Faster, More Frequent Trains On Tap

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by Thomas MacMillan | Jul 29, 2010 6:50 am

(19) Comments | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author

Posted to: State, Transportation

Thomas MacMillan Photo Travelers whose Springfield shuttle arrived late in New Haven around noon Wednesday have one consolation: the governor promises that a $480 million upgrade will soon give them faster trains, and twice as many options to choose from each day.

The travelers disembarked at New Haven’s Union Station on Wednesday, arriving at 12:09 p.m. on an Amtrak train from Hartford. Their journey, along the rail corridor that connects New Haven to Springfield, Mass., is one that Gov. M. Jodi Rell aims to improve. She announced Tuesday that the state Bond Commission is expected to approve $260 million on Aug. 11 in funding to enhance rail travel in the corridor.

The state is holding a meeting Thursday night at the Hartford train station to discuss the environmental aspects of the project.

The state expects to match the $260 million with federal dollars. On Aug. 6, the state will apply for a $220 million grant from the Federal Railroad Administration. That money would be awarded in October. State Department of Transportation spokesman Judd Everhart said the department is “optimistic” that it will win the grant.

Together, that $480 million would be used for upgrades to stations, new stations, and road crossings. The money would also go to “double-tracking” the route, said Everhart. That means adding another track to portions of the 62-mile corridor between New Haven and Springfield that now have only a single track. It would mean trains could run in both directions at once, at top speeds of 110 miles per hour.

Currently, only 27 miles of the 62-mile corridor are double-tracked, Everhart said. Work is already underway to double-track 10 miles between Newington and Berlin. The new money would go toward completing the remaining 25 miles. Everhart said the entire project is expected to be completed by 2015 or 2016.

Plans call for bidirectional service between New Haven and Springfield running every 30 minutes during peak hours, Monday through Friday. That would mean about 25 trains a day, more than twice the current number, Everhart said.

A Tuesday press release from the governor lists several expected benefits of an improved New Haven-Hartford-Springfield line: It would take 4,000 cars off the road, create better connections to Bradley Airport, generate nearly 4,000 jobs, save one billion gallons of fossil fuel every year, and reduce carbon emissions by more than 10,000 tons per year.

Tony Rescigno, president of the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce, said the plan sounds good to him. “I think more transportation is always a positive thing,” he said. “When you connect up centers of economic influence, it’s a good thing.”

The plan will benefit not just New Haven, but all towns along the corridor, he said. “It just improves reasons to do business.” For instance, a New Haven entrepreneur might be discouraged from doing business in Springfield, unless it’s easy and fast to get there, Rescingo said. He predicted increased commercial ties along the corridor as a result of the planned improvements.

Holly Parker, Yale’s director of sustainable transportation systems, also offered praise for the governor’s plan. “It’s great,” she said. “The more transit the better.”

Parker said the current service is infrequent and expensive. She said she hopes the ticket price comes down with the improved service. Every time she takes the train to Hartford it’s always packed, so there’s no shortage of demand, she said.

Improved train service also offers environmental benefits, since trains are more efficient than cars, Parker said. “That’s the tragedy of the single-occupancy commute.” Even if you’re driving a hybrid car, if you’re driving it alone, you’re less efficient than well-used public transportation.

Just past noon on Wednesday, passengers disembarking in New Haven said they’re satisfied with the rail service the way it is—with the exception of a few complaints about the Hartford train station.

Amir Horowitz, who’s from Connecticut but now lives in Europe, said he’s spent years riding the route. “It’s a wonderful trip,” he said. It’s very convenient and usually on time, he said. The state could spend its money on something better than train upgrades, he said.

His wife, who declined to give her name, disagreed. She said the state could learn a lot from the trains in Germany, which are always clean and on time.

“Hartford is a mess,” said Alice Lembrick. “We have to climb up steps to get on the train.” It’s not like New Haven, where you can roll your luggage right onto the train. The station in the state’s capital should be better, she said.

Also, you can’t check luggage in Hartford, but you can in Springfield and New Haven, Lembrick said. She and her husband were on their way to Florida by train, along with Verna Gibson.

