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.

  

BY NIGHT BOAT FROM HARTFORD TO NYC

Flashback 200 years.  You have to travel from Hartford to NYC.  How do you get there?  Not by train (it didn’t exist yet) and certainly not by road (2-3 days by stage coach on dirt roads).  No, the best option was by boat.

Long before the railroad stitched Hartford to New York City, the Connecticut River served as the city’s lifeline to the outside world. From the late 1700s through the mid-1800s, an evolving fleet of sail and later steam-powered vessels carried passengers and cargo between Hartford and Manhattan, offering a vital and—by the standards of the day—relatively comfortable mode of travel.

At one point, Hartford saw 2000 ship arrivals and departures each year departing from the State Street or Talcott Street wharfs in Hartford,

In the early 1800s, packet sloops and schooners plied the river, their sails filling with wind as they made their way downriver to Long Island Sound. But the trip could still take several days, depending on weather and tides. Passengers brought food and bedding, and travel was anything but posh. Yet it was the only practical way to move not only people but bulk goods like timber, livestock, tobacco, and farm produce between inland Connecticut and the growing metropolis to the south.

The revolution came in 1813, when Captain Samuel Ward, inspired by Robert Fulton, launched the Connecticut, the first steamboat to serve the river. By the 1820s and 1830s, steam travel had become a fixture, offering more predictable service regardless of wind or tide. Steamboats like the 273-foot-long City of Hartford and the Granite State could make the journey from Hartford to New York City in 14 to 18 hours, often departing in the evening and arriving the next morning—ushering in the age of the “night boat.”

Steamboat "City of Hartford"

Fares were remarkably affordable. A cabin ticket—which included sleeping quarters and meals—typically cost $1.50 to $2.00 one way (about $75 today). Budget-conscious travelers could ride “deck passage” for just $0.50 to $1.00, though they had to supply their own bedding and brave the weather.

Passengers boarded at steamboat docks in Hartford, stopping at Middletown, Essex, and other towns along the river before entering Long Island Sound for the final leg to Manhattan’s bustling piers.

This watery highway remained dominant until the 1850s, when the completion of the Hartford and New Haven Railroad (opened in segments in 1844) and its southern connection to New York created the first through-train service. The railroad made the trip in 5-6 hours offering swanky parlor cars. By 1872, rail mergers made seamless rail travel commonplace, gradually eclipsing river travel in speed and convenience. 

The last steam boat between the two cities ran in the 1930’s due to declining passenger demand and the Depression.

So the next time you’re enjoying the (up to) three hour drive to The Big Apple, think back to simpler times when the trip was longer, but certainly more scenic.