Central Connecticut Rail Study Hartford-Waterbury (Busway)

I once heard CDOT stood for "Connecticut Department of Tar", not "Connecticut Department of Transportation"

J

Malloy To Pursue Hartford-New Britain Busway:

http://www.courant.com/community/new-br ... 7770.story

"Gov Dannel P. Malloy on Monday threw his support behind construction of a $567 million New Britain-to-Hartford busway that he said could begin operating in 2014."

FrankG wrote:Malloy To Pursue Hartford-New Britain Busway:

http://www.courant.com/community/new-br ... 7770.story

"Gov Dannel P. Malloy on Monday threw his support behind construction of a $567 million New Britain-to-Hartford busway that he said could begin operating in 2014."

*facepalm* D'OUGH!

Is someone getting a kickback on this or something? Why else would the state still want to go ahead with this boondoggle even though studies said restoring rail service all the way to Waterbury would be far less expensive? Heck, with $600M they could probably also construct a new bypass/tunnel through Bristol that would avoid that winding S-curve and also upgrade the tracks for 90 mph operation.

So New Britain and Hartford want it, while Newington and West Hartford don't. Sounds like we're setting up for a repeat of the "Super 7" show.

Jeff Smith wrote:Plus, you're going to take away a dedicated right of way (assuming it's land or rail-banked along inactive portions) and pour tons of concrete (can you say "run-off flooding"?) at inflated prices and run how many buses a day? How many HOV lanes have we seen around the country that are under-used and eventually converted to general traffic? The only time busways make sense are at choke-points such as bridges and tunnels. The busway is a stupid idea. Period.

Maybe working in DC has made me jaded. But, one could reasonably assume, given past performance, that the greater funding for the "busway" includes significant political contributions, eh?

Their must be serious, serious back-door lobbying going on. Plus, with the federal money specifically for this project, it's hard to walk away a la Christie. I'm not sure how far back this project dates. What really gets me is the TSTC is really pushing this project, too. They should know better.

I would suggest EVERYONE in CT contact not just the Governor's office, but their US Senator, Congressperson, CT representative, etc., especially if you're in the affected area, and register your dissatisfaction with this bone-headed unaffordable proposal. Write your local newspapers, either letters to the editor or an Op-Ed. Lay out the case.

Jeff Smith wrote:Their must be serious, serious back-door lobbying going on. Plus, with the federal money specifically for this project, it's hard to walk away a la Christie. I'm not sure how far back this project dates. What really gets me is the TSTC is really pushing this project, too. They should know better.

I would suggest EVERYONE in CT contact not just the Governor's office, but their US Senator, Congressperson, CT representative, etc., especially if you're in the affected area, and register your dissatisfaction with this bone-headed unaffordable proposal. Write your local newspapers, either letters to the editor or an Op-Ed. Lay out the case.

Oh yes...the lobbying is pretty much all that's sustaining this. The only thing he's basing his decision on is "possibility" of fed dollars...a wing and a prayer if ever. The lobbyists were thickly entrenched in Hartford, New Britain, and their legislators. The confab Malloy had pretty much only involved the politicians. This is utterly insane. You should read the comments in the Courant...it's about 90-10 "WTF ARE YOU DOING???"

I don't think this is going to get built. The true costs have been covered up, and so has design progress. The pols have been saying it's shovel-ready. That traffic engineer on the somethingawful thread says they're barely 60% done with design because there's so many do-overs required for the insurmountable engineering challenges they keep encountering, and the consultant interference makes it impossible to solve any problems. That's only going to get worse until the thing is pretty much inoperable at the time the design is actually complete. And then there's the fierce opposition to the bridges in Newington and West Hartford, and having to deal with Amtrak for the easement when they want their 3rd track capacity in 20 years. Probably the community opposition in those two towns doing it in since they're going to get angrier by the minute when the bridge designs and eminent domain taking start getting community comment. Death by a thousand cuts, and they'll waste another 6 years and $150 mil trying to push this before giving up. It'll be just like the similarly pointless Griffin Line light rail project in the 90's, only it'll plow much further into the waste before nothing happens. That project chewed up 20 years of debate and study money before the state leadership changed, all its supporters were out of office, and Gov. Rowland quietly dropped it. Note that NB Mayor Stewart, the biggest bloviator supporting this project and the one who's raking in the most donations from the BRT lobby, is probably running for the Legislature next year. Trying to flip his lobbying connections into better access to money. Of course if he gets replaced as mayor by someone with much more tepid busway support, then it starts running out of gas in NB. Yet they'll go through the motions of supporting it anyway. I can only hope it gets denied fed funding to cut it off at the pass. People still have a bad taste in their mouths from the sheer pointlessness of the Griffin Line process, and know (worse!) deja vu when they see it.