Gene Lembrick said he isn’t interested in faster trains. “I don’t care about the speed.”

Gibson said she’d like to see Gov. Rell get around the state by train more often, so that she’d know what it’s like. Gibson said she has arthritis in her hip that was aggravated by the steps to the train in Hartford. “Hartford is terrible.”

Kiara Pelissier, visiting from Virginia for a wedding, said she would travel by train more often if the service were better. “I did go to Japan and the trains were amazing,” she said. They were clean, punctual, fast, and cheap, she said. If that were the case in the states, “Why own a car?”

Mike Maginnis, originally from Wallingford but now in San Diego, said he loves the train as it is. It would be better with free WiFi, he said.

Berkely Rich, from Denver, Colo., said his train was late, causing him to panic. He said the conductor told him not to worry, that his connecting train would be late too.

Comments

posted by: Tim on July 29, 2010 7:02am

Is this just going to be a waste of taxpayer dollars to the tune of half a billion?

posted by: streever on July 29, 2010 8:52am

Tim,
Kind of like the subsidies for air, road, and boat travel? Or do you mean like the billions of dollars spent building infrastructure in Iraq/Afghanistan, or the subsidies for military helicopters that haven’t been flown in a combat theater in 20 years?

Or are you making an analogy to the wealthiest tax payers in CT paying less in taxes than the poorest?

posted by: john on July 29, 2010 9:01am

Real investment in efficient transportation infrastructure such as this seems like an excellent idea, long overdue.

posted by: nh on July 29, 2010 9:29am

“Also, you can’t check luggage in Hartford, but you can in Springfield and New Haven, Lembrick said. She and her husband were on their way to Florida by train, along with Verna Gibson.”

Well, duh. There aren’t any trains with baggage cars that go through Hartford. And there isn’t any need for them, either.

posted by: JP on July 29, 2010 9:33am

How about a train that goes to the airport like at Newark.

posted by: streever on July 29, 2010 9:35am

In all seriousness though, Parker raises a good point. The dirty secret of hybrids is that if you switch from a new car to a new hybrid you are having more of a negative impact then if you kept driving the same gas guzzler.

Hybrids are a great way to save money at the pump, but considering that so much environmental impact comes about purely by creating/shipping cars for sale, it is not environmentally efficient to trade in a new car for another new car.

posted by: hrsn on July 29, 2010 10:06am

@JP: There will be a bus at the Windsor Lock station to take travelers to BDL, dropping them off right in front of the terminals. It will be effectively the same situation as at Newark, except for the pokey tram from the station to the airport. :)

posted by: The Count on July 29, 2010 11:39am

Anything for Bradley, right, guys?

posted by: twowheels on July 29, 2010 12:00pm

Let’s make sure bicycles are permitted on these new trains, unlike on Amtrak trains now. Otherwise the environmental claims ring hollow.

posted by: Brian V on July 29, 2010 12:33pm

Hey Count,
If anyone besides you and a few rich Yalies actually used Tweed, there might be public transportation to get there.
Sorry you will have to keep driving ... to that over subsidized private aero-playground for the rich.
I will take public transportation to the airport that I can actually get somewhere from.
OH -and there is no need to thank me for my wasted tax dollars, your pal King “Wish I had an airport like Denver” John takes them with out my approval.

posted by: NH on July 29, 2010 12:36pm

“Let’s make sure bicycles are permitted on these new trains, unlike on Amtrak trains now. Otherwise the environmental claims ring hollow.”

The trains will be using the same rolling stock as the Shore Line East does right now (ex-Virginian mafersa cars). Therefore, I assume that the same policies will be used, which is (from SLE website):
All bicycles must be stored in a safe and secure manner to allow emergency egress by passengers. The cyclist should remain in close proximity to the bicycle, and must obey instructions of the train crew.

posted by: Steve B on July 29, 2010 1:33pm

There is a bus to Tweed. It’s the G I think. Check it out.

posted by: why? on July 29, 2010 1:54pm

I moved to New Haven 9 years ago and I use the trains a few times a year. Soon after arriving here, I read an article about a public meeting where they would be rolling out the planning and timing for a new rail line connecting New Haven and Springfield.

