Connecticut Fund for the Environment's Dana Young testified on behalf of the coalition, along with representatives of rail employees, a passenger group, and Sierra Club. Young indicated that while the coalition supported much of the spirit and substance of Bill 6985, which would create the Transportation Strategy Board, she suggested that to achieve real change, the legislators should put other stakeholders on the board, ensure that the new board has a substantive role in the transportation capital and operating budget process, helps select the new DOT commissioner, and is independently funded to ensure non-biased research and policy recommendations. The Coalition called for fewer studies and more direct funding for projects.

Legislators have been cool to expanding the board, raising concerns that land use planning and environmental concerns will be given short shrift. This was amplified when the state safety director suggested that any litigation over transportation projects be sent to a new court. But most of the projects in the bill are positive: $17 million for bus service expansion (mostly Hartford area); $9.5 million in studies, including $2 million to study a commuter rail line between New Haven and Springfield, including Hartford; $8 million for highway commuter improvements, including a controversial pilot plan to close some entrance ramps on I-95 in Fairfield County; and $3.5 million for immediate improvements to rail service along the shoreline.