Thomas Breen photo
James Dailey, at Temple and Elm: “Great” for late workers.
New Haven buses could soon keep traveling until the early hours of the morning, in what the city’s transportation chief called “the broadest expansion of public transit” in years.
That potential bus schedule expansion is included in Gov. Ned Lamont’s proposed state budget for the biennium 2022 – 2023.
Following up on one of the top operational recommendations included in the state-funded, decade-in-the-making Move New Haven transit study, the governor’s proposed budget includes $1,169,634 in each of the two coming fiscal years to extend Great New Haven area bus service to 1 a.m.
CTtransit New Haven Division Administrator of Planning & Scheduling Barry Diggs, Jr. said that, if the legislature approves that new bus schedule funding, 19 local bus routes that currently stop running at around 6:30 p.m. each day would stay in operation until 1 a.m. Monday through Saturday. They would stop running in the early evening on Sundays.
While New Haven’s four most popular bus routes — on Grand Avenue, Dixwell Avenue, Congress Avenue, and Whalley Avenue — already run as late as 1:45 a.m. on a daily basis, Diggs said, nearly all of the remaining lines in the Greater New Haven bus transit network stop rolling five hours before then.
That means city bus riders looking to get to and from North Haven, Wallingford, Ansonia, Seymour, East Haven, and various other surrounding suburban areas that have become sites of regional job growth have to scramble to find another ride if they don’t work a 9‑to‑5 shift.
DOT Deputy Eucalitto at Union Station press conference in September.
“Our public transit system was built on old workplace models, with specific shifts and locations and jobs” in mind, state Department of Transportation (DOT) Deputy Commissioner — and Mill River neighborhood resident — Garrett Eucalitto told the Independent in a recent interview about the proposed bus schedule extensions. “Job locations have shifted. Hours of operation have shifted. And our public service has not adjusted.”
The most popular and most successful transit systems nationwide, he said, are ones that provide frequent and reliable service that doesn’t end earlier than when public transit users need to ride.
“The concept of expanding hours of service on high-frequency bus routes is a best practice that a lot of individuals have long wanted to see implemented,” Eucalitto said. “The most important thing this does is it provides more economic freedom and economic opportunities” for people who don’t have a car and need to get to a job for a second or third shift.
Pre-pandemic photo
City transit chief Hausladen.
City Transportation, Traffic & Parking Doug Hausladen agreed. Not since the launch of the Hartford Line commuter rail nearly three years ago has the state planned as large and consequential an expansion of public transportation as this.
“This really is an expansion of what freedom means for so many CTtransit customers,” he said. “When your bus line ends at 6 p.m., that means your life must also shorten” to fit that schedule.
While commuter rail has seen a significant and prolonged hit to its ridership during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, Hausladen said, bus ridership has bounced back quicker — likely because of the necessity of public bus travel for commuters who don’t have a car and cannot tele-commute to work.
“I think it’s all part and parcel of what the bus system means to our economy and what it means especially to our recovery starting next [fiscal] year.”
Pulling in to the bus stop at Elm and Temple downtown.
Eucalitto and Diggs said that state DOT must first hold a federally-mandated “service equity” public hearing on the proposed service adjustments before they can go into effect. The proposed bus schedule extension funding must also be approved by the state legislature, which is currently holding public hearings about the entirety of Lamont’s proposed budget, before the bus schedules can be changed.
Eucalitto said that the state hopes to have the money approved and in place, the service equity hearings completed, and the actual bus schedules extended and in effect as early as Summer 2021.
If all goes as planned, Diggs said, every bus route in the Great New Haven system will run until 1 a.m., except for the New Haven Connector Downtown Loop, a weekday bus service that connects the city’s train stations to several Yale and downtown office buildings. He said that bus service will continue to start in the New Haven region as early as 4:30 a.m.
“I think this is a long time coming,” Diggs added. “We have this jobs sprawl,” including the new Amazon warehouse in North Haven. “This give people more access to more employment. We have to change with the times. It’s our turn as well.”
Diggs said that Great New Haven bus ridership has risen from below 50 percent of pre-pandemic rates last summer to around 65 percent of pre-pandemic rates today.
