Thomas Breen photo
Airport bound: Boarding the 206 Wednesday on Chapel Street.
Here’s the secret code to getting to the airport: As you board the 206, tell the bus driver you’re heading to Tweed, so he’ll know to make an extra stop.
That secret was revealed on Wednesday at the end of a press conference-bus ride from Chapel Street and Orange Street downtown to the Morris Cove regional airport off Burr Street.
Elicker and Scanlon on the 206.
Airport Authority Executive Director Sean Scanlon, Mayor Justin Elicker, and a handful of state and local transportation officials organized the trip to draw attention to the public transit route that can bring travelers from the city center to Tweed on the cheap and without the help of a single-occupancy car. The bus takes people from downtown to a Florida-bound flight in 20 minutes and for only $1.75.
“There is affordable, reliable, public transportation available to the people of Connecticut to get to the airport here,” Scanlon said in a brief end-of-bus-trip presser held outside of the front doors of Tweed’s departure terminal.
Elicker said that using the bus to get to the airport is a more environmentally friendly form of road travel, it lessens the amount of airport-related car traffic coming through the East Shore neighborhood, and it’s more cost-effective than taking a ride share or a taxi.
Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison.
“Utilizing the bus to get here is the best way to get here,” said Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison, who came along for Wednesday’s ride. Morrison recently flew out of Tweed to Orlando to go to a cruise with family and friends celebrating her cousin Charles’s 60th birthday.
When she went to Tweed last, she said, she took an Uber (driven by Dwight Alder Frank Douglass.) The next time she goes, she said, she’ll consider taking the bus.
“It takes away congestion,” she said about the public bus route to Tweed. “It takes away pollution to the environment.”
(See more below for a response from a Morris Cove neighbor who criticized Wednesday’s presser for focusing on how environmentally friendly bus travel is — while not talking about the environmental impact of increased airplane travel.)
So how exactly does one get from downtown New Haven to Tweed by public bus?
Wednesday’s trip — which saw a half-dozen reporters ride the eastbound 206 bus along with the state, local, and airport officials — was a bit of anomaly in one key way.
That’s because the 206 bus traveled the typical four-and-a-half mile route from Chapel and Orange Streets through downtown and Wooster Square and Fair Haven and the Annex and the East Shore to Tweed’s front door — while making a handful of stops along the way — all without anyone on the bus first having to request that the airport be included as a stop.
That’s not how things usually work.
CTtransit's Barry Diggs and parking authority director Doug Hausladen.
CTtransit Administrator of Planning & Scheduling Barry Diggs explained that, for now, airport-bound bus travelers have to tell the 206 bus driver upon boarding the bus that they would like to be dropped off at Tweed New Haven Airport.
For anyone landing at Tweed and looking to take the bus back to downtown, Diggs said, they have to call the CTtransit customer service line at 203 – 624-0151 in advance to let the public bus service know that they’d like to be picked up at the airport.
The $1.75 bus fare and 206 bus route otherwise remain the same, Diggs and Scanlon said, even though Tweed-specific stops are currently “on demand” only.
Scanlon said one of his goals is to have Tweed made into a permanent, regular stop on the 206 route, if there is enough demand for it. He said he’s spoken with the state Department of Transportation commissioner about just such a proposal.
Park New Haven Executive Director Doug Hausladen, who also rode along on Wednesday’s Tweed trip, said that his organization is also working with the state on finding some way to make it easier to get from Union Station to Tweed New Haven Airport by public bus.
Right now, the best way to make that train-to-bus-to-airport connection is to take the downtown shuttle bus from Union Station to the Green, and then pick up the 206 on Chapel Street.
Travelers can also take the Metro North train to the State Street commuter rail station, and then walk a block to pick up the 206 bus at Chapel and State.
In addition to touting the public-bus-to-airport route Wednesday, Scanlon also announced that Avelo Airlines — the new budget airline that kicked off direct Florida-bound flights from Tweed in early November – will be expanding its local service on Thursday from three flights per day to five flights per day.
Scanlon said that the past month since Avelo started flying out of Tweed has seen the largest number of airplane passengers fly in and out of the regional airport in nearly three decades.
He said that 7,900 airplane passengers came through Tweed’s doors during the month of November. The last time the airport saw a higher flow of foot traffic was in May 1994, when 13,487 people flew in and out of Tweed.
"Convenient"
Adrian Martinez.
As the airport officials and boosters waited for the 11:15 a.m. bus to show up at Chapel and Orange, other bus riders waiting nearby and on the Green weighed in on the prospect of getting to the local airport by public transit.
Yale student Adrian Martinez described the bus-to-Tweed access as “convenient, because otherwise you’d have to park your car.”
If he ever needs to fly out of Tweed, he’ll consider taking the bus.
To be honest, he said, “I didn’t even know about Tweed” until this summer. He said the only airport he has used in Connecticut is Bradley in Hartford.
James Jones.
James Jones said that he has flown out of Tweed only once — years ago, on a trip to Detroit via Philadelphia.
“Sure, I’d go to Florida,” he said when asked about Avelo’s current routes. If he ever has the time or interest to head down south, he said, he’d consider taking the bus to the airport.
Helen Reddick.
