Darienite (https://darienite.com/category/news/transportation)
Road, train and other news related to transportation
How would you like a plan to remove thousands of trucks from Connecticut
highways, clean up the air and create new jobs? Who wouldn’t? It’s a win-win-win plan that you’d expect Governor Lamont to
embrace, especially in this time of TCI (the Transportation Climate Initiative). The solution? Invest in our state’s freight railroads.
How are we going to get riders back on the trains and save Metro-North from ballooning deficits, potential service cuts or fare hikes? That’s the question I crowd-sourced on social media last week and found dozens of great answers! Most respondents said they won’t be commuting as much as before because they will continue working from home. It’s not that they are shunning the rails out of fear, just that commuting won’t be necessary. “Most of us have figured out how to work without riding a train every day,” one rider opined.
The Governor’s proposed biennial budget for transportation just doesn’t add up. Thanks to reduced rail ridership, he’s projecting cost savings in the CDOT budget of $82 million over the next two years but promises no further cuts in service beyond those already taken during the pandemic. But how does that jibe with Metro-North parent MTA’s projected $8 billion operating deficit through 2024? Even pre-pandemic when ridership was at record highs, Metro-North still lost money. And taxpayers made up the difference.
Why is transportation construction so expensive in our area? What kind of honor was it when New York City recently surpassed Zurich (one of the most expensive cities in the world) as No. 1 on the most-expensive-place-to-do-underground-construction dishonor roll? The highly respected Regional Plan Association has studied that question and offers some explanations and frightening examples. Focusing on three recent MTA mega-projects in New York City — the Second Avenue Subway, the No.
Imagine going from New York City to Washington, D.C. in one hour — not by plane, but by maglev. By comparison, today the same trip from the LaGuardia to DC’s Reagan airport takes about 90 minutes by air (not counting getting to and from the airports) and costs $276 one way. On Amtrak’s Acela, the fastest run, downtown to downtown, is three hours and costs $157. Or you could take the bus for $30, assuming you have 4½ hours to waste. A maglev is a train, of sorts, that floats on a cushion of air, suspended and propelled along a special track quite different from conventional railroads.
I have one belated prediction for the new year and you’re not going to like it: After we all get vaccinated and things “return to normal,” regular weekday commuters on Metro-North will not be coming back as hoped. Why should they? Who wants to spend $400-plus a month and waste two-plus hours each day, five days a week riding a train into New York City if you don’t have to? If this pandemic has shown us anything it’s that going to an office isn’t necessary to doing our jobs. Sure, there are some people who have to show up in person to do their work (healthcare staffers, auto mechanics etc.), but that’s never been the bulk of Metro-North’s ridership.
Here’s a possible solution to Connecticut’s transportation and infrastructure problems and the state’s current unemployment woes: a WPA-style building project. You’ve heard of the Works Progress Administration, right? It was FDR’s plan that put millions of unemployed Americans to work building public projects like roads, water mains, firehouses and dams. Look around you and you’ll still see us benefiting from that investment. But fast-forward 80 years …
Any reader of this column is all too familiar with the need for transportation investment in our state: our 7,000 miles of roads and bridges in “poor condition”, the $4.6 billion needed for wastewater treatment not to mention our rusting railroads. And everyone in Connecticut is aware of the unemployment crisis brought on by COVID-19 — 8.2% of the state’s labor force is out of work, translating to 153,000 people without jobs, most of them now drawing benefits from our rapidly depleting Unemployment Trust Fund.
When it comes to COVID’s impact on transportation in our state, we are in the eye of the hurricane. That’s been the theme of my recent virtual talk to various Connecticut’s libraries and civic groups, comparing the calm eye of an intense storm to how we’ve become complacent about our transportation future. We kid ourselves if we think the winds have passed. The worst is yet to come. Commuters who’ve returned to the rails tell me ridership is slowly coming back but many still fear for their safety on mass transit, and with good reason.
West Avenue near Edgerton Street will be closed to all traffic each evening and night from 5 p.m. to 7 a.m. between this Wednesday, Oct. 7, and Oct. 21, Darien police announced Tuesday morning. During the same two-week period, expect delays if you use the eastbound traffic lane (toward Norwalk) along that stretch of West Avenue, police said. The westbound lane (toward Stamford) will remain open, with alternating traffic flow either way.
