WHO'S RUNNING THIS RAILROAD?

As we all adjust to the crazy new ticketing rules on Metro-North, it’s an appropriate time to step back and explain the bizarre patchwork of ownership and responsibility that makes our state’s railroads possible.  Because, when problems arise we should know who to blame and hold accountable.

If you’ve ever wondered who’s actually in charge when your train is late, your ticket doesn’t scan, and parking enforcement is already writing you up, congratulations, you’ve stumbled upon the mysteries of Connecticut rail governance.

You may not realize it, but a single train ride on commuter rail in our state may be touched by seven or more different agencies, each responsible for a different part of your ride.

THE RAILROAD TRACKS:         Fortunately, the State of CT owns the railroad tracks, signals, power lines and right-of-way from Greenwich to New Haven, the largest section of the Northeast Corridor that is not owned by Amtrak.  That gives us more control of ‘our’ trains.  But Amtrak owns the tracks, etc. north of New Haven to Massachusetts (aka The Hartford Line) and east of New Haven (Shore Line East) to New London.

THE STATIONS:     Here’s where it gets more confusing.  Most train stations in the state are owned by CDOT but a few are owned by the towns and cities where they are located.  In some cases the town owns the station but it sits on CDOT-owned land. 

As for who is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the stations, it’s usually the owner but CDOT contracts with third parties to run big stations like Stamford, New Haven, Hartford and Bridgeport.  Remember this when you’re slip-sliding on the platform waiting for your train.

STATION PARKING:         Parking at the stations is ultimately controlled by CDOT as they own most of the parking lots.  At the big stations with parking structures (Stamford and New Haven, for example) CDOT hires third parties to run the show.  In the smaller towns, where CDOT owns the land, they may lease it to the towns to operate.

The cost of parking is often determined by the local authorities, in most cases the towns or agents of CDOT.  On CDOT-owned land the parking is available to all, regardless of where you live.  In town-owned lots, rates and even access can be limited to local residents.

Commuter rail may be regional, but parking policy seems aggressively parochial.

THE TRAIN CARS:           On the New Haven line, CDOT owns about half of the railcars with Metro-North (MTA) owning the rest.  On Shore Line East and The Hartford Line, CDOT owns the cars except those operated with Amtrak equipment.

TRAIN OPERATIONS:      CDOT hires Metro-North to run the trains on the New Haven line and branches.  The two agencies work under an “operating agreement” the size of a Manhattan phone book and just as readable.  On Shore Line East the trains are run by Amtrak and on The Hartford Line some trains are run by Amtrak and others by a CDOT contractor, TransitAmerica.

SCHEDULES:         CDOT tells Metro-North the level of service they want and then works with that agency on how to deliver it (given financial constraints in their state budget).  On Shore Line East and The Hartford Line it’s a similar deal, but this time working with Amtrak.

THE FARES:          CDOT sets commuter fares for trains in our state, not Metro-North or Amtrak.  The fares usually increase in lockstep: the latest MTA fare hike in NY soon to be matched by July’s CDOT fare increase.

 

How does all this work out for you, the rider?  How can a single train trip be touched by so many state and local agencies, towns and city departments?

The short answer is… it does work, sort of.  But it leaves passengers confused when it doesn’t.  If you get a parking ticket at the station, do you think Metro-North is to blame?  If your train is running late or over-crowded, who do you call?

Ours is an imperfect system, a relic of decades of bi-state compromises, overlapping authorities, and well-meaning bureaucrats and operators doing their best inside a structure that practically guarantees confusion.

"BEST OF 2025"

Jim Cameron's Talking Transportation columns are some of the best-read pieces on our site.  And while Jim takes some holiday time off this week, here are his five most widely read columns from 2025 for readers to re-enjoy -- or fume over, whichever is the case.

No. 5: Avelo Airlines — neither woke nor broke.

While understandable, public anger over Avelo Airlines' contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to fly deportation flights for the Department of Homeland Security is misplaced.

Read the column here.

 

No. 4: Blinded by the (head) light

You are driving down a dark narrow road and suddenly blinded by an oncoming pair of headlights. !!X#&%($!!! Where's the road? Am I going to crash? Why is this happening and what can I do?

Read the column here.

 

No. 3: CT’s Real ID deadline is looming

Quick. Look at your Connecticut driver’s license! If you don’t see a gold star in the upper right corner, you’ll soon be unable to use that as ID to fly.

Read the column here.

 

No. 2: Shapiro’s Folly – a bridge over Long Island Sound

How did we get sucked into a debate about a project that every transportation expert I spoke with said just won’t happen?

Read the column here.

 

...And on to the most-read Talking Transportation column of the year...

No. 1: Out-of-state license plates are costing CT towns big money

“This is the number one form of tax evasion in Connecticut.  Connecticut is losing millions annually and our DMV does not care.” So says the president of the Connecticut Association of Assessing Officers.

