“Gasoline Is Too Cheap”

Gasoline is too cheap. That’s right… too cheap.

I’m tired of watching news stories about drivers moaning about the price of fuel as they fill their SUV’s. Enough already with the media hysteria over some conspiracy by the Arabs to strangle the US economy. These problems are of our own making, not caused by some foreign despot.

Let’s put gas pricing in the proper perspective. A gallon of gas costs less than a latte grande at Starbucks, yet nobody complains about the caffeine cartel. It costs you less to go 20 or 25 miles in your car than you pay for a gallon of milk. Yet nobody’s moaning about rising price of moo-juice.

Think gas is pricey here? Travel abroad and see what the rest of the world pays for fuel. In Canada it’s US$ 3 per gallon, in Europe it’s US$ 6 per gallon. Unless you live in Saudi Arabia or Venezuela, you’ll pay through the nose. Admittedly, much of those prices is additional taxes (used to subsidize cheaper mass transit), but the result is greater fuel efficiency and less traffic.

According to the EPA, Fairfield County’s air is as dirty as LA’s, thanks in part to car and truck exhausts. Moms obsess about protecting their kids’ health by buying expensive organic milk, but drive to the supermarket in pollution machines.

Face it. Americans have been spoiled for years with cheap gas prices. Adjusted for inflation, gas is cheaper today than it’s been in decades. So why are prices increasing now. Greed? Maybe. Or maybe it’s just a matter of (limited) supply and (insatiable) demand.

Depending on whom you believe, we have maybe 50 years of oil left in the planet. And yet, nobody’s really doing anything to plan for our post-gasoline transportation needs. Even the available high-mileage hybrid cars still rely on gas.

Where’s the equivalent “put a man on the moon” R&D effort to produce a hydrogen-powered car, let alone an all-electric vehicle? Nowhere. Even motorists who’d buy such a car can’t find one.

Instead, we are victims of an auto industry with a death wish. Detroit (and Japan) are co-conspirators with the oil industry to keep us good and hooked to fossil fuels. Like trained monkeys, we do the little “annual trade-in, trade-up” dance as the organ grinder plays on. Did you know that Ford makes more money financing car loans than it does by making cars?

We drive prestige autos worth more than a college tuition payment… and pay annual town taxes on those status symbols that are greater than the annual income of workers in the third world. And yet we kvetch about gas prices going up a few pennies at the pump?

Do we really believe we’ve sacrificed thousands of American lives in Kuwait and Iraq in the cause of democracy? In your heart of hearts, you know these wars are over oil; and our despot allies in Saudi Arabia know it, too.

As oil becomes scarcer, and drilling more precarious (as in Alaska’s ANWR) the only solution is to send gas prices higher to encourage conservation. That means smaller cars, better use of fuel-efficient mass transit and, yes, less driving. That will cut down on highway congestion and get all of us to our destinations quicker.

I’m neither a tree-hugger nor a Communist. I’m just trying to be practical. Sure, I buy gas in New Jersey when I can because it’s a few pennies cheaper. But I know that in the long run my grandchildren will curse me if the legacy I leave them is a gasoline-based transportation system we should have weaned ourselves off of years ago.

Let’s raise the price of gas and get on with the technological challenge of building a better car… now.

JIM CAMERON has been a commuter out of Darien for 14 years. He is Vice Chairman of the CT Metro-North / Shore Line East Rail Commuter Council, and a member of the Coastal Corridor TIA and the Darien RTM. You can reach him at jim@camcomm.com or www.trainweb.org/ct

“The Airport Shuffle”

They used to say that “getting there is half the fun”. Whoever “they” were, they haven’t endured the challenges and indignities of air travel post-9/11.

Even getting to the airport can sap your strength, if not your wallet. Consider the alternatives.
A car service is certainly convenient. But at $120 one way to LaGuardia and $140 to JFK, getting to the airport can cost more than your air fare. Couldn’t solo travelers share a car with others? Is one passenger in a Lincoln Town Car an efficient use of limited space on I-95?

