Bridge before its reconstruction.  By moving the extra lane, capacity can be added to the direction where there’s the most traffic.

CHANGE COMMUTING HOURS:  Does everyone really need to work 9 am – 5 pm?  How about starting earlier or later and spreading out the traffic?  Your employer should understand and you’ll be happier and more productive.

And the very best idea of all:  IMPROVE MASS TRANSIT TO ENCOURAGE DRIVERS to get off of the roads.

As I say, there are no simple solutions to highway congestion.  So when anyone says he or she has one, be skeptical.  It’s easy to identify the problems.  But fixing them will always be hard… and usually expensive.

 

AVELO AIRLINES: NEITHER WOKE NOR BROKE

Connecticut’s favorite local airline, Avelo, is in trouble for making a strategic business decision:  taking a long term contract with ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to fly deportation flights for the Department of Homeland Security.

Starting in May they’re dedicating three of their twenty 737 jets to fly from Mesa AZ to destinations both in the US and overseas (presumably flying over the “Gulf of America”), possibly even heading to El Salvador to deliver deportees to prisons there. 

The public reaction, while understandable, is misplaced.

Avelo has enjoyed amazing success flying out of New Haven’s Tweed airport, growing from 50,000 passengers in 2019 to a current 600,000 happy flyers.  They fly to 31 different destinations and have recently added flights from Bradley airport.

The convenience of flying from a local airport and the super low fares have made Avelo immensely popular, so the deal with ICE has some fans upset.  It’s almost as if Patagonia took a contract to design prison guard uniforms:  it’s way “off brand”.

But remember, Avelo is a common carrier airline.  Their business if flying planes, not passing judgement on passengers or destinations.

They’ve flown hundreds of charter flights for everything from sports teams to tour groups.  They’ve even flown deportation flights for ICE during the Biden administration… and nobody complained.

In fact, Avelo started as a charter airline, Casino Express (later renamed as Xtra Airlines), ferrying gamblers to Nevada.  They even provided charters for the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016.  This is their business: flying.

Avelo has been receiving financial support from the state in the form of a tax exemption on its aviation fuel. The City of New Haven has been fawning over them as a hometown success story (even though the airline is officially headquartered in Texas).  But all that has now changed.

Now there are calls for a passenger boycott and financial penalties.   But hey… isn’t this anger misplaced?

If you’re upset with ICE’s deportations, isn’t your anger better directed at them?  Where are the legal appeals?  Penalizing or boycotting Avelo won’t stop the deportations. 

There are many US-flagged airlines taking the ICE charter contracts, including the reinvented Eastern Airlines which converted a 767 used for The New England Patriots to handle deportations to Brazil and Venezuela.

Avelo says this deal with ICE was a business decision.  Though profitable, Avelo (like other no-frills airlines) pinches pennies.  They don’t fly everywhere, every day… only on the heavier travel days when they can pack their planes and make a buck.

Taking on the ICE charters, they say, is a way of subsidizing their low fares as we face an economic recession and keeping their employees on payroll.  In fact, they’re looking to hire new flight attendants for their Mesa AZ operations, paying $28 an hour.

If protesters would “read the room” they’d realize that many of Avelo’s passengers probably support the deportations.  After all, President Trump is only doing what he promised and what got him elected.

As I’ve said before, Americans deserve the government they elect.