Central Connecticut Rail Study Hartford-Waterbury (Busway)

Of course they were called "crazy". It was a very good idea. Something CDOT (and the state itself) doesn't seem to specialize in for the most part...

here's some items from over the past few months:

a tour of part of the ROW
http://www.courant.com/videogallery/736 ... sway-Route

construction as it currently stands
http://ctfastrak.com/index.php/en/april ... ery?page=1

I can't bear to look at them. Imagine if this was rail. Imagine it were part of an inland route. Imagine with the mess in Bridgeport trains could be running over this.

This would not serve any purpose as a detour in the present situation at Bridgeport. The route that could have been a detour for at least a few trains would have been the line between Derby Junction and Danbury which is part of the Housatonic Railroad and their management has allow the line between Derby Junction and Danbury to go to seed to a point where it can not be used for a detour. I still do not like the busway here any more than I like the busway here in Florida between Kendall and Florida City over the old Florida East Coast right of way. A bus is still a bus and no matter where it runs it is still nothing better than a bus.
Noel Weaver

The plot thickens.

A state Department of Transportation hearing officer on Monday dealt a startling setback to the politically powerful CTfastrak project, ruling that busway engineers cannot simply close off part of Hartford's Flower Street to pedestrian traffic. The state transportation department must either leave Flower open or build a $4 million set of switchback ramps to carry pedestrians and bicyclists over the busway.

csor2010 wrote:The plot thickens.

A state Department of Transportation hearing officer on Monday dealt a startling setback to the politically powerful CTfastrak project, ruling that busway engineers cannot simply close off part of Hartford's Flower Street to pedestrian traffic. The state transportation department must either leave Flower open or build a $4 million set of switchback ramps to carry pedestrians and bicyclists over the busway.

YYYYEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

csor2010 wrote:The plot thickens.

A state Department of Transportation hearing officer on Monday dealt a startling setback to the politically powerful CTfastrak project, ruling that busway engineers cannot simply close off part of Hartford's Flower Street to pedestrian traffic. The state transportation department must either leave Flower open or build a $4 million set of switchback ramps to carry pedestrians and bicyclists over the busway.

So...$14 million set of switchback ramps it is.

[/sarcasm]

Dated May 1st, but the opinion speaks for itself:
http://articles.courant.com/2013-05-01/ ... strak-rail" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Noel Weaver wrote:This would not serve any purpose as a detour in the present situation at Bridgeport. The route that could have been a detour for at least a few trains would have been the line between Derby Junction and Danbury which is part of the Housatonic Railroad and their management has allow the line between Derby Junction and Danbury to go to seed to a point where it can not be used for a detour. I still do not like the busway here any more than I like the busway here in Florida between Kendall and Florida City over the old Florida East Coast right of way. A bus is still a bus and no matter where it runs it is still nothing better than a bus.
Noel Weaver

The Busway is typical of government trying to tell people what 5to do. If the lawmakers of Connecticut were smart, they would get rid of the busway and figure out a way of creating a new 'INLAND Route' from Boston (Boston-Worcester-Willimantic-Hartford-Waterbury-Danbury-NYC and beyond.) and a commuter rail (Willimantic, Columbia, Bolton, Vernon, Buckland, Burnside/East Hartford from the east.. Waterbury, Terryville, Plainville, Bristol, New Britan - Newington, Elmwood from the west..) and tourist (Bradley to the casinos) rail.

Of course, CT lawmakers are NOT smart...that's why I'm in FL...not CT.

So if you are in FL, then why are you tying to tell my state's government what to do? How are you smarter than those who are HERE every day in the legislature and those who have their boots on the ground studying traffic problems and so forth RIGHT HERE?
Is there some well of traffic management information that you have access to in Florida that they dont have in Hartford? If so, then why don't you give Gov. Malloy a call?

Have you seen the price tag for this thing? $60M per MILE. For a freaking road. And that's how it currently stands. As a current CT resident I'm embarrassed sometimes by the decisions our state's gov't makes when it comes to transportation. The fact that this project got the green light is disturbing to say the least. And it will only cost far more as construction progresses. An extension of the Waterbury Branch through New Britain to Hartford would have cost less and covered more miles and connected more people than the buses ever will. They have their place in CT's transit network and that's on city streets and maybe on some HOV lanes, but not on what should be a commuter rail.

NH2060 wrote:

Cosmo wrote:So if you are in FL, then why are you tying to tell my state's government what to do? How are you smarter than those who are HERE every day in the legislature and those who have their boots on the ground studying traffic problems and so forth RIGHT HERE?
Is there some well of traffic management information that you have access to in Florida that they dont have in Hartford? If so, then why don't you give Gov. Malloy a call?

Have you seen the price tag for this thing? $60M per MILE. For a freaking road. And that's how it currently stands. As a current CT resident I'm embarrassed sometimes by the decisions our state's gov't makes when it comes to transportation. The fact that this project got the green light is disturbing to say the least. And it will only cost far more as construction progresses. An extension of the Waterbury Branch through New Britain to Hartford would have cost less and covered more miles and connected more people than the buses ever will. They have their place in CT's transit network and that's on city streets and maybe on some HOV lanes, but not on what should be a commuter rail.

As far as I recall, the Busway (which I personally think is a ridiculous boondoggle) was approved because a) they said the Feds would pick up the price tag and b) Malloy owed political favors to the construction lobby/unions.

I've said this before but I fully expect that this thing will join the US-7 and CT-25 Expressways and the CT-9 extension north of 84 as half-completed projects left to languish forever-- and confuse drivers 40 years down the road. If it's not completed by the time Malloy leaves office, it never will be.

An extension of the Waterbury Branch through New Britain to Hartford would have cost less and covered more miles and connected more people than the buses ever will. They have their place in CT's transit network and that's on city streets and maybe on some HOV lanes, but not on what should be a commuter rail.

And electrification from Bridgeport.

NH2060 wrote: Have you seen the price tag for this thing? $60M per MILE. For a freaking road. And that's how it currently stands. As a current CT resident I'm embarrassed sometimes by the decisions our state's gov't makes when it comes to transportation. The fact that this project got the green light is disturbing to say the least. And it will only cost far more as construction progresses. An extension of the Waterbury Branch through New Britain to Hartford would have cost less and covered more miles and connected more people than the buses ever will. They have their place in CT's transit network and that's on city streets and maybe on some HOV lanes, but not on what should be a commuter rail.

I AGREE! But that was not the point I was making to FLR. Yes, the busway is a boondoggle, but to simply kibitz it from Florida is one thing, to make a blanket statement that puts all the CT lawmakers in the same basket weather they voted for it or not belies ignorance.

Ridgefielder wrote:
I've said this before but I fully expect that this thing will join the US-7 and CT-25 Expressways and the CT-9 extension north of 84 as half-completed projects left to languish forever-- and confuse drivers 40 years down the road. If it's not completed by the time Malloy leaves office, it never will be.

...and CT-11.