New Haven Independent

Billed as a whistlestop tour — although there were no whistles heard — the candidate began his travels in New Haven, with stops in Bridgeport, Fairfield, and South Norwalk. He chatted with riders about the agonies of their commute and embracing supporters such as Bridgeport State Senator Ed Gomes and Fairfield First Selectman Ken Flatto.
“What here is working?” the mayor asked. He was referring not only to the platform on which he stood, in need of lengthening to accommodate trains with more cars. Nor was he merely referring to the litany of other acknowledged deficiencies in Metro North service, equipment, and amenities, but also to the region-wide congestion of roads and highways, the underutilized ports of New Haven, Bridgeport, and New London, and, to use, DeStefano’s phrase, Bradley Airport, a facility so underachieving, “as to be an international airport in name only.” In other words, the mayor’s plan was offering a transportation vision.
“If we don’t make major investments over ten years in all these linked areas, we will not grow jobs and the economy in Connecticut and the region. Although the Rowland and Rell administrations have done some things, they have failed to respond adequately and to have a long-term vision.”
Highlights of the candidate’s vision (click here to read the document) include a widening of I-95 from Branford to the Rhode Island border; implementing a commuter rail from New Haven to Springfield in that rapidly growing corridor; increased parking and safety measures at Metro North rail stations, especially in Fairfield County.
He also called for creation a new bi-state agency, the Connecticut-Massachusetts Airport and Development Authority, to manage and market the under-achieving airports of the region;and the immediate strengthening of the Port of New London so that it could work with I-395 to become a genuine commercial corridor, thus taking lots of cargo-bearing, traffic-clogging trucks off I-95.
In a dramatic proposal, DeStefano said the state Department of Transportation should stick to highways and roads, which they know best. He would create a Port of Connecticut to oversea the three deep water ports, and a separate agency to coordinate infrastructure improvement and management of all commuter rail and bus systems, the latter still being managed out of DOT, which, the candidate says, is a uniquely dysfunctional arrangement.
Whew! Did the commuters the candidate chatted up along the busy Metro North corridor want to ride the mayor out on the nearest rail, or embrace him and the vision?
Naomi Baerga, whom the mayor talked to in Bridgeport, actually didn’t kvetch too much at all. “I travel from here to South Norwalk every day,” she said, “and the service is OK. However, sometimes the connecting buses are late and there’s no time to buy a ticket. When I have to buy one on the train itself, my $3 ticket now costs $8. That’s too expensive!”
In fact, the mayor’s plan points out that Metro North commuters pay the highest fares in the nation. Is Baerga going to vote for DeStefano? “I see that he’s well informed,” she said, noncommittally, but with a nod the candidate would have found reassuring, added, “and I really think he cares.”
Farther down the platform, the mayor spoke to Christine Chausse, just the kind of commuter who needs a vision. Chausse commutes two hours each way, from her home in Waterbury to a South Norwalk medical facility where she works in administration. This involves an hour train from Waterbury to Bridgeport, a shuttle bus ride of some fifteen minutes, and then the rail trip to South Norwalk.
“I’m often late each day because the train or shuttle is often late. If we had an earlier train out of Waterbury — now 6:50 is the earliest — it would make a difference. So I’m regularly late for work, but I arrange with my employer to make up the lost time by staying an hour and a half over time each week.”
Why doesn’t she drive? “Are you nuts? 95 is a mess, traffic, gas prices, and anyway I make friends with lots of people on the Waterbury line. There are not enough trains. Especially on the Waterbury line. I think one even caught fire today, who knows about tomorrow’s commute?”
In Fairfield, the mayor especially could smile because First Selectman Ken Flatto spoke the same transportation language as DeStefano. “I predict we could get 25 percent increased ridership if the system were good,” he said. “That would get cars off I-95, improve the surface road traffic. We finally got a third station going up between Bridgeport Central and Fairfield, but I still have a four-year waiting list for train parking slots! John is a mayor of a major city. He sees how it’s all connected. It’s a domino effect — streets, trains, parking, jobs, ports, economy. As a local leader that’s hard for us to do it alone.”
In South Norwalk, at the whistlestop tour’s end, Levonte Palmer, a youth worker at the local housing authority, told the candidate that he used to drive one hour from Stratford to South Norwalk, to traverse a total of 18 miles. The 25-minute train commute is a vast improvement, except when he lost his bag. “I had valuables — a camera, credit cards, CDs, a Walkman, and when I called Metro North no one ever answered. Eventually I had to go all the way to Grand Central, the only lost and found facility on the entire system! There should be one,” Palmer said, “in New Haven and at the other hubs.”
That might be not in the candidate’s plan, but perhaps now it will be.