Helen Reddick was waiting to pick up the bus to go to Walmart off of Rt. 80.
When asked for her thoughts on the 206-to-Tweed route, she said her top concerns about bus travel have less to do with airport access and more to do with health and safety during the pandemic.
Tell the state to “clean the buses more,” she said. “They need to change the seats.” And fellow bus riders need to be told to wear their face masks over their mouth and their nose.
Would she ever take a flight from Tweed?
Unlikely, Reddick said. Not because she’s opposed to the airport, but because she’s afraid of flying. “I’ve never been on a plane before,” she said. “I’m too scared.”
Gail Brown.
On the bus itself, 206-route-stalwart Gail Brown said that she’s been riding this bus for 30 years — and has never before taken it to Tweed.
She’d consider it if she ever needed to take a flight from the local airport, she said.
The last time she flew out of Tweed was over a decade ago, she said, on a trip to visit her daughter in Georgia. “It was tight,” she said about the small plane that took her to Philadelphia for her connection. That was on a now-defunct former American Airlines route. The planes Avelo is now flying out of Tweed are 737s, much larger than what American used to fly.
Bus driver Jeff Dobbs.
Bus driver Jeff Dobbs said he’s been working the 206 route for less than a year, even though he’s been with CTtransit for more than two decades.
“It’s starting to pick up,” he said about how frequently riders ask him to drop them off at Tweed.
Diggs said that, before Avelo started in November, CTtransit would get roughly 10 to 15 requests each month for a direct public bus pickup at Tweed. In November, he said, the public bus service got 75 such requests.
Neighbor: "Height Of Absurdity"
At the Chapel-Orange bus stop.
After Wednesday’s presser, Morris Cove resident Lisa Bassani — who showed up to the airport to watch Scanlon and Elicker address the press outside of the departure terminal — criticized the presser for downplaying the steep environmental costs of more air travel from Tweed.
“Touting the environmental benefits of bus service to Tweed Airport is the height of absurdity,” she said in an email statement sent to the Independent.
“Unfortunately the Mayor’s press conference once again ignored the massive health and environmental risks of expanded service, especially noise pollution, air pollution, and flooding. Having lived in the neighborhood since 2009, I can report that these planes are far louder and the fumes far more potent than the prior commercial planes serving Tweed. My 7 and 11-year old girls often comment on the smell as we get in the car on the way to school. Pretending that sporadic bus service will in any way address the high volume of toxic particulates and noise pollution currently blanketing our community is a gross misrepresentation.”
She included as part of that email a list of concerns raised by Morris Cove neighbors and local environmentalists during earlier this year as the Board of Alders considered — and ultimately voted in support of — a new 43-year agreement between the city and the airport authority designed to enable a planned $70 million, privately funded expansion of the airport by the Goldman Sachs-owned airport management company Avports. That expansion is slated to include a new terminal on the East Haven side of the property and the lengthening the airport’s runway in a bid to attract new passenger air service.
Click here and here for articles detailing some neighbors’ concerns about a larger Tweed airport.
Scanlon told the Independent during Wednesday’s bus ride that the airport authority board planned to meet and vote later Wednesday afternoon on creating a new Environmental Advisory Committee.
The creation of such a committee, which will have representatives appointed by the mayors of New Haven and East Haven, was mandated as part of this year’s Board of Alders approval.
Scanlon also said that the airport authority is still working on its environmental assessment for Tweed’s planned expansion. He said the authority has reached out to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for some guidance, noted a recent neighborhood meeting the airport authority held on the topic, and said that the authority will be soliciting more public input for the assessment this January.
Mayor Elicker and Gail Brown on the 206 Wednesday.
Cheap and convenient. These two reasons make flying out of Tweed interesting. Fiddle around with any of these two – and Tweed faces stiff competition that will tip the scale in favor of Bradley, Westchester or even Laguardia. So why this bus riding stunt today? Is Tweed so desperate for press that anything will do?
As any regular rider of CT Transit knows, taking the 206 bus line does not make flying out of Tweed convenient. Unless one lives very close to the Green or the actual bus line. So close that getting the luggage to the bus does not matter for convenience. Living next to the Green or along the 206 line would also make switching buses unnecessary. Since changing buses means good-bye convenience. Countless times, I missed connections downtown as a 206 rider because one bus was a little late, or the other left a little early. An “easy” trip doubled in time. Also, when taking the bus – the time it takes from Tweed to let’s say Southern, is about half the flight time to Florida. From the Guilford Green to Tweed it takes about 1 h and 30 m. I recommend to Scanlon that he uses CT Transit to get to work from Guilford. Once will do. Convenient is different! Last but not least, the bus does not wait and often leaves early at any stop. Missing a bus is not an option when a plane is “waiting”. So, let’s take a bus earlier or arrive earlier at the bus stop … which adds more time, and reduces the convenience. The official group traveling from the Green to Tweed, gathered at 10:50 and arrived before 11:30 am. 40 minutes. In a little more time, I drive from Lighthouse Park to Bradley …
Or again: how desperate is Tweed to get any press? So desperate that never-bus-riders came up with a rather laughable PR-stunt?
[Did I mention that ones needs EXACT change for the bus (even a 5 dollar-bill does not work) … oh what an adventure first time riders will experience.]