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As a proud Bristol native and expatriate I'm angry that that community is getting @#$%ed over yet again on regional core access. The Route 72 boulevard extension through Forestville does very little in the real world to ease traffic congestion because it was only physically possible to bring it to within a half-mile of downtown before it crams back into a 2-lane city street. It was pretty much solely a concession to ESPN where Route 229 access is fast, 4-lane, and 45 MPH with few lights. The thoroughfares spreading everywhere else--72 downtown, Route 69 north-south, 229 north to Route 6, 6 the whole length--are too narrow and constricted to handle the induced demand of the new 72 bypass. They will get even worse than their current dysfunctional volumes, since the rest of the 40-years-planned 72 expressway is utterly impossible to build. Bristol is one of the most transportation-isolated dense population (61K) municipalities in all of New England. Until this 72 quasi-extension came through it was the largest city in New England with no expressway access. For comparison, "much larger" New Britain's population is 71K and steadily falling; Bristol's has been a steady 60 my whole life and is now up because of ESPN. If you're coming from downtown or live anywhere requiring a trip on Routes 6 or 69, you're looking at probably a 30-45 minute hell at 15 MPH and two dozen lights to get on an expressway one town over. Historic downtown is barren and economically depressed, and no amount of smart development (and there have been plenty of sensible proposals) can get off the ground because there's no way to get sustainable visitor numbers there. The CT Transit buses are unusable because they all use 6 or 72-downtown, and there are no routes out there that would even use this busway. There's little industry left except on the ESPN end of Route 229 where access to I-84 via then 4-lane 229 is pretty good. ESPN's growth has masked the greater issue in Bristol because it subsidizes a huge plurality of their whole tax base and hugs the Southington line, concentrating most higher housing prices and new commercial development on the border or in Southington-proper (Route 10 corridor). They would be bankrupted if ESPN started outsourcing any operations elsewhere; the huge tax deal they get is pretty much why they've taken advantage of the low costs to keep HQ on one campus.

It's not a pretty picture in small neighboring Plymouth either. The Terryville and Pequabuck villages are very poor and backwater, with its own historic downtown getting slowly abandoned and blighted and no major business investments in the last 20 years. The only place where housing values are high(er) is in the sparsely-populated west end of Plymouth where rural subdivisions have been built on farmland...those folks are close enough to the Route 8 expressway and past the worst of the 6 traffic jams. They're sheared off from Hartford entirely by the commute, and most have meaningful employment options only in Bristol and in also-poor Waterbury and Torrington. It has an old population, and high percentage of residents who've never held a job outside of direct-abutting towns. Plymouth in particular faces a bleak future, as it's getting harder to even traverse Bristol on 6 and 72 and there are few younger middle-class residents except on the outskirts near Harwinton.

And I-84, even post-widening and reconstruction, is almost unusable from the I-691 interchange to Route 8 in Waterbury because of the continuous traffic jam from Greater Hartford...it's the only west route possible because of Mount Southington on one side and Meriden Mountain on the other. This is severely holding back Waterbury, which has good north-south commute options but too difficult access east-west on I-84 where the better jobs are. It's never shaken off its blighted industrial decay. It has too little a business tax base to even clean up the factory blight like Bristol was able to clean up (but not replace the revenue) in its downtown and neighborhoods.