Read the year's best-read column here.

Best wishes for a Happy “News Year”!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO I-84

Happy Birthday to Interstate 84.  You’re now 64 and you look every mile of it… truly the ouroboros of CT highways

Last week marked yet another birthday for Interstate 84 in Connecticut, first opened on December 16, 1961, a milestone that deserves candles, cake, and perhaps a moment of silence for every commuter who has ever thought, “How is this highway still not finished?”

Back in the 60’s, I-84 wasn’t just a highway.  It was a promise.  The sleek, modern “Yankee Expressway” would whisk drivers effortlessly from Danbury to Hartford and beyond.  Congestion would vanish, they said. Town centers would breathe easier, they hoped.  America would drive happily ever after, wouldn’t they?

Spoiler alert: ‘they’ were wrong.

The early 1960s were the golden age of highway hubris. The federal government was handing out interstate money like Halloween candy, and Connecticut happily obliged by deciding that U.S. Route 6, a perfectly serviceable road that inconveniently (at least to drivers) passed through towns, had to go.  

What better solution than a wide, limited-access highway careening over and through over hills, rivers, and Hartford neighborhoods and downtown alike? 

When the first 15-mile stretch opened between the New York line and Sandy Hook, officials celebrated as if traffic had been permanently solved.  It hadn’t even reached Hartford yet but optimism was cheap, and costly concrete was plentiful.

By the time I-84 finally lumbered into the capital city years later, the damage was already baked in.  Entire neighborhoods were carved up in the name of progress. The highway bent, twisted, doubled back, stacked lanes on top of each other, and introduced a master class in left-hand exits, the traffic engineering equivalent of juggling chainsaws.  And we’re still debating how to fix all that… the topic for a future column, if not a thesis.

Consider the Waterbury “Mixmaster” where I-84 crosses Route 8, a traffic interchange so messed up that national traffic engineers hold it up as an example of what never to build again.  And that’s before CDOT spends $3-5 billion to replace it.

And yet, every decade since the ribbon was cut brought the same response to the ever-worsening traffic: Just widen it.

Traffic backed up? Add lanes. Still backed up? Add more lanes. Still bad? Rebuild interchanges, add HOV lanes, re-stripe everything, and promise that this time it’ll work. This logic has been faithfully applied for more than six decades — making I-84 not just a highway, but a self-sustaining traffic experiment in futility.

So as I-84 blows out its birthday candles, it stands as a living monument to “induced demand”, the transportation principle politely explained in planning textbooks (yawn) and painfully experienced by anyone who’s crawled through Waterbury at rush hour (ouch):  the more road you build, the more traffic shows up to fill it.  Like magic. Or mold.

To be fair, I-84 has aged exactly as expected.  It’s constantly under reconstruction and needed repairs, perpetually congested, and somehow always remains essential despite being deeply flawed, much like Connecticut itself.

So happy birthday, I-84.  Sixty-four years young.  You were built to end traffic and instead, you’ve given us a lifetime of it.

 

TRAIN TICKET TURMOIL AHEAD ON METRO-NORTH

If you’re a Metro-North rider in Connecticut, already juggling limited parking, train delays, and the usual commuter indignities, get ready for something new in January.  Not a fare hike (for once), but a complete rewiring of how train tickets will work, courtesy of the MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority).  All this comes under the guise of a “better customer experience”

Let’s get one thing straight before the panic sets in:   Connecticut is not raising rail fares in January.  That’s just in New York, so if you only consume NYC-media’s recent coverage of this story you are understandably confused.

However… another 5% hike that CTDOT approved for the our trains will hit in July 2026.  Just classic Connecticut: slow, steady, predictable fiscal pain: higher fares, worsening service.

Why the need for fare hikes at all?  In part, because of fare evasion. 

The NYC Citizens Budget Commission estimates the MTA loses $1 billion a year because of that problem, $46 million on Metro-North and the LIRR alone.  And on NYC buses (soon to be made ‘free’ under Mayor-elect Mamdani?), 45% of riders already just jump aboard without paying.

So, in part, the fare hikes are like that ‘public benefits’ surcharge on your electric bill:  the rest of us pick up the tab for uncollectable bills.

January’s big changes affecting us? The new MTA ticketing rules which absolutely do apply to Connecticut riders because we share the system, just with different fare hike schedules.

ONE-WAY TICKETS WILL SELF-DESTRUCT AT 4 AM

Buy a ticket today, use it by 4 a.m. tomorrow, or it evaporates. “Poof”!  The MTA markets this as “flexibility.”  Commuters might call it “gotcha, but make it digital.”  Late for the train because you couldn’t activate your ticket in a cellphone dead-zone? Or ‘forget’ to activate that e-ticket before the conductor comes around?  That’ll cost you a $2 onboard surcharge, a fee whose primary purpose appears to be reminding you who’s in charge.

