railmason357 wrote:The money they spent on studies to electrify the Danbury and to increase the volume on the New Canaan they could have already had both projects half way funded.
Just to digress for a moment, I know there are abuses by consultants. That money gets wasted, that consultant fees are sometimes used as a way to pay back political favors or as rewards for loyalty.
But not always. Some of these studies, the political people involved say, are hatched when a project is unbuildable because a) the money needed is not available or b) there are not sufficient votes in the legislature to approve a project. So just to keep a project alive the sponsors will get money appropriated for a study. Or the political powers will tell them, no you can't have money to electrify the Danbury branch, not now, but as a sop you can have some money to do a study. Keep the idea on a front burner while you build a better case for it and try to convince more legislators to vote for it when it comes up again in Hartford.
If it was only the railroads that got these type consultancies!
It's the way the system works.