It’s time to update you on
some of the hot topics we’ve discussed in recent weeks:
MALLOY’S
TRANSIT LAND GRAB: Remember
the Governor’s stealth proposal for a “Transit
Corridor Development Authority”, described by some as “eminent domain on
steroids”? Well, the initial idea to
allow the state to acquire any land within a half-mile of train stations was
modified, then killed in the legislature.
I predict it will be back.
BRIDGE
WOES: Just as planning
begins to replace Norwalk’s 118 year old railroad bridge, which opens but doesn’t
close, another ancient bridge is suffering the same engineering arthritis. On July 1st the Devon
Bridge in Stratford was raised but wouldn’t close, delaying every train
that ran across it for days. Estimated
replacement cost, $750 million.
STAMFORD
GARAGE: It has been two years since
the CDOT tapped Darien developer John McClutchy as their choice to demolish the
old rail station garage. (That announcement
came ten days after, just coincidentally, McClutchy’s
wife donated $10,000 to the state Democrats.) But a final deal has yet to be signed for reasons
unknown, so any work is still many months away. Meanwhile in April of this year the old
garage was crumbling so badly that the CDOT closed it for safety inspections. Those inspections were completed, but the
garage is still closed, displacing 700+ daily commuters.
THIS
IS “SAFETY FIRST”?: On
June 29th, Metro-North allowed two trains to run toward each other
on a single track just south of New Canaan.
Fortunately they stopped before a collision and one of the trains backed
up and out of the way. When reporters
first
asked Metro-North what happened, they
insisted nothing was wrong. Later,
they described the incident as “undesirable train routing”, an amazing
euphemism for a near collision.
TAKEN
TO COURT IN HANDCUFFS: Is
it reassuring to passengers to see MTA conductors and engineers on a “perp walk”
for the news media? Thirteen current and
former employees of the MTA were taken to court last week, indicted on charges
of cheating on safety exams that were testing their knowledge of signals, speed
limits and safe operation of trains. The
cheating ring ran for more than two years in a period just before Metro-North
was hit with a series of derailments and collisions. Eight different exam cycles were compromised
before the MTA’s internal investigators started their probe.
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