In Connecticut, when it comes to transportation we don’t seem to have a transportation strategy… we just have a construction strategy.
Sure, the plans for redevelopment of the New Haven Union Station are certainly impressive… the new European-style roof and canopy over the tracks, the redone passenger tunnel, etc. All of it serving as a beautiful gateway to The Elm City and a new TOD (transit oriented development) project on adjacent state land.
But why are we spending $402
million on this while we can’t find a paltry $3 million to restore some train
service on Shore Line East? We seem to
be able to afford a cathedral for trains, just not the trains themselves.
I get it that infrastructure spending is important, much of it paid for with OPM (Other Peoples’ Money, i.e. the Feds). But shouldn’t we be providing actual transportation, not just architectural marvels? I guess it’s easier to ribbon-cut a station than run a schedule.
Consider just two other projects,
small and large, as examples:
The $33
million installation of electrically-heated station platforms at the Darien
RR station (already 15 months behind schedule)… or the seven year-long, billion
dollar rebuild of the Walk
rail bridge in Norwalk. There seems
to be plenty of money (and jobs) for construction but not for the trains and
buses that will then use what’s built.
Why is the legislature looking
at potential cuts affecting up to 30% of the bus service in Bridgeport while
keeping the future of nine different Microtransit projects in some jeopardy?
Greater Bridgeport Transit
carries as many as 15,000 passengers daily.
And there are 17 towns and
cities served by nine Microtransit pilot programs, serving up more than
100,000 trips annually with Uber-like door-to-door service. Norwalk’s Wheels2U has proven the concept’s
success with 200+ riders per day.
And guess what one of the
bigger destinations of these bus and Microtransit riders: that’s right, the train station. This is how CDOT hopes to increase ridership
on the rails, by cutting bus service? With
the price of gasoline these days, is this any way to encourage commuters to
leave their car at home and try transit?
Why has CDOT plans for another
5% fare hike this July on Metro-North with no expansion of service and no
increase in speed? And the Governor’s
campaign of super-fast
express trains to New York City… just that, a campaign promise never
fulfilled.
Why is Amtrak
suing the MTA (parent of Metro-North) instead of cooperating to provide
better train service? MTA claims that
Amtrak is slowing development of their new commuter service to the East Bronx
while Amtrak says the railroad is denying it the right to run non-revenue and
test trains on the New Haven line.
Why does Amtrak bicker with
CDOT over The Hartford Line, limiting U-pass
(student) riders’ access to its too-short, always-crowded, trains between
Springfield and New Haven?
Why have high access and power
costs charged by Amtrak made running the shiny, new M8 electric trains on Shore
Line East uneconomical, persuading CDOT to pull out old
passenger cars and run diesel locos just to save money? Another nail in the coffin of Shore Line
East.
It seems that we’re not
investing in transportation. We’re
investing in transportation projects… real estate, not real people. And riders (voters) can tell the difference.