I attended this meeting at which time I learned that there were a number of studies and gov’t processes needed before the line would become a reality and that it would be 2007 or maybe even 2008 before all the studies coule be completed, the tracked doubled, and the stations built.

“Wow” a younger and more naive me thought - “5 or 6 years seems like a long time for such a basic project (getting trains to run on tracks that are mostly already there). But, at least we’ll have this great service and all of the associated benefits.

Over the years I learned to stop attending the meetings and reading the stories….they all said the same thing - serivce is 5-6 years away. There was actually some progress a few years ago - environmental stdiesteadieslete etc…but now in Obamaland we have Obama-rules for spending the piles of Obama-money so the regime is requiring a new set of studies - essentailly setting us back to square one.

Before I die, I owuld love to ride this proposed line but unless we get smart and privitize train service (like all of the countries that are doing it well), I doubt we’ll ever see this get across the finish line.

posted by: streever on July 29, 2010 2:50pm

Why?
I think we should also privatize the road system. It’s overly expensive, inefficient, and does not meet demand. It should be run by private enterprise.

posted by: nfjanette on July 29, 2010 3:24pm

This is great news, even if it’s a small portion of what should be spent to bring this rail line into the 21st century. In its current state and with the current train schedule, it close to useless as a work commuting option.

There does seem to be a form of governmental Analysis Paralysis, but part of the reason may be because after each study, there was no funding made available to perform the actual work. Since there is a long history of this dynamic in CT, it seems unreasonable to assign blame to a particular government administration.

The North-South rail line in question will never be anything close to “high speed” rail unless it receives the same massive funding as the Interstate highways, which would allow the elimination of all grade crossings (Wallingford, Meriden, etc.), electrification, and straightening of the line as necessary. If they can just get the speed up to the 79 MPH limit of the Metro North RR line for most of the line, it will be a huge improvement.

It seems both CONNDOT and Amtrak would be running trains (Amtrak engineers would run all the trips), so there may be different passenger cars involved with different rules for bicycles.

posted by: Jonathan Hopkins on July 29, 2010 4:07pm

Privatizing won’t improve service, it’ll just bankrupt whatever sucker company owns the rail lines. The issue is an inefficient living arrangement that does not allow fixed path transit to be cost efficient.
European cities have good rail service because they didn’t destroy their cities and towns after WW2, they rebuilt them and they didn’t abandoned their rail roads in favor of highways. In order to get to a place where rail can be privately supported, we need a living arrangement that organizes people to be in relation to transit and diverse uses, which is the exact opposite of what we do now and what is allowed to under our archaic zoning laws.
This is money well-spent and we need to start redirecting road infrastructure funding into retrofitting suburbia and repopulating city neighborhoods.

posted by: marty funkhauser on July 29, 2010 6:22pm

Will this get me to hartford any earlier than the 930AM time of the first train that leaves union station….............

I always said, cut out amtrak, and make this a metro north line going to hartford it would make more sense, better go ask joe biden.

posted by: AMF on August 1, 2010 10:18pm

The article fails to mention that installing high level platforms at all the stations on the route is part of the upgrade. The woman who complained about climbing up the steps into the train would not have to do that once they put in the high level platforms.

The corridor should be electrified with catenary, but that will have to wait until next stage funding is available. With CT putting in more than 50% matching, the odds that CT will get the grant from this year HSR/intercity rail funding are very good.

posted by: Thomas on August 2, 2010 3:14pm

I would like to see this route run similar to Metro-North not Amtrak. To get the most use of these rails the railroad needs to run frequently during peak and in both directions and arriving before 9 am at both major points, it cannot be built for the few commuters who live in Hartford and work in New Haven. Also what would it take to allow Metro-North Trains make better use of the State Street Station? Allowing trains to pick up and let off passengers at State Street this will free up parking and split up the line of taxi cabs.

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