Talking Transportation 2024
DreamStar Lines train

Livin’ It Up in the DreamStar California? ‘Luxury’ Overnight Sleeping Car Trains Expected in Months

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When it comes to trains, everything old is new again: the latest trend for rail travel is night trains. A private California company, DreamStar Lines, is planning an overnight train between LA and San Francisco offering “luxurious accommodations” in modern sleeping cars designed by BMW. Service could begin as early as next summer. The sleeping cars will range from a bedroom for two (with a shower and toilet) all the way up to a family/group room that sleeps up to six (four adults + two kids). There will also be a lounge car available to all guests, which will serve light food and a full bar featuring breweries, wineries, and distilleries from across California.

Talking Transportation 2024
Metro-North Club Car ChatGPT generated

Artificial Intelligence and Your Commute (and More)

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I love AI (artificial intelligence). I rely on it daily to help with my research. “How many bar cars did Metro-North operate in the 1990s?” Answer: 10

“How many people died in auto accidents on Connecticut highways in 2019?” Answer: 254

“Create an image of a Metro-North club car” And poof, it’s done! But what exactly is AI? Let’s ask ChatGPT:

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is like teaching computers to think, learn, and make decisions, similar to how humans do.

Cameron on Transportation

Rail Commuters Owe Thanks to the Late Jodi Rell: No Governor in Decades Did More for CT Riders

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Jodi Rell saved our trains. There is no governor in recent decades who did more for rail commuters than she did. Gov. Rell, who died this past week at age 78, came to office (when she was lieutenant governor) in the midst of a scandal as her predecessor, Gov. John Rowland, resigned when caught accepting illegal gifts and did 10 months in a federal prison. Rowland, you should remember, was no fan of Connecticut’s railroads. He actually proposed replacing the trains on Shore Line East with buses due to that line’s high subsidies.

Talking Transportation 2024
Kathy Hochul Congestion pricing

Congestion Pricing Returns with a $9 Toll to Get Into Midtown Manhattan

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Heading to New York City? Take the train, because driving is going to become even more expensive: the New York plan for “congestion pricing” is back! As everyone predicted last June when New York Gov. Kathy Hochul suspended plans for a $15 toll for driving into midtown Manhattan, she has now reversed her decision. She is now proposing a $9 charge for passenger cars ($2.25 off-peak, and $14.40 for small trucks). It seems ironic that New York City doesn’t control its own mass transit system, but that responsibility is left to the state.

Talking Transportation 2024

New Locomotives, Clean, Fast and Quiet, to Roll Down Metro-North Tracks, Maybe Next Year

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Finally, there’s some good news for Metro-North riders, especially those who take the Danbury, Waterbury and Hartford lines: new locomotives are coming — eventually. Meet the Siemens Charger model SC-42DM, the first of its kind in the U.S.

Being built in Sacramento California, these new engines are the latest innovation in the long history of this German manufacturer. It was Siemens that built the first electric tram in the late 1800s. They even partnered to build one of the first commercial maglev trains, in Shanghai. The Charger is a great machine and there are hundreds already in use in the U.S. and abroad, running on railroads ranging from Amtrak and Brightline to commuter lines in Maryland, California and many other states.

Talking Transportation 2024
Lamont Tweet X Twitter Signs Best Pizza Basketball Submarines

Distracting From Real Issues, Gov Claims CT Is the Submarine / Basketball / Pizza ‘Capital’

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When Marie Antoinette, the last queen of France before the revolution, was asked how to quell her starving peasant subjects, she is alleged to have said “Let them eat cake.”

And as history so often repeats itself, Gov. Ned Lamont seems to be taking the same tack with grumbling Connecticut residents angry over utility pricing. While he still refuses to call a special session of the Legislature to address the issue, last week he presided over the unveiling of a new campaign to make Nutmeggers feel better about their lot. Four signs were erected on the interstate entrances to our state, welcoming travelers by reminding them that Connecticut is “The Foodie / Submarine / Basketball / Pizza Capital” of New England / The U.S. / The World. Don’t you just feel the pride? Or is it more like confusion?

Cameron on Transportation

Reconstruction of Transportation Infrastructure After the Destruction Caused by Recent Flooding in Naugatuck Valley

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You’ve seen the pictures — washed out rail tracks, crumbled roadways, debris and flood damage everywhere. The 1,000-year storm that hit the Naugatuck Valley last week caused destruction of biblical proportions. And the reconstruction will take weeks, possibly months. First off, the CDOT must secure the damaged areas, remove the debris and inspect for structural damage. Where appropriate they’ll replace damaged bridges with temporary spans, pulled from an inventory of such bridges stored for such occasions.

