NHHS - News Items

Leaders Urge Putting Rail Link On Fast Track

By Ted Mann Published on 12/10/2008
Hartford - The present and future Speakers of the state House of Representatives said Tuesday that Connecticut should speed early work on a $300 million New Haven-Hartford rail link in hopes of winning federal aid for the project from a stimulus package planned by President-elect Barack Obama.

Speaker James A. Amann, D-Milford, who is in his final days as the top lawmaker in the House, and Rep. Christopher Donovan, D-Meriden, were joined by advocates for leading business, planning and environmental groups in calling for the “fast-tracking” of the commuter-rail project.

”It's time now for Connecticut to get off the dime,” said Christopher Phelps, the program director for Environment Connecticut, one of the organizations lobbying to speed completion of the rail line, citing potential reductions in traffic congestion and greenhouse-gas emissions, as well as economic benefits resulting from the construction of the line and its stations through the Connecticut River valley.

State officials, at the behest of Gov. M. Jodi Rell and the congressional delegation, have urged agencies and municipalities alike to identify infrastructure projects that could be “shovel-ready” by the time any federal stimulus bill is approved.

The rail service would operate on existing track from New Haven through Hartford to Springfield, Mass., with some shuttle-bus service to provide better access to nearby points of interest, including Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks.

The proposal, which was approved by the legislature in 2006 as part of a $2.3 billion transportation-improvement package, currently awaits completion of legally required environmental-impact statements, which a spokesman for the Department of Transportation said would not likely be finished until early 2010. The project is also not fully funded: Legislators authorized $146 million for the project, the total cost of which was expected to eventually reach around $400 million, according to Kevin Nursick, a DOT spokesman. Those estimates are in 2005 dollars.

”Certainly money is one major hurdle,” said Eric Brown of the Connecticut Business & Industry Association, which has endorsed the proposal, saying better mass-transit connections and reduced traffic congestion could have significant benefits for the state's business climate. “But a second hurdle is executive, of turning the vision into reality.”

Those hurdles may loom highest, Nursick said.

”I think we need to be very careful when we talk about the possibility of speeding up that process,” he said, referring to the environmental assessment, adding that a failure to produce a “flawless” report could risk legal action.

Nursick said the state is negotiating with Amtrak, which owns existing right-of-way along the proposed route, to see whether it can provide some commuter service before the state's system is ready to begin.

Michael Riley, of the Connecticut Motor Transport Association, criticized the groups' plans, which he said had not taken into account the eventual cost of providing rail service or the level of demand.

”This is 'fire, ready, aim,'” Riley said.

But lawmakers like Amann, who chuckled as he recalled a 2½-hour effort to take the train to Hartford from Milford as a freshman legislator, say frequent train service through the populous center of the state can't come soon enough.

”When you look at Europe, we should be ashamed of ourselves,” Amann said.