WHY DON'T POLS RIDE MASS TRANSIT?

This week’s column is an update on something I wrote last year.  Alas, little has changed since then…

On this Labor Day weekend, here’s a question and a challenge:  Do the folks in state government know what it’s like to be a commuter?

When’s the last time that Governor Ned Lamont took a train… not for a photo op, but for real?  He does have a home in Greenwich so he could be enjoying the great service on The Hartford Line and Metro-North.  But it seems he’s always driving around in that big (chauffeured) SUV which, by the way, is not electric (despite his calls for Connecticut to “go green” and all-electric by 2035!)

C’mon Governor:  walk the talk!

Does the Governor know what it’s like to ride on standing-room-only Metro-North trains at rush hour?  Or has he tried to take Shore Line East to New London with its two hour gaps in service from New Haven? 

Is the train too slow?  Welcome to our commuting realities, Governor.

Or how about our lawmakers?  When the legislature is in session, why aren’t they on the train also?  And yeah,  I know they work weird hours.  But so do their constituents and they too have trouble catching mass transit outside of the normal nine-to-five work day.  I mean, wouldn’t we all feel safer if lawmakers were on a train or bus after a late night session instead of careening down I-91 or the Wilbur Cross Parkway at 70 mph?

And why do State Representatives and State Senators all have special license plates for their cars?  Does that give them special parking privileges or an exemption from law enforcement?

Admittedly, if the people we send to Hartford to represent us are all driving, at least they know how challenging the roads are… not that they’ve done much to improve on that gridlock.  But if they actually rode our trains and buses I’m guessing maybe they’d fix what’s wrong there, pronto.

Or consider our state’s bus system:  how many elected officials, even local ones, have ridden the buses their constituents rely on every day?  If they haven’t, how can they empathize with what it’s like, let alone fix it?

And then there’s the CDOT.  Their beautiful headquarters in Newington on Berlin Turnpike is serviced by four CT Transit bus routes, including one from Hartford’s Union (train) Station.  But I wonder how many staffers opt to ride the very mass transit system their agency funds as their headquarters’ giant parking lot always seems full.

Before Michael Bloomberg was elected Mayor of New York City, and quite often while he was in office, he rode on the subways to get to work.  His successors did not.  In Boston, then-Governor Michael Dukakis regularly rode “The T”.

These days the pols probably claim it’s “security” that prevents them from riding mass transit, but that sounds like more of an excuse than explanation.  Heaven forbid that they’d actually have to rub shoulders with their constituents!

 

REBUILDING

You’ve seen the pictures:  washed out rail tracks, crumbled roadways, debris and flood damage everywhere.  The 1000-year storm that hit the Naugatuck Valley last week caused destruction of biblical proportions.  And the reconstruction will take weeks, possibly months.

Waterbury Branch of MNRR

First off the CDOT must secure the damaged areas, remove the debris and inspect for structural damage.  Where appropriate they’ll replace damaged bridges with temporary spans, pulled from an inventory of such bridges stored for such occasions. Some such temporary bridges may be weight restricted.  Meantime, expect delays and slow driving through an obstacle course of cones and repair crews.

Above all, we will need patience.  Though the damage from the storm happened in minutes it will take awhile to get things back to normal.

The good news (if there is any) is that disaster reconstruction will be mostly paid with Federal dollars and can be done faster without environmental studies and competitive bidding.  As one CDOT veteran says, “It’ll a great time for contractors”.

As we enjoy the last week of summer, don’t let the nice weather fool you.  Storms can happen anytime… and will hit us again. The question is, how to rebuild better, anticipating future deluges.

While existing bridges and culverts were mostly built to handle 50-year storms, there’s no way to rebuild them to handle a 1000-year storm like we saw last week.  It’s just not practical or affordable… even though such storms are certainly happening more frequently.

You can follow this rebuilding progress and its potential delays.  Best resource is CDOT’s website CTRoads.com, useful even in good weather to anticipate traffic and delays.  Doubtless the CDOT’s own website will monitor progress in the rebuild as that agency has done a much better job in recent years at improving the transparency of their operation.   Kudos to CDOT Commissioner Eucalitto and his crews for their efforts so far and their frequent updates.

But when bad weather returns… and it will… where will you turn for advisories?  How will you know if its safe to drive, and where?  

Sure there are websites and social media, but nothing beats local radio… the folks who know your community best.  But will they be there to help?  Do your even know your local stations frequency?  And do they even have a working news department?

The demise this week of all-news juggernaut WCBS 880 in New York City is indicative of a dangerous trend.  While some of my old radio friends, like Connecticut residents Paul Murnane and Joe Connolly, have lost their jobs, we have lost an incredible information resource.

