A new Alliance to promote commuter rail -- and oppose the proposed busway between Hartford and New Britain -- is slated to be unveiled Thursday morning.
Two state representatives, Republican Bill Hamzy and Democrat Frank Nicastro, are joining forces with the Central Connecticut Chambers of Commerce and the Connecticut Sierra Club to push for rail.
They're holding a press conference at 11:30 a.m. Thursday in Room 1A of the Legislative Office Building in Hartford to disclose details.
Clearly, the battle to stop the $573 million busway is not quite over.
*******
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
9 comments:
Do these people have any reason (facts, information, data, numbers, projections, etc.) to show how many Bristol residents would commute to Hartford daily on this train? Not conjecture, wishful thinking, or nostalgic memories of riding the trolley to Lake Compounce with their grandparents? Because if they succeed in killing this busway and get nothing for Bristol, how will that benefit Central Connecticut?
Looks like the Republicans and Hamzy are supporting Nicastro's re-election
It's not just about people commuting from Bristol to Hartford. The rail line would bring passengers and commuters from Hartford to the shoreline down the I84 corridor. The busway plans to connect New Britain to Hartford. It will also cost twice as much. You can't possibly think the bus is a better idea Odin.
Furthermore, spending $600 million on a busway that doesn't really help Bristol at all or virtually any central Connecticut town other than New Britain seems to not really benefit central Connecticut now does it?
And yes, there is plenty of data to support the rail project over the bus project.
Kudos to Bill, Frank and everyone else on board with the idea to kill this bus in favor of rail. Finally we see a bi-partisan effort in Connecticut.
Anonymous:
If there's ANY quantifiable data that supports the rail project over the busway project, many of us would be glad to see it. All we've heard so far is anecdotes about ESPN employees wanting to get to NYC (which has NOTHING to do with the busway), how freight can't move due to the busway )even though all the trackage you need is already in place), etc. When the argument gets stronger, we can actually start to compare benefits.
Clearly "No Transfer Needed" is a DOT worker trying to justify $60 million a mile and $142,500 per estimated new rider.
Then try to argue there's no data for the rail when you have not done one bit of research to know what that data may be.
Go back to your desk and stop wasting our tax dollars.
Oooh! Burn!
You could actually read the planning study that examined rail (light and commuter). If you're in favor of building nothing, that's fine. But when you finally figure out what rail costs to build and maintain, I'll bet the cost per passenger will be even higher. To match the busway cost per passenger that you use, the rail project would have to attract 2800 new riders, even at the bogus $400 million price that's circulating now. Shore Line East took 20 years to get to 2000 boardings a day. And it costs $20 million a year to operate. So maybe a rail investment is really not worth it either.
That planning study never took Bristol into account.
This is what happens when you can't control your own destiny!
And you want to regionalize?
Let's see the Busway's annual operating cost is estimated at $9 million with only $1.5 million coming back in fares. All that for nine miles. How long is Shoreline East? How many communities does it serve? No comparison. The Busway simply has no bang for the buck.
The problem for No Transfer Needed and co-workers at DOT is that they only know how to deal with rubber wheels. Now get back to work, you are making the deficit worse by wasting time defending a bad idea.
Post a Comment