Talking Transportation 2024
Breeze jet

Transportation Briefs: $3 Added to Your Electric Bill, More Flights fromTweed Airport, Gaps in Highway Lighting

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It may be the dog days of summer, but there’s still news on the transportation front …

WHO WANTS AN EV? According to a recent AAA New England survey more than half of respondents said they would never buy an electric vehicle. SO WHY ANOTHER ELECTRIC RATE INCREASE? Yes, PURA just voted another rate increase — about $3 a month for all electric customers — to pay for EV charging stations. But why are we paying for gear we may never use?

Talking Transportation 2024

First Transcontinental Flight Took 50 Hours in 1929, Piloted by Charles Lindbergh

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Aviation history was made July 7, 1929, when the first transcontinental flight from New York to Los Angeles, took off, not with an airplane, but on a train. This was the real birth of commercial aviation in the U.S., and it was led by none other than Charles Lindbergh, just two years after his solo crossing of the Atlantic. The journey from New York began with an overnight Pullman train. Christened by Amelia Earhart “The Airway Limited,“ it arrived the next morning at Port Columbus, Ohio at a purpose-built train station and airport. There the passengers boarded a Ford Trimotor and flew west, stopping to refuel in St.

Talking Transportation 2024
Boxcar bus interior

As Commuter Service Gets More Difficult, a Private, Pricier Alternative Competes Far from the Madding Commute

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What happens when years of neglect catch up with a commuter railroad? Look no further than New Jersey, where NJ Transit is in the midst of a predicted meltdown. This should serve as a warning to Connecticut. Hardly a day goes by without hearing of train woes in the Garden State, many of them tied to broken down trains or catenary (overhead power wires) being snagged in Penn Station. Service is abysmal and yet a 15% fare hike is going to effect July 1.

Talking Transportation 2024
Ship attacked by Houthi forces in the Red Sea 2024

How a Vulnerable Shipping Lane on the Other Side of The World Affects the World Economy

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Did you know that the U.S. Navy is now engaged in its biggest sea battle since World War II? That’s the news from the Red Sea where U.S. Navy and other allies’ warships are patrolling the waters, trying to keep shipping safe on its way to and from the Suez Canal despite constant bombardments by the Houthis. That renegade faction in Yemen, with weapons supplied by Iran, has been attacking ships since November using drones, missiles and unmanned surface vessels (boat bombs). They claim to be doing these attacks because of Israel’s invasion of Gaza, but their targets have included many ships with no ties to that country. Those attacks (60 so far) have sunk two ships and killed four mariners, most recently this week in an attack captured on video by a boat bomb on a Greek-owned bulk carrier.

Talking Transportation 2024

Where NY Gov’s Abrupt Turnaround on Congestion Pricing Really Has an Impact: Financing Upgrades

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What was she thinking? Just 25 days before implementation, why did New York Gov. Kathy Hochul pull the plug on New York City’s congestion pricing scheme in a move one pundit called “the perfect clash of governmental incompetence meets political malpractice.”

Five years in the planning and studied over and over again, congestion pricing would have charged drivers of the 700,000 vehicles that enter Manhattan each day below 60th Street for the privilege: $15 for a car, $24 to $36 for a truck. In addition to easing gridlock, the plan would also raise $1 billion a year for the cash-strapped MTA to repair and improve mass transit. That’s a win-win. Just weeks ago Hochul was in Europe touting congestion pricing as the “better way” to save New York City.

Cameron on Transportation
CTfastrak BRT bus

CTfastrak Recently Named Best U.S. Bus Service of Its Type — and the State Plans to Copy it in More Cities

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Did you know that Connecticut is home to the “best BRT” system in the U.S.? Do you even know what BRT is? Well, BRT stands for Bus Rapid Transit, and Connecticut’s almost 10 year-old CTfastrak has just been named the best such system in the U.S. by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy. CTfastrak is the express bus system between New Britain and downtown Hartford, operating on a dedicated “guideway” of 9.4 miles which runs along an abandoned railroad right-of-way adjacent to the New Haven to Springfield Hartford rail Line. It’s a special buses-only highway with 10 stations.