In its almost 57 years of all-news coverage, WCBS got us through 9/11, Sandy, and countless blizzards.  Theirs was a dependable, go-to resource available 24x7 in our cars and homes (even without electricity, if we’d prepared).  They will be missed terribly.

Don’t let what happened to them happen in your community.  Support your local media, print and broadcast.  Listen, subscribe and patronize their advertisers.  Keep them in business so they are there when we need them most.

 

EV CHARGERS, TWEED AIRPORT, T.O.D. IN THE EAST BRONX

It may be the dog days of summer, but there’s still news on the transportation front…

WHO WANTS AN EV?:     According to a recent AAA New England survey more than half of respondents said they would never buy an electric vehicle.

SO WHY ANOTHER ELECTRIC RATE INCREASE?:           Yes, PURA just voted another rate increase… about $3 a month for all electric customers… to pay for EV charging stations.  But why are we paying for gear we may never use?  Why don’t the utilities pick up the cost?  After all, gas stations don’t make non-drivers pay for their gas pumps, do they?

NYC SUBWAY SAFETY:      The Feds have come down hard on the MTA, parent of the city subway system.  An audit shows 38 “near miss events” where subway workers could have been struck, injured or killed (one was killed last November).   And there were 228 other close calls where customers could have been injured. 

The Federal Transit Administration warns the MTA that they risk losing some federal funding if they don’t comply with new safety guidelines.  A separate investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board continues.

T.O.D. ON STEROIDS:      As Metro-North develops four new train stations in the east Bronx for the planned 2027 service to NYC’s Penn Station (and Connecticut), the city has announced plans for 7000 new apartments nearby, 25% of them affordable.

This is huge news for Connecticut,  which may be able to harvest residents for jobs in our state as we still struggle with our own housing problems.

TWEED AIRPORT:     Following on the massive success of discount airline Avelo, another recent startup airline, Breeze, is adding flights from the New Haven airport.  Despite short runways, an over-crowded terminal and maxed-out parking, 

Breeze is adding flights to Florida and points south this winter with fares starting at $69.  Locals are still upset with the noise and traffic at what used to be a quiet little airport.

WHITE PLAINS AIRPORT:          Greenwich and neighboring towns are working to renew a cap on traffic at this Westchester County airport, limiting passengers to 240 boardings and unloadings every half hour. The neighborhood airport is a favorite of folks in Fairfield County but local officials don’t want it to turn into another LaGuardia… or Tweed.

UBER ADS:            In addition to your fare for taking an Uber or Lyft, expect to pay more with your eyeballs.  Just as NYC’s 13,500 licensed taxis have small TV’s in their backseat showing ads, now the city’s 83,000 ride sharing vehicles will also be running ads enroute to your destination.  But in this case, 25% of the revenue from ads will go to the driver.  Now where’s that mute button?

LIGHTS OUT:         Has anyone else noticed how many of the 25,000 street lights on our state’s interstate highways are not working?  The CDOT says some of the dark spots may be tied to replacement of the old orange-colored high pressure sodium lights with brighter, more energy efficient LEDs.  But if you see lights that aren’t working, they encourage you to report them to the agency’s Customer Care Center.  Or just send an email to DOT.CustomerCare@ct.gov

CAN METRO-NORTH "GO WEST"?

As the largest commuter railroads in the US, Metro-North (and its sister railroad the Long Island RR) are victims of geography.  They both serve large portions of the NYC metro area, but not all of it.  Something is standing in the way: the Hudson River.

If you want to go to, say, Newark Airport or Princeton NJ, your only non-driving mass transit option is Amtrak with pricey and infrequent service.  Want to visit family and friends in Rockland County?  You have to drive.

All of NYC’s commuter lines run on a hub-and-spoke model with trains running into and out of the city’s two stations, Grand Central and Penn Station.  But what if Metro-North could conquer the Hudson and offer “through service”? 

World class cities like Paris and Tokyo have commuter trains that run through their metro areas.  Why can’t NYC?

Imagine being able to grab a train in Bridgeport and, without changing trains, end up in NJ.  That one-seat ride would open up a world of possibilities of new jobs, college attendance and recreation.

But how to get across the Hudson?  Well, there are a couple of options… one that’s been engineered for the future and the other which could be implemented much quicker.  But they both present serious challenges.

UP AND OVER THE HUDSON:   You may not realize it, but the new Tappan Zee (Mario Cuomo) Bridge from Tarrytown to Nyack was designed to eventually be able to carry commuter trains.  The trains would run in the bridge’s median, between north and southbound auto and truck traffic.  That space is still available, but there is no rail service (yet) for a couple of reasons.