ROUNDTRIP TICKETS… GONE!

They’re being replaced by the new “Day Pass”, valid until 4 a.m. the next morning and good for unlimited travel that day.  Great for joy-riding and easier for conductors to scan.  But more convenient for riders?  Well, maybe.

10-TRIP TICKETS… ALSO GONE
In their place comes a “mobile pay-as-you-go reward”: buy 10 trips within 14 days and the 11th is free.  It’s the kind of loyalty program only a government agency could invent: stick around long enough, pay full price consistently, and eventually you’ll get something resembling a perk.  Even Dunkin’ Donuts has a better frequent customer program.

And again, all of these rule changes apply equally to riders from Connecticut and New York, because the MTA controls the fare products (with CDOT’s blessing) even on Connecticut-run service.  And all this applies to Metro-North, Shore Line East and Hartford Line trains.

What Connecticut riders are getting in January is a system that’s more complex, less forgiving, and seems designed with the breezy assumption that Metro-North passengers have the time and mental bandwidth to memorize expiring tickets, activation rules, and mobile-only discounts.

So enjoy this moment of clarity.  Your ticket rules are changing in January, but your ticket prices are not… at least not yet.  In today’s commuter world, maybe that almost qualifies as a holiday stocking-stuffer.

 

WHITE HOUSE BOOSTS COST OF DRIVING

Don’t look now, but the Trump White House is changing the cost of your driving commute.

Maybe you missed this news, perhaps disturbed (yet unsurprised) by our President’s daily tirades… attacking Somalis as “garbage” one day, pardoning a convicted drug smuggler the next or his continued threats of invading Venezuela.  How easily we miss the real news by getting distracted by these “bright, shiny objects”.

We all know that Connecticut drivers must cope with some of the highest gas prices, longest commutes, and oldest highways in the Northeast.  Now Washington has decided to dramatically weaken fuel-economy standards for new cars, cutting the 2031 target from roughly 50 mpg to about 34.  This threatens to make things worse for everyone, especially current and future electric-vehicle owners.

On the surface, the rollback is pitched by the White House as a win for “affordable cars,” claiming that these relaxed MPG rules will shave maybe $900 off the cost of a new gas-powered SUV.  But for Connecticut commuters who routinely log 12,000–15,000 miles a year, those savings will evaporate quickly:  cars that burn more fuel cost more to operate, and in a pricey state like ours, the pump always gets paid.

But the bigger, less obvious impact of the mileage rules will be on electric-vehicle drivers, the very people who bought into the promise of lower operating costs, cleaner air, and a modernized transportation system.

According to the Connecticut DMV, there are 2.7 million cars and trucks in our small state.  But only about 60,000 of them are EVs.

For those current EV owners, the MPG rollback creates more uncertainty… beyond just finding a charging station.  EV resale values depend on strong future demand.  So when Washington signals that gasoline-powered cars will stay dominant longer, that EV market may sputter.  Fewer people will shop for EVs, fewer choose them, and used EV prices will likely soften.  

Federal tax incentives (up to $7500) for new EV buyers already expired this fall but some Connecticut rebates continue… for now.

Then there’s the EV charging network — or, more accurately, the charging network we were promised.  Federal programs launched with great fanfare in 2021 pledged 500,000 publicly available chargers nationwide.  But fewer than 400 federally funded chargers have actually been built under the $7.5 billion program.

In Connecticut, fast-charging deserts for thirsty EVs persist across Litchfield County, the Quiet Corner, and shoreline towns east of New Haven.  Even Fairfield County’s charging stations, while more plentiful, are frequently congested or out of service.

For future EV buyers, the rollback removes one of the biggest forces pushing automakers to build affordable electric models.  Without strict fuel-economy rules, carmakers can meet federal requirements by selling profitable gas-powered SUVs rather than investing in lower-cost EVs that would appeal to everyday drivers. The result? Slower arrival of mid-priced EVs, the very models that would make ‘going electric’ a realistic choice for middle-class families in these tight times.

Remember four years ago when Elon Musk promised us a Tesla for $25,000?  In fact the new entry-level models now cost about $37,000 or more.

Here in Connecticut, where we import every gallon of fuel we burn, a slowdown in EV adoption is more than an environmental setback.  It’s an economic one.  More money will leave the state for out-of-region fuel suppliers.  And an unreliable, underbuilt charging network threatens to stall our transportation future.

The real bottom line?  You may find new gas-powered cars will be cheaper, but the cost of driving them will go up in (exhaust) smoke.

AMTRAK'S TILT PROBLEM

How was your travel this holiday weekend?

If you’re one of the 82 million Americans who traveled at least 50 miles for Thanksgiving, perhaps some of you opted for Amtrak instead of driving.  Our nation’s passenger railroad estimates a six percent boost in ridership this year, as Amtrak’s growth and popularity continues.

