It’s been a busy week on the transportation beat. Not much of it good:
CHEAPER CARS? The US Dept of Transportation is
rolling back Biden-era plans to require automakers to increase their fleet’s
MPG. Rather than the goal of 50.4 mpg,
the new rules will settle for 34.9 mpg by 2031. The White House claims this may save you $1300
on the cost of a new car.
But savings on the sticker
price won’t be free. Because the new
cars won’t get the targeted mileage improvements, the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates you’ll spend $1624
more for gas over the life of your vehicle.
By the way, according to the
industry ‘bible’, Kelley Blue Book, the average new vehicle in the US now costs
$50,089, up almost 2% in one year.
That will puts new vehicle
buyers in Connecticut into a higher tax bracket: 7.75% sales tax for “luxury cars” vs the
usual 6.35%, meaning the average new set of wheels in Connecticut will now,
legally, be a luxury.
ANOTHER CDOT DEATH: For the second time in two years a
CDOT highway worker has been killed
doing his job. Sixty-year-old
Elvin Hernandez was doing road maintenance on I-95 when he was hit by a car that
was driving on the grass on the right shoulder near exit 20. 
Elvin Hernandez
The driver of that car, Edward
Myers, also age 60, was arrested and admitted to officers he’d just used
heroin. Myers was convicted of DUI this
past April and has been on probation. He’s
now being held on $2 million bond, charged with manslaughter.
Working alongside our highways
with cars zooming by at high speed is a challenging and dangerous job. Recent efforts at placing speed cameras in
work zones have seen some success. A
pilot test for eight months in 2023 saw 24,900 warning notices issued to
drivers but only 750 violations. During testing this spring cameras clocked 8.4
million cars passing the work zones, 1.36 million of them exceeding the speed
limit. More than 150 drivers were
clocked in excess
of 100 mph.
TARIFFS & NEW RAIL CARS: Metro-North parent MTA (the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority) plans to spend $23 billion on new rail cars, subway
cars and buses. But the price tag is
being inflated by $1 billion due to new tariffs imposed by the Trump
administration on imported components.
That’s enough money to buy 150 LIRR train cars, almost 1000 buses or more
than 250 subway cars.
The White House tariffs on
imported railroad gear “will
not result in a [domestic US] railcar manufacturing boom; it
will only raise costs for transit agencies at a time when other construction
costs are skyrocketing” the MTA board was told this week.
That’s code for eventually
“higher fares”.
BRIGHTLINE: As I
predicted weeks ago, this modern, stylish, for-profit
passenger railroad in Florida has filed
for bankruptcy.
Ridership and fares are not growing as fast as hoped… revenue is less
than half of what was predicted… so the railroad has had to restructure $2.5
billion in debt.
So much for the free market
saving passenger rail, fueled by junk bonds.
Meanwhile, the railroad’s trains
between Miami and Orlando will keep running.
However, Brightline’s plan for a high-speed line from Southern
California to Las Vegas is already behind schedule and still hunting for money.
Brightline West Artist Rendering
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