Darienite (https://darienite.com/tag/cameron-on-transportation/page/4)
Like so many people, I absolutely love Vermont. But the journey to get there? Well, it’s not my favorite part. From Fairfield County to Burlington, Vermont, it’s about 300 miles. Driving takes around five hours and costs roughly $35 in gas one-way.
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?
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.
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?
Enjoying the heatwave this summer? The electric utilities sure are. And just wait till you get your next bill. They’ve been warning us for months now that we’ll be in for a shocker as the average bill will jump by about $13 per month. That’s on top of what are already the second highest electric rates in the U.S., exceeded only by those in Hawaii.
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.
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.
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.
Ready for a summer vacation? Car packed, airline tickets at hand? You may not realize it, but Big Brother’s coming along with you. However you chose to travel, don’t expect to have much privacy. By Car
I’ve written for years about how E-ZPass tracks your journey, not just your tolls.
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.
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.
In my college days I did some strange stuff — like driving all night from Chicago to NYC, hitting 75 mph on Interstate 80, just me and the trucks. I was so tired and did everything I knew to stay awake — open the windows, crank up the radio and keep on rolling. Pretty dangerous, but what did I know? Now, being older and wiser, I realize that as many as 100,000 auto accidents each year are tied to drowsy driving, Those crashes are tied to 1,500+ deaths and 71,000 injuries. Nodding off behind the wheel is a serious issue.
Don’t you just love that “new car smell”? Well, that’s coming — slowly — to Amtrak, as the nation’s passenger railroad replaces its old fleet of cars. Goodbye, Amfleet
Amtrak’s remaining fleet of almost 600 Amfleet cars date back to the 1970s and was modeled after the Budd Company’s successful Metroliner cars, which ran from 1969 to 2006. Some of those Amtfleet cars have traveled over four million miles by now so, despite maintenance and the $17 million “refresh” of their interiors in 2017, they are ripe for replacement. The round-sided stainless steel cars, mimicking an airplane, have smaller windows than what’s planned to replace them.
Kudos to the Connecticut Department of Transportation for their amazing work last week cleaning up after the fiery truck crash in Norwalk closed Interstate 95. It’s amazing what CDOT crews can do operating on a deadline and with $20 million in federal money. Hero Trucker
Kudos also to Hazeth Aracena, the truck driver turned hero who was involved in that crash. When the Camaro that seems to have caused the crash (as was reportedly confirmed by the tanker truck’s dash-cam) swerved toward Aracena’s tractor trailer, he tried to move out of the way, only to strike the tanker truck. But Aracena jumped from his cab and rescued the Camaro driver, pulling him from his car.
Another week, another fiery truck crash on a Connecticut highway, this time in Norwalk on Interstate 95. You’ll remember it was just last June when a similar inferno closed I-95 in Philadelphia as a tanker truck blaze practically melted the steel, collapsing the highway. And last April there was another tanker fire on the Gold Star bridge in New London. If your memory is really good you might recall a similar truck crash on I-95 in Bridgeport on the elevated section of highway back in 2004. The resulting fire melted holes in the highway.