Sally E. Bahner Photo
With excavators working in the background, Gov. M. Jodi Rell told a small, shivering audience that the expansion of the parking lot at the Branford Train Station is “a great example of a project paid for with federal stimulus dollars.”
Rell announced Tuesday that the parking lot expansion, begun in October 2009, is on schedule to be completed by spring. It will add 300 spaces to the lot, which now has space for 199 vehicles and is often at capacity. When completed, the lot, located to the west of the existing lot on Maple Street, will be slightly elevated and accessed by a new bridge over a tidal stream.
“Parking availability is one of the biggest headaches for Connecticut rail commuters, and this project will go a long way toward alleviating some of that aggravation,” Rell said.
“If we are going to get people out of their cars get them onto trains or onto other forms of mass transportation, we have to give them something that is reliable, comfortable, convenient and we have to be able to give them parking,” said Rell.
Parking is free at the Branford station and all Shore Line East stations. Commuters from North Branford and East Haven, towns without train stations, often use the Branford parking lot.
Construction is being financed through $5.4 million in federal stimulus funds and $400,000 in state money. Guerrea Construction of Oxford is the contractor. The company was awarded the more than $2.6 million contract on Aug. 28, 2009.
Both Rell and Branford First Selectman Anthony “Unk” DaRos praised the efforts of the Department of Transportation in facilitating the project.
The parking lot expansion is the last phase in the station’s $25 million expansion, which included acquisition of four nearby properties. The expansion enables the station to become two-way.
The Shore Line East commuter line carries approximately half a million passengers annually between New Haven and New London.
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While this is a welcome project, what we REALLY need now is the expansion of rail service from Branford. Adding the other track will allow riders to use the Branford train station more often on weekday afternoons and on weekends. Branford has more train passengers than Guilford or Madison, yet we are still waiting to be able to travel into New Haven and NYC with the ease that residents of these other towns already enjoy. WHY?