Next stop: trolleys? Maybe, maybe not.
A million-dollar plan to study transportation alternatives in New Haven has returned for the third time, and this time it’s about more than just streetcars.
The plan — to accept a federal grant for $760,000 — reappeared Monday evening on the Board of Alders agenda, where it has shown up twice before.
In 2011 and 2012, the city sought permission to receive a Federal Transit Administration grant to study the feasibility of installing a streetcar system in downtown New Haven.
Both times, the proposal failed. Alders balked at shelling out thousands of matching dollars for studies that were focused on streetcars downtown.
This time, the federal grant would pay for a study of transit alternatives — not just streetcars — citywide.
Board of Alders President Jorge Perez assigned the proposal to the City Services and Environmental Policy Committee, where it will be the subject of a public hearing before returning to the board for a full vote.
Alder Perez said the study proposal is more likely to find approval this time around.
“It makes sense for us to study our transit system,” he said. “If it’s done the way it’s being proposed, I would think it has a better chance.”
City transit chief Doug Hausladen said the grant requires a $190,000 match. The state Department of Transportation (Conn DOT) has pledged $100,000 of that, he said, leaving New Haven to pay $90,000.
The total — $950,000 — would pay for a two-year study, Hausladen said.
Hausladen said the state money has been promised under the condition that the resulting study has a wide scope, that it looks at how New Haven’s transit systems fit with state systems. (Click here for a story about problems with the bus system.)
The federal money has already been earmarked, but expires at the end of the fiscal year if the city doesn’t claim it, Hausladen said.
Nearly two years after the last streetcar plan fizzled, to the dismay of transit activists, the new Harp administration revived the idea in January. Mayor Toni Harp called the trolley and broader mass-transit-improvement quest a “civil rights issue.” (Click here for an in-depth analysis of the benefits and challenges of installing a streetcar system.)
“It’s not going to be about streetcars,” said Hausladen said of the study. “It will be about mobility in general. … a true alternatives analysis.”
That includes proposals that can help mobility, like shifting traffic lanes or signal timing, or changing bus routes and installing improved bus transfer station, maybe one with a bathroom, Hausladen said.
It could also include streetcars, he said. “Everything is on the table.”
Hausladen said he’s convening a group of neighborhood Community Management Team representatives to set the scope of the grant application.
The previous studies that Perez rejected would have extensively studied the entire transit system, too, as both the city officials, planners, the Mayor, and others who testified made clear at the time.
It's a testament to the good work by Hausladen, Nemerson, Elicker, and Harp for keeping this point front and center over the past year.
Politicians can't keep voting down transit improvements forever, given than 90% of the public wants them.
Also thank you to DeLauro for holding the money until the Board of Alders finally stopped holding the city's development and jobs base hostage for their own political gain. Unfortunately, New Haven is now 3 years behind everyone else, with nothing to show for it. DeStefano should have pushed harder for this 3 years ago.