How about Connecticut Limousine? Now there’s a misnomer! Since when is a bus or cramped van a limo? And try explaining that receipt on your expense account to an out-of-town client.
On a few occasions I’ve actually rented a car at the airport, driven home and then dropped the car the next day in Stamford. A day’s car rental is about half the cost of a car service. OK… so call me cheap.

Some regular flyers hire neighborhood teens to drive their own car to the airport, drop them off and drive home, repeating the process on their return. That’s cheaper than a car service, but puts a lot of miles on your car.

My preferred airport transfer is in my own car. Airport parking is $24 a day ($10 - $12 a day in more distant long-term parking.) Not cheap, but certainly convenient. And nobody complains about my pre-flight cigar enroute to the airport.

Another alternative, believe it or not, is Metro-North. Get off at 125th Street and catch a cab and you’re at LaGuardia in about 15 minutes. Future plans call for some Metro-North trains to travel over the Hells Gate bridge, through Queens and into Penn Station. That could be a great chance to add a LaGuardia station with shuttle bus service to the terminals. But it’s a rail link our kids might see in their lifetimes, not ours.

And if you’re heading to Newark, definitely consider Amtrak. Most Northeast corridor trains stop at Newark Airport where a convenient connection to the airport monorail has you at the terminals in just minutes.

The proponents of ferry service on Long Island sound keep tempting us with talk about direct service to LaGuardia, but I’ll believe it when I see it. The old Pan Am Water Shuttle couldn’t make a go of it carrying business flyers from the Marine Air Terminal to midtown, so I’m skeptical that operators could fill ferry boats to Stamford and Norwalk. And do you really want a sea cruise in the winter?

Mind you, New York’s three airports aren’t the only choices. Westchester County airport offers non-stop jet service to many hub cities. Bridgeport’s Sikorsky airport used to get you to such cities as Philadelphia and Newark, but expansion of both of these airports is challenged by local residents. Hartford’s Bradley Airport offers another alternative, including low fare carriers like Southwest… if you don’t mind a two-hour drive.

Clearly, the trip to and from the airport can start and end a trip on a very sour, and expensive, note.




JIM CAMERON has been a commuter out of Darien for 14 years. He is Vice Chairman of the CT Metro-North / Shore Line East Rail Commuter Council, and a member of the Coastal Corridor TIA and the Darien RTM. You can reach him at jim@camcomm.com or www.trainweb.org/ct

“Saving Amtrak”

The wind is howling, the snow’s blowing. As we endure another late-winter blizzard, I-95 is its usual mess. The airports are as good as closed, but I’m on my way to Boston with nary a worry. I’m riding the fastest train on the continent… Amtrak’s Acela. I can use my laptop and stay productive as we shoosh along at 125 mph. Or I can nap in the cellphone-free Quiet Car… something I’ve been lobbying Metro-North to adopt for years. I’ll arrive in Boston rested, probably too-well fed, and most likely on-time. Is there any better way to travel?

We along Connecticut’s “Gold Coast” are truly blessed, especially thanks to our ancestors’ foresight in building what is still a great railroad infrastructure. As challenged as Metro-North may be, Amtrak has got it right. But our inter-state travels are again being threatened by Washington’s threats to end Amtrak subsidies.

The Amtrak board of directors, dominated by Bush appointees, wants to force the railroad into bankruptcy, they say, “for its own good”. Their hope is that they can force Amtrak President David Gunn to finally spin-off the few money-making services in the heavily traveled Northeast and California to private ventures, and then shut down the money-losing long distance trains in the West. But, as in past funding crises, Gunn is holding his ground, arguing that the entire system should be expanded, not Balkanized. And he’s right.

Gunn is a crusty old railroad guy. I met him first when I was a reporter at NBC News and Gunn had just arrived in New York City to save the subways. And did he ever! His career included similar successes in Boston with the MBTA and DC’s Metro. During his tenure in NYC he and I lived in the same neighborhood in Brooklyn and rode the same subways to work. We’d often ride together and discuss his job. He was honest to a fault and earned the respect of both riders and politicians.

In fact, he was lured out of retirement in Canada to take on the Amtrak challenge, a thankless task. He has nothing to lose in keeping his hard-line stance against the White House. But we all have much to gain.

