MCL1981 wrote:I'm confused. How could there possibly be enough commuter demand between RI and New Haven, New York, and points between to justify this???
I don't think that there are many NY-bound commuters in this area, nor do I think it's
meant to service NY-bound commuters at all. A fair deal of commuting traffic out this way is towards Kingston, Providence, and Boston; which is RI's job to conduct, or served by Amtrak, so that's not a short-term goal for this service either.
I'd expect New Haven would still have some draw from these areas for commuters, but with the introduction of local service New London <-> Westerly you'd likely get a modest amount of ridership commuting between those areas, as all existing stops for a skeletal service setup are within the immediate area of the town/village centers with proximity to commercial and residential density. Key word is
modest. I don't think many (if any) are under the illusion that this is going to be a huge successful new service pattern in ridership or profits. It's a stepping-stone for service towards RI, and closing the gap in lack of commuter rail service Boston-NY, and the increasing interest in service local and regional bodies are showing to CT and RI (respectively). I suspect an additional impetus for CT, (and despite Malloy's 30 year transportation plan still mentioning this project,) adding local rail service in the area is probably still cheaper than the long-desired plan of adding a new lane in each direction to I-95 between Branford and Stonington, which is in the 1.6 - 2 billion dollar range. Even if it does materialize, it's going to take a long time to get the funds to do such a project and then do the actual construction required, so completing SLE's coverage of that corridor is going to be able to take additional traffic in the meanwhile, in addition to serving the shoreline communities more directly (as I-95 is much further inland, particularly east of New London).
So this is a stepping stone service, one that almost regardless of its success in ridership or monetary metrics is going to serve its intended purpose. As long as it doesn't end up as a stinking mess, it'll fulfill its goals... if it does get surprising amounts of ridership (like SLE originally did), great, if not, still okay. It is ConnDOT's analog of the extension of RI getting MBTA service extended to Warwick Junction. Both are whittling away the commuter service gap from each end, working towards the same end of once again providing service in the entirety of the old
Clamdigger/
Beacon Hill region, and the growth/development opportunities that such a service will bring to their regional economies.
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