First, to climb from the near water-level height of the Metro-North Hudson line up to the bridge would mean ascending almost 140 feet.  Trains can’t climb hills with more than a 2% grade, so that embankment would have to start 1.33 miles before the bridge.  That would chew into a lot of expensive river-view real estate, be very expensive and take a long time to build.  So, no trains on the TZ… for now.

On the other hand, if Metro-North ever built an east-west spur along Route 287 connecting Rye to Tarrytown, that height difference wouldn’t be a problem.  But that’s another pipedream… for now.

UNDER THE RIVER:         Metro-North trains from Connecticut will soon be able to take the Amtrak route across the Hells Gate Bridge and into Penn Station.  From there they could travel under the Hudson and on into New Jersey.  But this plan also has problems.

First, Amtrak and NJTransit have plans to expand service at Penn, pretty much maxing out its capacity even after expansion of that station.

Even if there was room, Metro-North’s trains run on different voltage (12 kV AC 25 Hz) than the Northeast Corridor line in NJ.  In 2009 when NJTransit ran experimental trains from CT to Giants Stadium, their dual-mode locomotives ran electric in NJ and then diesel in NY and CT.

The bottom line:  through-running makes sense, but like so many good ideas it would be really hard (and expensive) to make happen.

 

OUR AC-DC RAILROAD

As I continue my summer vacation, I’ve updated a column I wrote 14 years ago…

Metro-North’s train service in Connecticut is challenging because of a technological quirk of fate: ours is the only commuter railroad in the U.S. that operates on three modes of power… AC, DC and diesel.

On a typical run from, say, New Haven to Grand Central, the first part of the journey is done “under the wire”, the trains being powered by 13,000 volt AC overhead wires, or catenaries.  Around Pelham, in Westchester County, the pantographs are lowered and the conversion is made to 660 volt DC third-rail power for the rest of the trip into New York City.  Even diesel engines must convert to third-rail, as their smoky exhaust is banned in the Park Avenue tunnels.

Third Rail "Shoe"

And there’s the rub: Connecticut trains need both AC and DC, overhead and third-rail, power pick-ups and processors. That means a lot more electronics, and added cost, for each car.  While the DC-only M7 cars running in Westchester cost about $2 million each, the dual-mode M8 car designed for Connecticut cost considerably more.

So, some folks are asking… “Why not just use one power source? Just replace the overhead wires with third-rail and we can buy cheaper cars.”  Simple, yes. Smart, no.  And here’s why.

DC-powered third rail is less efficient. Trains accelerate much faster using overhead AC voltage, the power source used by the fastest trains in the world… the TGV, Shinkansen, etc.  On third-rail speeds are limited to 75 miles an hour vs. 90 mph under the wire. That means, mile for mile, commute time is longer using third rail.

There’s not enough space to lay a third-rail along each of the four tracks in the railroad’s right of way.  All four existing tracks would have to be ripped out and the space between them widened.  Every bridge and tunnel would have to be widened, platforms moved and land acquired. Cost? Probably hundreds of millions of dollars, years of construction and service disruptions.

Even with third-rail, the CDOT would still be required to provide overhead power lines for Amtrak’s catenary-only electric trains. That would mean maintaining two power systems.  

Third-rail AC power requires power substations every few miles, meaning further construction and real estate. The environmental lawsuits alone would kill this idea.

Third-rail ices up in bad weather and can get buried in snow, causing short circuits. Overhead wires have problems sometimes, but they are never buried in a blizzard.

Third-rail is dangerous to pedestrians and track workers.  The idea of conversion to third-rail was studied in the 1980’s by consultants to CDOT.  They concluded that, while cumbersome and costly, the current dual-power system is, in the long run, cheaper and more efficient than installing third-rail. The engineers at CDOT got it right.

Doubtless, we’ll have further “wires down” problems on Metro-North in the years to come. Ironically, Metro-North’s 97% on-time record has made us come to expect good service, despite our ancient infrastructure. But in the long run, service will be faster and even more reliable by sticking with our dual-mode system.

 

TRAVEL GOES ELECTRIC

Enjoying the heatwave this summer?  The electric utilities sure are. 

And just wait ‘til you get your next bill.  They’ve been warning us for months now that we’ll be in for a shocker as the average bill will jump about a $13 per month . 

That’s on top of what are already the second highest electric rates in the US, exceeded only by those in Hawaii.  In Connecticut we pay twice as much money for electricity as customers in some other states.

But you get what you pay for and, so far this summer, our electric supply and reliability hasn’t been an issue as in other states.  Aside from storm damage, there have been no interruptions, no brown-outs or requests to reduce consumption. 

But increasingly we are relying on electricity for more than just AC but also, more and more, for our transportation. 

As Metro-North and Amtrak add more service, that means more electric trains… and demands on Eversource.  But again, so far so good this summer.  Even on the hottest days the railroad has not had to reduce its consumption by running trains slower.