Amtrak subsidies are sizable. But no railroad can run at a profit these days, which is why Amtrak was created. If private enterprise could run a railroad, they’d be doing so. The question isn’t the subsidy but the public benefit it buys us all.

Imagine travel without Amtrak. You think I-95 is crowded now? Amtrak’s Northeast corridor carries more passengers than the shuttles. It runs in all weather. And with Acela, it’s luring business travelers back from the airports. Lose Amtrak and our airports will be jammed and the highways impassable.

The economies of Connecticut cities like Stamford, New Haven and even Hartford depend on Amtrak feeding passengers into its businesses, hotels and restaurants. Without Amtrak, would a SwissBank really want to be headquartered in Stamford or a Pfizer in New London?

OK… I’ll admit it. I’m a rail fan. A certifiable “foamer” (so named by the railroads because we rail fans foam at the mouth at the sight of a train). And I hate flying, though I do so often because of my work.

But I can think of no other means of transportation as reliable, affordable and convenient as rail. Visit any civilized country in the world and you’ll see rail as a vital component of public transit. Why not the US? Amtrak must be saved and, in fact, expanded. Even if you never ride Acela you benefit from its being there. So call your Congressman and Senators. Write the President and tell him we need the trains.

JIM CAMERON has been a commuter out of Darien for 14 years. He is Vice Chairman of the CT Metro-North / Shore Line East Rail Commuter Council, and a member of the Coastal Corridor TIA and the Darien RTM. You can reach him at jim@camcomm.com or www.trainweb.org/ct

“Yet Another Fare Hike ?”

The cost of riding Metro-North has gone up again. And while these higher costs, effective March 1st, are described as “fare policy changes” rather than fare hikes, the effect is the same… higher costs for riders.

But didn’t we just have a fare increase a few months ago? You’re right. Fares went up 5.5% on January 1, following a 15% fare hike in July of 2003. And there are probably more fare hikes to come before our new cars arrive in 2008 or so.

What’s most interesting about these latest hikes is the way they were approved. But first, the details on who is affected.

If you have friends or co-workers living in New York City who “reverse commute” out to Connecticut each weekday morning, they’ll now be facing “peak” fares for one-way or ten-trip tickets. Those fare hikes are as much as 57%.

For everybody: if you don’t buy your ticket before you get on the train, you’ll now be hit with a surcharge of up to $5.50, instead of $3. Even if there’s no ticket machine on your platform (heading eastbound from most stations, for example), you must cross to the other side and get a ticket… or pay up. Seniors and the handicapped are exempted.

The idea behind this “surcharge” is to encourage greater use of the expensive new ticket vending machines which are replacing human ticket sellers. Metro-North says on-board conductors shouldn’t be playing banker, but should be running the trains. So having folks get their tickets before boarding will save them time in fare collection.

Maybe so… but a $5.50 penalty, even on a local fare of as low as $2.50? Aren’t we supposed to be encouraging people to ride the trains, not penalizing them?

I’ve reviewed internal CDOT reports on this surcharge and they and Metro-North admit that only 10% of the daily on-board ticket buyers will likely be persuaded to change their lazy (evil?) ways. That means the railroad stands to gain $660,000 a year in added revenue from this new “fare policy change”, and that’s why I call this the hidden fare hike.

I love the new ticket machines (hint: tickets are even cheaper bought online). But I hardly see conductors as being over-worked. Most of the ride they’re sitting in their cubicle reading the newspaper.

How often have you been on a train and seen conductors fail to collect all tickets? On over-crowded trains with many standees, this means thousands of dollars in lost revenue per train. According to an MTA audit, $9 million a year is lost in revenue due to uncollected fares. It is especially a problem with out-bound trains where passengers board at Stamford, Norwalk or Bridgeport. Conductors walk the cars asking for “Stamford tickets” and an honest few offer them up. The rest enjoy a “free ride”… on the rest of us.

Metro-North regulations say that conductors should issue seat-checks when fares are collected. That way they know who’s paid and who hasn’t. If you don’t see that being done, or if you see people riding for free, challenge your conductor.

