This past January, New Haven commuter rail line riders saw unpredictable train schedules and unprecedented increases in commute times. On February 6^th, 35% of New Haven Line trains were cancelled due to mechanical failures. Connecticut transportation officials agree that antiquated rail cars, extreme cold, and engineering mistakes were the culprits in the failures. Although the state administration seems preoccupied with its abiding political problems and has been slow to recognize the state’s recent mass transit service disaster as another embarrassment for Governor Rowland.

Rowland’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year originally sought to reduce a small amount slated for replacing a few trains within the New Haven Line’s ageing fleet, while hiking fares again by 5.5%. Fortunately, a clamor of other political voices is now beginning over how to remedy the situation.

Even the loyal transportation strategy board, instituted by the governor several years ago, has called for action. After Oz Griebel, the strategy board’s chief, urged more investment in New Haven Line rolling stock, Rowland’s budget office said $49 million to $60 million would be made available for new cars over the next 18 months. But anyone familiar with the Rowland administration’s mass transit record will be skeptical about any Connecticut plan to face up to its transit investment deficit.

Congressman Christopher Shays recently told the Bridgeport regional planning agency that less expensive rail cars could be purchased by converting the New Haven Line trains from a catenary to a third rail electrical system, bringing them into line with the system used by the Long Island Railroad and the NY Metro-North lines. "The (old system) trains costs between $3.5 million and $4 million; cars that travel on the (new system) cost about $2 million," Shays told the Connecticut Post.

Senator John McKinney of Fairfield bravely addressed the need to raise more transportation resources. "Connecticut may be unable to find another revenue source for new railcars besides a gas tax hike of three to five cents," he told the Greenwich Time.

Transit, Not Road Projects, Suffers in CT

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