Credit must also go to CDOT which spent $912 million between 1993 and 2021 fixing the railroads’ catenary system delivering that electricity.  That’s why our trains keep running while those in New Jersey don’t.

Consider also CDOT’s recent purchase of 46 new electric buses which will run on the CTfastrak busway between New Britain and Hartford.  Bought under an $86 million federal grant, the new buses will be cleaner and quieter, running 250 miles per day on a single charge. CDOT plans to electrify all 700 of its buses by 2035.

And we’re not even talking about the future of electric-power airplanes or mandatory use of “shore power” for cargo ships when docked, all in the name of clean air and global warming.

How about other electric vehicles… e-school buses, light duty trucks (think Amazon local delivery) and, of course, electric cars?  Is “the grid” ready for that increased demand?

Electric passenger car sales have slowed in recent months as consumers seem reluctant to “go electric” until we have more charging stations.  But those EVs are still selling: in Q2 EV sales were up 11% year over year. 

And that keeps Victoria Rojo mighty busy planning for the future.

She’s the Lead Data Scientist at ISO-New England, the independent, non-profit organization that runs our region’s grid.  They’re responsible for coordinating New England’s 32,000 megawatt power capacity, working with 400 different generators serving over 14 million customers.  It’s a second-by-second balancing act.

ISO-New England Control Room

A physicist by training, she projects that we will see a 23% increase in electric demand in just the next decade (not including electric trains).  Nor does that projection include the effects of global warming on increased AC usage.  “That’s a difficult one to adjust for,” she tells me.

Visit the ISO-NE.com website and you’ll see a breakdown of electricity demand and how it’s being met.  There’s also a daily projection of demand, hour by hour, which proves amazingly accurate.

With the closing of the region’s last few coal-fired plants, New England is still heavily reliant on natural gas and nuclear power for almost two-thirds of its power.  Renewables like solar and wind now answer less than 5% of our needs.

Obviously, we will need more power plants and a better transmission system (electricity suffers “line loss” the farther you send it) to meet these growing demands.  So Rojo’s planning is just the first step.

In the meantime, crank up the AC.

THE FIRST TRANSCON

Aviation history was made July 7, 1929,  when the first transcontinental flight from New York to Los Angeles, took off, not with an airplane, but on a train.

This was the real birth of commercial aviation in the US, and it was led by none other than Charles Lindbergh,  just two years after his solo crossing of the Atlantic.

The journey from New York began with an overnight Pullman train. Christened by Amelia Earhart “The Airway Limited“, it arrived the next morning at Port Columbus, Ohio at a purpose-built train station and airport.  There the passengers boarded a Ford Trimotor and flew west stopping to refuel in St. Louis, Kansas City and finally arriving in Waynoka, OK.   There they boarded another train overnight and finished the final leg from Clovis NM to LA the next day, again by air.

Ford Trimotor

Lindbergh piloted the first eastbound transcon flight July 8th from Glendale, CA, having leant his name, expertise and reputation to, for its time, a Bezos-sized leap into the future.

The service pioneered by Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT, later to become TWA) cut travel time between the east and west coast in half, to only 46 hours eastbound, and 50 hours going west against the wind.

The Fort Trimotor model 5-AT could carry up to 17 passengers, each of whom paid the equivalent, in today’s dollars, of about $6200 for the one-way trip.

Because the plane was unpressurized and could only fly at low altitudes, the ride was usually bumpy.  And noisy: sound levels as high as 120 dB inside the cabin meant that cabin stewards had to use megaphones to talk to passengers inflight.

Ford Trimotor interior

The Trimotor cruised at 107 mph (compared to modern jets at 500 – 600 mph).  The planes creaked and groaned and the wooden windows rattled in their frames. It was said there would be random metallic sounds throughout the flight… hardly reassuring.

As daring (and exhausting) as daytime travel by air might have been, it was still considered far too dangerous to fly at night. There were few navigation beacons until 1930.  After that the trains were then replaced with more planes.

In September 1929 Lindy’s line made another aviation first:  the first air crash involving a commercial flight over land.  All onboard perished in this, the first of three such accidents in the airline’s first few months of operation.

Despite the public’s fascination with aviation, this transcontinental service never turned a profit, even with their relatively high fares.  In its first year and a half of operations, the transcontinental service lost the equivalent, in today’s money, of $49 million. Less than four months after its launch, the stock market crashed in October 1929, ushering in the Great Depression, which slashed passenger numbers and badly needed revenue.

But this venture, visionary and creative as it was, led, through bankruptcy and mergers, to the creation of TWA, which itself was acquired by American Airlines in 2001.  Today the New York to Los Angeles market sees 4 million passengers a year.  Fares are as low as $150 one-way and the journey takes about five to six hours.