What’s most galling about these new fare hikes is that they were proposed by the MTA and were rubber-stamped by CDOT. Despite two public hearings where 56 people spoke out in unanimous opposition to the MTA / CDOT plan, CDOT Commissioner Korta approved them, with little fanfare, the same week that Governor Rell was announcing that Connecticut needs a seat and a vote on the MTA Board so we can protect the interest of our commuters.


JIM CAMERON has been a commuter out of Darien for 14 years. He is Vice Chairman of the CT Metro-North / Shore Line East Rail Commuter Council, and a member of the Coastal Corridor TIA and the Darien RTM. You can reach him at jim@camcomm.com or www.trainweb.org/ct

“Governor Rell’s Promise to Commuters”

There was so much good news for commuters, both rail and road, in Governor Rell’s budget address: new rail cars, promises of more station parking and even improvements to our highways.

But there was also some bad news: a proposed six cents per gallon increase in the gas tax (which we discussed in last week’s column), and a planned $1 per ride surcharge for Metro-North. However, the Governor promised that “(commuters) should not be asked to pay for improvements until they actually see them, sit in them or park in them.”

Her plan is to implement this “surcharge” in 2008 when she said the first fifty of 340 or more new rail cars will be delivered. I’m not really sure that commuters would mind paying a buck more a ride… if they could actually enjoy new cars. But the truth is, there’s no way new cars can be delivered that fast.

Last spring the Legislature scraped together enough money to buy us some time. They told CDOT to add 2000 seats in capacity to the New Haven line by the end of 2004. Today, ten months later, they haven’t even been able to do that after scrounging up hand-me-down rail cars from Virginia and used locomotives from Amtrak. And now the Governor thinks we can add new cars in less than three years?

Here’s what’s involved, and here’s why we’ll never be able to do it in just three years.
First, these proposed new M8 cars must be designed. There isn’t even engineering work underway yet on them. They’re just a concept. The M8’s must be powered using overhead AC power, yet they’re designed after the third-rail powered M7 cars in use in Westchester. As a result, these two car models are apples and oranges.

Next, the new cars would have to be put out to bids. And while the State of Connecticut is mandated to get three independents bids for even paper clips these days, the M8 cars can actually be built by only one company… Bombardier, builder of the M7’s on which the M8’s will be designed. A one-bid contract for a billion dollars?

Then the cars have to be built, hopefully first with a prototype to be thoroughly tested. After full production finally starts, the first new cars will be delivered and enter an extensive assessment and break-in period. Only then can they enter service.

When the MTA ordered the M7 cars now used in Westchester, it took five and a half years from design to delivery. Even CDOT, in its report to Governor Rowland last year, suggested a five or six year delivery cycle for the M8’s. That means, even with Legislative approval tomorrow (and don’t hold your breath for that !), we won’t be seeing new cars until 2010.

C’mon, Governor! You’re the one who preached for honesty and candor with Connecticut’s citizens… “straight talk” as you put it. I’m all for that! But an unrealistic promise of new cars by 2008 doesn’t meet that test.

I want these new cars more than anyone. I’ve been fighting for them on the Commuter Council for almost a decade. But please don’t make us commuters even more cynical by making pledges you can’t keep.

Still, Governor, you did make one promise you can keep: no ticket surcharge on trains until we can “see them or sit in them”, and I’ll hold you to your word. If the cars aren’t here by 2008, there will be no surcharge. Right?


JIM CAMERON has been a Darien resident for 14 years. He is Vice Chairman of the CT Metro-North / Shore Line East Rail Commuter Council, and a member of the Coastal Corridor TIA and the Darien RTM. You can reach him at jim@camcomm.com or www.trainweb.org/ct

“Gas Taxes & Tolls Make Sense”

You’ve got to give her credit. Governor Rell’s first budget didn’t pander to citizens with popular spending initiatives. Instead, it was a much-needed, reality-check slap in the face as she called on lawmakers to raise the gasoline tax to support investment in transportation.

Nobody likes to pay higher taxes… unless we understand where the money’s being spent. That’s why Governor Rowland scored big points in 1997 when he persuaded the Legislature to cut gas taxes by fourteen cents. Everyone hated the gas tax, thinking it just flowed into some black-hole in Hartford. What Rowland didn’t tell us was that cut meant we lost revenue that was to have been spent on highways, bridges and trains. So the tax was cut… but did gasoline prices drop 14 cents? No way.