When you think of the AARP (formerly the American Association of Retired Persons) you probably conjure up thoughts of senior discounts, health insurance and retirement, so it might surprise you to learn that they’re also actively engaged in driver safety and promoting access to mass transit. The statistics on these issues they shared with me are quite interesting. By 2025 a quarter of all drivers in the U.S. will be over age 65. And while they are involved in more accidents per capita than younger adults, they are far safer than teens. But over age 70, traffic fatalities increase with age; by age 85, drivers have probably outlived their ability to drive safely.
Metro-North is changing the hours that the North End Access for Grand Central Terminal North End Access will be open, starting Monday. — an announcement from Metro-North
North End Access will be available for customers on weekdays (excluding holidays) from 6:30 to 10 a.m. and 4 to 7 p.m.
Other Grand Central Terminal entrances and exits also will have earlier closing times. Signage indicating revised hours for select Grand Central Terminal entrances and exits will be posted. Customers can continue to use the entrance at 105 E. 42nd St. and Lexington Ave.
The intersection of Station Place and Washington Boulevard at the Stamford train station will be closed from 7 p.m., Friday, Oct. 3 to 7 p.m., Saturday, the Connecticut Department of Transportation has announced. The intersection is here, at the western side of the train station. Anyone picking up or dropping off passengers from the southern side of the station during the closure will be affected, although Station Place can be accessed by vehicles from Atlantic Street for those using the parking garage. Washington Boulevard will also be closed at the intersection.
More parents and guardians are following Connecticut’s Child Passenger Safety (CPS) seat law for infants since the state strengthened the original mandate in 2017, says AAA Northeast. — an announcement from AAA Northeast
Currently, infants must ride rear facing until they turn 2 years old and weigh at least 30 pounds, an upgrade from the earlier requirement of 1 year and 20 pounds. To highlight National CPS Week (Sept. 20 – 26), AAA Northeast analyzed data from the UConn Crash Data Repository and found more children under age two have been riding rear facing in recent years. In fact, the percentage of children under 2 who are riding rear facing increased from 45% in 2015 — before the law was upgraded — to 61% last year.
The 47,000 miles of highways that comprise America’s interstate highway system are nothing short of an engineering marvel, perhaps surpassed only in mileage and design by what China has built in the last few years. We take them for granted, but when they were designed almost 60 years ago these superhighways presented both great opportunity and vast challenges. Mind you, the U.S. wasn’t the first with superhighways. Those bragging rights go to the Germans, whose Reichsautobahn saw cars zooming along at 100+ mph in the 1930s. Most credit President Dwight Eisenhower, whose troops rode the Autobahn in World War II, for seeing the military value of an American equivalent, though engineering such a complex across the U.S. was far more difficult.
Of course by 1940 the US already had the Pennsylvania Turnpike and by 1954 the New York State Thruway, but those private toll roads were just the beginning.
Following the executive order issued in New York state on Monday establishing fines for individuals who are not wearing face covering on all Metro-North property, the State of Connecticut issued a similar order on Tuesday, Sept. 15. — an announcement from Metro-North
And although many of our customers are protecting themselves and others by wearing masks, now those who are not may receive a fine of $100 while traveling in Connecticut. The new Connecticut State Executive order means if you aren’t wearing a mask, or if your face covering doesn’t properly cover both your nose and your mouth, you may be barred from entering or from remaining on Metro-North property, including being removed from trains and stations by MTA or Connecticut Police. You can also be subject to a $100 fine.
Starting this Monday, the town Public Works Department will be paving Hollow Tree Ridge Road from the intersections of Allwood Road to Crooked Mile Road at the northern end of town. The project, which covers about six tenths of a mile of roadway, is expected to be completed by Friday, Sept. 25, according to an announcement Thursday from the DPW. Here’s more from the announcement (see video at bottom for an explanation of what asphalt milling is):
Preparatory work on drainage catch basins, and milling of road surface, will precede paving. […]
Once milled, road surface will be rough until paved and will have raised structures exposed. Please avoid this portion of Hollow Tree Ridge Road if possible during these dates or use extra caution if you must travel on these roads.