All of these towns have never recovered fully from the 1970's-80's economic crash like most of the rest of the state because of their crippled radial access. They're all in for a second-wave crash when the economy slides into oblivion, whereas the rest of the state should weather it decently well and Hartford has nowhere to go but up in any economy. This is a major economic injustice. I know the Nicastro brothers are a bit over-the-top in their anti-busway zealotry...I was there through much of Frank's mayoral career, and "over-caffeinated" are their default personalities. But they give a damn, including about the lobbying corruption, and are pretty smart about the big picture and brainstorming decent ideas. Their vitriol on the busway is concerning not because they're in with the pro-rail lobby, but because it's rooted in them sending dire emergency flares about the future of Greater Bristol-Waterbury if the last means of connecting them to the region's core gets taken away forever. And, ironically, they seem to care more about New Britain's future along the same lines than the corrupt pols there who are ignoring the actual ridership cap, nonexistent stimulus, and huge operating losses the unusable busway will snooker them into.

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I really fear for the future of everything back home save for the ESPN sandbox if shooting rail in the foot is a decision they can't undo for 30 years. Even if the busway gets killed from community opposition, lack of fed funding, and engineering impossibility they've blown it and salted the earth if this decision doesn't get reversed FAST with denied fed funding. It can't be underestimated how much they need that line after NHHS is built. The ridership would exceed all expectations because it's an economic lifeline to an area that already has a built-in historical commuting workforce...but one that can no longer meaningfully traverse the congestion to go where they need to. This is why the community support is so vehemently strong to at least get a prelim study going. Even if there's no money now to talk substantial shop about a build until after NHHS is 100% done and paid. The middle class is going to start moving out to where the access is, and all that's left will be the poor with no better options and the ESPN'ers/Route 8'ers segregated on the border subdivisions who can't/won't go downtown. Caps the Route 8/Waterbury Branch corridor too if they never get their potential one-seat ride to Hartford...that has potential to be a large-volume line connecting Stamford/Bridgeport directly to Hartford at last, but it'll never be more than MNRR's backwater-most branch in isolation.

Don't kill this on the universe of projects by making that grave busway mistake or you'll be suffering the consequences for decades of snuffing that corridor's economic future. I remember growing up late-80's/early-90's with the great dying of locally-owned businesses. I can't imagine what it would be like to consign that area to a second wave of that with so little still left.

http://blogs.courant.com/rick_green/201 ... -2014.html

Construction can start as soon as next week, state Department of Transportation officials say, now that Gov. Malloy has given the go-ahead to the $570 million bus-only highway that will run from New Britain to Hartford. About 80 percent of the project is paid for by the federal government.

Acting Transportation Commissioner James Redecker, who attended a crowded press conference where Malloy endorsed the busway Monday afternoon, said passengers will be able to expect a bus about every three minutes during the rush hour.

"This puts Connecticut on the map nationally,'' said Redeker. "It will feed all the suburban communities. It will make connections to the high-speed rail line."

Malloy also announced a $1 million study that will look at the possiblity of a rail line beween Hartford and Waterbury. He said going forward with the busway sends a message that Connecticut is serious about mass transit.

Next week! By 2014! 80% free! HSR! A whole $1 mil to keep consultants fed for 3 weeks!

Just laugh to keep yourself from crying.

Wow, I thought Massachusetts was the capital of pork spending. As a former resident of that area I'll look forward to watching near-empty buses go by every three minutes. And a million bucks just to to STUDY restoring passenger service between Waterbury and Hartford? Hey, it's only tax money. It's not like anyone will ever have to pay the bill or anything.

I know how jammed I-84 is at rush hour. I have family down there and encounter that road often. But how many of those rush hour commuters are headed to what's left of downtown Hartford as opposed to a transit-inaccessible suburb? My brother-in-law commutes from New Britain to an office park in Bloomfield. A train or express bus to downtown Hartford does him little good. Downtown Hartford is an economic shell and the jobs are out along suburban I-91 and I-84, nowhere near rail stations.