Not that taking the train is cheap:  a one-way, last-minute fare from Stamford to Washington DC on Thanksgiving day was as much as $400 on one train!  It’s a matter of demand exceeding supply.  Still, Amtrak is proud of these fares which, nationwide have seen the railroad increase overall revenues by 10%.

Aside from worsening highway traffic and delays, why chose the train instead of driving?  Because the investment in its infrastructure is finally paying off with better service.

Stations are being improved, crucial bridges (like the Walk Bridge in South Norwalk) are being reconstructed, new tunnels are being built, tracks and overhead power lines replaced.  You can see the improvements as you travel.

And then there’s the new equipment.

Amtrak’s long expected (and four years delayed) NextGen Acela is turning eyes as it whooshes up and down the corridor.  It’s a really sweet train, with only five sets in service so far but with 23 more sets to come by 2027.  But these sleek new trains are having problems, especially between New Haven and Providence, one of the ‘curviest’ parts of the Northeast.

Fast trains abhor curves.  While the new Acela can go as fast as 160 mph, it can do so only on about 40 super-straight miles of its 450 mile journey from Washington to Boston.  In the rest of Connecticut it can go no faster than Metro-North.

In fact, the new Acela is slower than the old Acela, especially from New Haven to Providence.  The reason?  Tilting, or lack thereof.

To handle all the curves in Connecticut, Acela is designed to automatically tilt into the curves, maintaining speed without having passengers’ beverages sliding off their tray-tables into their laps.

But because the NextGen Acela is still awaiting final certification by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), it’s limited in how much it can tilt into curves.  That means that, between Providence and New Haven, the new Acela takes ten minutes longer than the older models, worsening those supposedly-faster trains’ on-time performance.

Because our tracks in Connecticut are older and placed closer to together than in other parts of the corridor, the tight clearances between passing trains could cause a problem… especially if two passing trains should both be tilting in the wrong direction and sideswipe each other.

As the NextGen Acelas prove their reliability and improvements are made to our tracks, it’s expected that the FRA will lift some restrictions and all the new trains will ultimately operate at maximum efficiency.

With more and faster trains, the increase in available seats may lead to lower fares.  But what Amtrak really needs is competition… the topic for another story.

 

 

CARLESS IN CONNECTICUT

Is it possible to live in our state without a car? 

We have over 1.1 million cars registered in Connecticut (not counting SUVs, pickups and vans) for our 2.6 million licensed drivers.  But that still doesn’t account for another half-million adults who don’t drive, by choice or economic necessity.

According to AAA, in Connecticut it costs about $11,000 a year to operate a new car (not counting its purchase price), well above the national average.  You can blame high insurance premiums, property taxes, registration and maintenance… plus the cost of gasoline.  That means the average driver pays about 70 cents a mile to drive.

But in most of the state, access to a car is essential for daily living, especially if you’re older.

Something like 19% of all Connecticut residents are over age 65.  Over age 70, traffic fatalities increase with age; by age 85, drivers have probably outlived their ability to drive safely.

Every year some 600,000 adults in the US stop driving.  But because seniors make 90% of their trips in private cars, either driving or as passengers, what happens next?

When seniors stop driving it impacts more than their mobility:  it can also affect their health.   Seniors who stop driving make 15% fewer trips to the doctor.  They can’t get out to shop as much.  They isolate socially, which can lead to depression and a downward spiral in health.

Living in the suburbs, 80% of seniors reside in car-dependent neighborhoods.  Some 53% of those areas don’t have sidewalks and 60% are not within a ten minute walk of a transit stop, assuming the elders can still walk that distance.

The cost of bus fare isn’t the main reason that dissuades seniors from riding the bus.  It’s not knowing where the bus stops are, when they run, the lack of a shelter and, yes, probably a fear for their safety.  Plus not all buses kneel, which makes boarding a challenge.

Many affluent communities offer free or low-cost ride services for seniors (and others with disabilities).  In Greenwich there’s “Call A Ride”, in Fairfield “Dial A Ride” and in Darien “At Home in Darien”.  And several cities offer on-demand, Uber-like services such as Norwalk and Westport’s “Wheels2U” and New Haven’s “Via NHV”.

At the other end of the mobility spectrum, many of our cities and towns have gone to great expense installing bike lanes.  But when’s the last time you saw them being used?  They sound great, offering a chance for exercise and enhanced mobility, but they’re hardly useful year-round.  And they certainly don’t replace the utility of a car.

Metro-North, Shore Line East and the Hartford Line are great if you’re going to a city center.  But getting to the station usually means relying on a car.  And when you alight from the train in many towns, that last-mile to your destination still involves a cab or bus (if it runs your way).

So can you live, work and play in our state without a car?  You decide.