In terms of average daily ridership, that means a drop from 23,423 passengers in February 2020 to 14,861 daily passengers in February 2021 so far.
Extended Service A “Good Idea” For Job Seekers
On Temple Street between Elm and Chapel.
City bus riders, bundled in winter jackets and face masks during an overcast late morning Monday, welcomed the proposed bus schedule extension as they waited for their buses to arrive at various stops on the Green downtown.
“That’d be great,” said 78-year-old West River resident James Dailey (pictured at the top of this article). “A lot of people would leave their cars at home. For people working late, they wouldn’t have to carpool.”
Currently unemployed, Dailey was waiting for the 212 bus Monday to take him over to East Street for a Covid-19 test at Fair Haven Community Health Care’s clinic.
“I’m seeking to get a job right now, but first I need a corona test,” he said.
Dailey said he’s currently working with a job placement organization on Whalley Avenue. They’ve found a potential new job for him in Shelton, he said, though he doesn’t know the details of what that work might be — or what its hours might be. He said he recently worked as a custodian, buffing floors at the Knights of Columbus museum at 1 State St.
Newhallville resident Kassia Ford (pictured) said she too thinks that an extension to current city bus service would be an economic and transit boon.
“I don’t take the bus that late,” she said, “but people have gotten laid off” during the pandemic, and a 1 a.m. schedule might help people keep their jobs or find new ones.
On Monday, she was on her way to the West Haven Veteran Affairs hospital, where she said she volunteers.
A Hill resident who gave his first name as David (and asked not to be photographed for this article) also described the bus schedule extension as a “good idea.”
He said he currently works at a warehouse in Fair Haven. His shifts start as early as 2 or 3 in the morning, and run until 11 a.m. On Monday midday, he had just gotten off of one such shift and was making his way back home.
He said he has to get rides with friends and family when commuting to work in the early hours of the morning. He then takes two buses to get home.
Another Hill resident named Lee Smith, who was also waiting on Temple Street Monday and also asked not to be photographed, said she’s less concerned with a later bus schedule than she is about public transit public safety during the pandemic.
“There’s too many knuckleheads who don’t keep their masks on,” she said.
$34.9M Proposed Cut To New Haven Line
Pre-pandemic photo
Inside Union Station, New Haven’s rail hub.
In addition to the proposed nearly $1.2 million more each year for extended New Haven bus service, the governor’s proposed budget also includes more than $34.9 million removed in each of the coming two years for Metro-North’s New Haven Line rail operations.
Eucalitto said that this proposed state funding reduction would represent a “continuation of service levels that we’re currently operating.”
That is, Metro-North’s New Haven Line has seen service levels drop to around 62 percent of pre-pandemic levels over the past year. The governor’s proposed budget would keep Metro-North trains traveling at the same frequencies as they are today.
“We are annualizing the current cost of the New Haven Line. It’s not necessarily a cut to service beyond what is” in place today.
Metro-North spokesperson Aaron Donovan agreed with that assessment.
He said that, with fewer trains running, Metro-Norths costs have dropped — thereby requiring less money from both the state DOT and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which share the costs of operating the New Haven Line.
“As with all significant service adjustment proposals, CTDOT will be preparing for a Service Equity hearing to get public feedback and input on the proposed service adjustments,” state transportation spokesperson Kevin Nursick told the Independent by email. “This will be in accordance with CTDOT’s published Public Involvement Procedures document located here. As with all DOT informational meetings since the onset of the pandemic, we will have multiple methods for the public to engage, including access for individuals without computer access. Specifics will be available in the coming weeks.
“I would add that no one can say for certain what Washington will do to support transit and transportation, but we are hopeful that with the support of the Biden administration and the Congressional leadership the transit industry will be able to stave off further service reductions.”
I think it would be helpful for people to be able to catch a bus later at night -- I worked second shift for a number of years and would have liked to have been able to use a bus. I wonder about safety for riders in those hours as they wait or get off at stops that may be fairly desolate at that hour. On the flip side, increased ridership at those hours might actually make things safer just by having more activity. Might be something to consider proactively in the planning.