TomNelligan wrote:Wow, I thought Massachusetts was the capital of pork spending. As a former resident of that area I'll look forward to watching near-empty buses go by every three minutes. And a million bucks just to to STUDY restoring passenger service between Waterbury and Hartford? Hey, it's only tax money. It's not like anyone will ever have to pay the bill or anything.

I know how jammed I-84 is at rush hour. I have family down there and encounter that road often. But how many of those rush hour commuters are headed to what's left of downtown Hartford as opposed to a transit-inaccessible suburb? My brother-in-law commutes from New Britain to an office park in Bloomfield. A train or express bus to downtown Hartford does him little good. Downtown Hartford is an economic shell and the jobs are out along suburban I-91 and I-84, nowhere near rail stations.

Compared to the 8 figures spent on busway studies, $1 mil is just enough for consultants to collate a stack of paper and declare commuter rail a nonstarter. Malloy just threw Plainville, Bristol, Plymouth, and Waterbury under the literal bus. With a side of Wolcott and Southington. And Amtrak, because this also paves over the preferred Inland NEC route in their 30-year master plan and takes the third track berth on the Springfield Line that would've been needed for any HSR configuration (including the no-build alternative that was just upgrade of the existing NHHS+B&A inland). The Berlin Secondary backtracks too far down into Berlin to work. Meaning also...the whole swath of Central CT from Danbury to Hartford on I-84 are going to get shut out of the national rail plan where it was supposed to be a crucial link.

And he's forced West Hartford and Newington into legal maneuvers to fight the destructive overpasses through their towns. Meaning...guess what, more at-grade intersections and much slower speeds when they have to compromise away a few of them. And less ridership. You can forget about MNRR and Shore Line East getting any funded improvements at any time for the next decade, or any highway upgrades beyond the life-and-limb I-84 viaduct replacement. The cost on this is going to sail to $1B if it hasn't behind closed doors, and that's a Big Dig-level strike on future transportation investment for sheer irresponsibility. Especially if it get canceled anyway with >$100 mil spent. They could build the I-384 expressway to the RI state line for less than they'll pay for this. They could build the Route 11 and Route 7 extensions for less than they'll pay for this. They can electrify NHHS, eliminate grade crossings, and do 125 MPH for less than this. They could bury I-84 in an air rights tunnel the whole length of downtown for about the same as this.

It'll be $100 million a mile. For empty buses that'll only have marginal travel time improvements after the overpasses get frittered away, no change whatsoever to the health of New Britain, and further isolation of several other towns from a feasible commute to where the jobs are. This might be the single most wasteful mass transit project of the last 75 years in this country on ROI. Just...wow. That the BRT lobby and Brookings Institution still have this kind of teeth in pols is stunning.

http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut ... 4024.story

Signaling that the fight over the controversial New Britain busway isn't finished, two state legislators are asking one of the top Republicans in Congress to block the project.

"There is no popular support for the project. The average person understands that it makes no sense, even in flush times," Sen. Joe Markley, R-Southington, and Rep. Whit Betts, R-Bristol, said in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner. "We urge you to do all in your power to stop the federal funding."

I normally would feel a little more conflicted about playing with fire on political end-runs, but good on these state legislators. If the state's going to bankrupt itself putting all eggs in the basket of free fed money paying for all of this--with no safety net if it doesn't--then the feds shouldn't be off-limits to the opposition lobby either. I don't even want to make this about rail instead because that's nth on the priority list of things very very wrong and madly irresponsible with this project. I'd rather they built nothing at all than build something so unworkable at such insane price that it sets the state back decades at its chances of ever getting another public works megaproject built. And there are plenty to choose from...like replacing the I-84 viaduct before it collapses into its own Minneapolis I-35W scrap heap over downtown.

Great news! Let's hope they have some success. It's nice to see that some legislators can resist the call to "bring home the bacon". The rough part of this is the jobs lost to construction, but why not repurpose that money for NHHS? Danbury? Other more worthwhile projects.

It will be interesting to see how TSTC covers this. In the meanwhile, I'd suggest writing your own legislators, and Boehner, about this boondoggle.

I agree with both of the above, this thing is a gross waste of money on all parts.
Noel Weaver