Many lawmakers, including former Speaker Moira Lyons and now-Lt. Governor Kevin Sullivan now admit that gas tax cut was a big mistake. I’ll give them points for 20/20 hindsight but wish they’d been smarter seven years ago.

Why do we need higher gas taxes? Ask anyone who rides Metro-North. The trains are falling apart, they break down in cold weather and many stations are in dismal shape. Why not ask commuters to pay for those repairs? We did… and hit them with 20% fare hikes over the past two years. Commuters in Connecticut now have the highest fares of any railroad in North America. We cannot ask them to pay more or we risk losing them to their cars. To work, mass transit has to be affordable.

Every resident in this state, even if they never ride commuter rail, will benefit from this proposed gas tax hike. The money those taxes raise will fix up the trains and keep fares down, encouraging (and, with more seats, allowing) greater use of mass transit. That will mean fewer cars on the road.

Ask anyone who’s traveled abroad and they’ll tell you: Gas is too cheap in this country. A few extra pennies in taxes will mean nothing to the average motorist, but they’ll mean plenty to our state’s future.

But, while courageous, the Governor’s budget is not enough. We don’t need hundreds of millions of dollars in bonding-power, we need billions.

How about tolls on I-95 and the Merritt? With an EZ-Pass system you won’t even need to stop. And with time-of-day pricing, just like the trains, we can offer discounts to those who drive outside of rush hour, giving an incentive for those who must drive, to avoid rush hour.

Forget about that myth that the Federal government won’t allow tolls without reimbursement for years of highway spending. It’s not true. And former CDOT Commissioner Emil Frankel, now working for the US Department of Transportation in Washington, has confirmed that.
Tolls were eliminated from I-95 and the Merritt Parkway for the wrong reason… a fiery truck crash at the Greenwich toll barrier. Like the gas tax, they weren’t popular. But they were necessary to the upkeep of the transportation infrastructure.

Now, with a funding source on the horizon, the Legislature can get on with the real task at hand… ordering new rail cars that we needed years ago. Once ordered, we’ll still have to wait five or six years for their delivery. Hang in there fellow-commuters. We’ve got a long way to go.


JIM CAMERON has been a Darien resident for 13 years. He is Vice Chairman of the CT Metro-North / Shore Line East Rail Commuter Council, and a member of the Coastal Corridor TIA and the Darien RTM. You can reach him at jim@camcomm.com or www.trainweb.org/ct

“The Myth of the Third Rail”

Metro-North’s mangled and much-maligned service in Connecticut is made all the more challenging by a technological quirk of fate. Ours is the only commuter railroad in the US 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 conversion is made to 660 volt DC third rail power for the rest of the trip into New York. Even diesel trains must convert to third-rail as their smoky exhaust is banned in the Park Avenue tunnels.

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 new M7 cars running in Westchester cost about $2 million each, the proposed dual-mode M8 car designed for Connecticut could cost $3.5 million each.

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.

Ø There’s not enough space to lay a third-rail along each of the four sets of tracks in the existing 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.

Ø Even with third-rail the CDOT would still be required to provide overhead power lines for Amtrak. That would mean maintaining two power systems at double the cost. We’re currently spending billions just to upgrade the eighty-year old catenary, so why then replace it?

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

Ø DC driven 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.

Ø 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.

Ø 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. This time, the engineers at CDOT got it right.

Not satisfied, some of the third-rail fans are now pushing bills through the Legislature to study the replacement scheme yet again. More studies would mean years of delay in ordering already overdue car replacements.

I trust the Legislature will dispense with these nuisance proposals quickly and get on with the task at hand… ordering new cars now. Even if the needed funds are appropriated today and the order placed immediately, new cars won’t be delivered for five or six years. Further studies of third-rail vs. overhead catenary only make us wait longer.

JIM CAMERON has been a Darien resident for 13 years. He is Vice Chairman of the CT Metro-North / Shore Line East Rail Commuter Council, and a member of the Coastal Corridor TIA and the Darien RTM. You can reach him at jim@camcomm.com or www.trainweb.org/ct