With billions of dollars for rail projects at stake, you will not hear anyone in the state proclaim a proposed commuter line up the Connecticut River valley is “the train to nowhere.”
But in congested Fairfield County, some are privately whispering it.
In October, Gov. M. Jodi Rell indicated the State Bonding Commission was set to approve a $26 million bond for a study on double tracking the rail line on sections of the route between New Haven and Springfield, Mass., laying the figurative tracks for a proposed commuter rail service. Instead, the commission chose to push a decision off until its next meeting in late January amid continuing budget pressures.
Even as the state delayed the process, federal agencies are nearing a decision on where to award some $8 billion in funding for intercity rail projects, including high-speed rail projects such as one proposed for upstate New York.
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In 2005, the Connecticut Department of Transportation completed a two-year a feasibility study for commuter rail service running between New Haven and Springfield, a 60-mile stretch that is double tracked less than 40 percent of its run, and serviced by nine stations.
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In its final recommendation, ConnDOT recommended the state create a “startup” service featuring trains running every 30 minutes at peak periods, supplemented by existing Amtrak service. The study also suggested adding stations in North Haven, Newington, and Enfield; and adding a bus service at Windsor Locks to provide connections to Bradley International Airport.
This fall, the state received the first shipments of M-8 commuter rail cars for the busy New Haven Line service of Metro-North. In Fairfield County where the New Haven-Springfield line would have little impact, some are privately dismissing the project as “the train to nowhere,” doubting that sufficient numbers of commuters will actually ride the trains to work, and saying the money could be better spent on other transit improvements, whether here or in other parts of Connecticut.
Kate Slevin, a Wesleyan University graduate who is executive director of the New York-based Tri-State Transportation Campaign, said her group strongly supports the project and said it would be one of the most important to be funded in the tri-state region in the recent past or future.
“This is one of the top priorities in the region,” Slevin said. “For the longest time, you had a policy in Connecticut of putting more people in their cars.”
Still, some commuters have been loath to leave their cars in the garage given the option of rail service.
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Take Shore Line East, which for two decades has run commuter trains between New London and New Haven; and on into Fairfield County and New York City, which are also covered by the more frequent New Haven line service. While the service has been attracting increased numbers of riders, the daily total was just 2,000 daily as of 2008. By another measure, Shore Line East managed less than 35 riders per mile ”“ a level of apathy exceeded only by the three-year-old Music City Star commuter rail service in Nashville, Tenn., and about on par with commuters in car-happy Silicon Valley.
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Connecticut is not the only state vying for federal funding to support efforts to create a new commuter rail system. After twice rejecting bids to create a SunRail commuter line in the Orlando, Fla., area, proponents there are stoking the flames once more for the project that would cost an estimated $1.2 billion.
In testifying earlier this month on the capital plan for New York”™s Metropolitan Transit Authority, which operates Metro-North, Slevin”™s associate director at the Tri-State Transportation Campaign may have summed up the thoughts of some in Fairfield County in on the prospect of funding a North-South commuter rail service in Connecticut.
“Those of us who use the system daily know the needs of our system are great,” said TSTC”™s Veronica Vanterpool. “What is difficult to convince people of is the price tag associated with these changes.”
