New Haven Independent

Posted by: Heidi Green | August 10, 2006 2:24 PM

The Transportation Strategy Board's plan review hearings provide all Connecticut residents the opportunity to participate in shaping a comprehensive, coordinated and meaningful economic development, environmental, housing and transportation strategy for the state.

We can create a vision for the state we want to be now, in 10 years, 20 years, and 100 years. And we can outline transparent, user-friendly steps to implement that vision.

Thank you to everyone who took time to share their thoughts on how the state should prioritize its infastructure investments.

If you missed your opportunity last night, the Transportation Strategy Board will hear public testimony at Three Rivers Community College in Norwich at 7 on August 23, and at the UCONN Waterbury branch on September 7th at 5.

Heidi Green, President
1000 Friends of Connecticut

Posted by: nfjanette | August 10, 2006 2:46 PM

“Please,� Piscitelli implored the TSB, “implement what we’ve all already agreed on before new studies are required,� including the New Haven-Hartford-Springfield passenger rail line.

Amen. But that would deprive some politically connected consulting firm from getting another handout, which occurs no matter what party is in office. Of course, this raises the question of why Amtrak was ever allowed to remove the double-tracking on most of that North-South line in the first place, but we can't change that bad decision now.

These are the same state idiots that keep spending money "studying" whether to spend many millions and add electric poles and lines to the Danbury line, while they ignored the more simple and less expensive work of installing signals to better and more safely control the trains on the existing track. But that work costs less and does more, so it's not attractive to the DOT mindset.

These are the same people that spend money "studying" a plan to tear up high-quality existing rail between New Britain and Hartford so they could give money to the road construction firms like Tomasso to build a "busway" - a dedicated highway. We could have run existing trains over the existing rails starting decades ago, but that would only help the commuters, not the politicians, so we didn't take that approach.

There is also a largely unused rail line running from Hartford to Middletown. Could those commuters imagine avoiding a drive up Route 9 - I-91 by having the option of taking a Shoreline East type of train?

Monorails are more flash than anything, BTW. Few serious mass transportation advocates suggest them as a preferred solution for most urban commuting needs. They've been expensive to build and maintain - they look cool, but that's not enough of a reason to push aside more proven technologies such as light-rail or standard trains.

BTW, how about the city takes its own advice, get off its ass, and fix the Ferry Street bridge debacle? That situation is the reverse of the state rail (over) plan-first dynamic: first close the bridge and then spend two years trying to figure out what to do about it. Disaster!

Posted by: Rex Noble | August 11, 2006 3:13 PM

Amen to NFJanette! These hearings are virtually pointless. Citizens know that any money required to make improvements will only be spent in deciding what to do and who should do it. But, of course, by that time all the money will have been spent on hot air, and there will be none left to make improvements. Therefore, more funds will be required, and these will be spent by those involved in creating the improvements, only to run out of appropriations due to over runs. Then its back to spending more to make further studies and fatten more pockets. And, lest we forget, procrastination and the inexorable march of inflation will greatly increase projected costs! No one can make a project cost more or be completed more poorly than the government. The whole process is useless until we can throw out the bureaucrats who live off the sweating brows of the tax-paying public!

Posted by: nfjanette | August 14, 2006 11:57 AM

Although I don't always support the transition of rail trails into walking trails, given the state of the former "Canal Line" running from New Haven up through Cheshire, and given that there is another North-South rail line in better shape (two if we count the New Haven - Middletown former "Air Line" track), the project to turn it into a walking trail has created a wonderful resource for the towns on the path.

Posted by: Ned | August 14, 2006 3:54 PM

Have you, nfjanette actually used the New Haven portion of the Farmington Canal Trail recently? The condition of the trail has deteriorated from the day it opened. Broken glass, garbage and chronically poor drainage resulting in "sandbars" in spots make bicycling hazardous, but then bicycles aren't "transit" - a category which, in Connecticut seems to only include cars. The trail could have been used for light rail linking Science Park to Downtown and Hamden Plaza - an idea proposed in the early 80's - probably for less than one quarter the cost of the latest grandiose monument to a failed transit policy, aka, the new Pearl Harbor Memorial bridge/I95 sprawl fiasco. The rape of the landscape by auto infrastructure, never mind the tens of thousands killed and maimed in car crashes, the noise, the air pollution, etc., doesn't seem to faze too many people, maybe $10/gallon gas will change the State's priorities?
Ms. Shapiro is right - people dislike buses and rightfully so; however, reclaiming a portion of Whalley Ave. for public transit, like a buslane, would be a move towards a more workable, pleasant and valuable Whalley Ave. and ultimately New Haven.

Posted by: nfjanette | August 14, 2006 11:11 PM

Ned, my experience has been on the hamden portion of the line north of the plaza. I hope to check out the New Haven portion soon, and won't be surprised to find parts in the condition you describe. Why should I be? The same people trash the streets, sidewalks, and their own yards, so why not the rail trail?

I don't see how one can equate the concept of light-rail along the former canal line with the new Q-Bridge. What commuters would such a line serve - how much traffic would it take from Dixwell Ave.? The old Q-bridge was poorly designed no matter how you look at it, and this replacement is years overdue - and this is coming from a train advocate.

One promising thought about buses would be that we could require them to all run on clean/alternate fuels. Who wouldn't love to get rid of the stink of the clouds of fumes those beasts emit as they start and stop every other block?