Jim Cameron’s Transportation Column

Cameron on Transportation

Talking Transportation: Taking Reader’s Comments From the ‘Mailbag’

By JIM CAMERON | June 19, 2022

I love getting feedback from you, my faithful readers. So I thought I’d share some recent comments. Last week I wrote about the railroads’ history of naming their best trains and stations. One reader, CL, reminded me that Metro-North names its express train to Yankee stadium “The Yankee Clipper”, a nice homage to baseball great Joe DiMaggio. Another reader, BW, wrote “In Ireland, all the inter-city trains have names; they are named after Ireland’s rivers.” That’s classy.

Cameron on Transportation 2022

Where Do You (Legally) Buy Pot Around Here? Well, You Don’t. Not Just Yet. You’ve Got to Hit the Road.

By JIM CAMERON | June 6, 2022

Connecticut is investing $3 million in a new ad campaign to promote tourism in our state. But here’s a theme you won’t hear mentioned — yet. “Whether you simply wander or plunge into the surf, cannabis can add pleasure to your beach visit.”

Such was the promise on a Mystic-based private tourism website, VisitNewEngland.com talking about Massachusetts beaches. But the site’s flowery pot prose also goes on to describe some of our tourism haunts that can be enhanced by marijuana. “If you’re the type of weed smoker who loves to think deep, pondering thoughts about space and time, you’re in luck: Connecticut is home to some of the nation’s oldest historic houses, buildings, and towns.” According to state figures there are over 52,000 registered medical marijuana users in Connecticut.

Talking Transportation 2022

Why Wi-Fi Finally Is Coming to a Train Near You, Right on Time to Be Obsolete

By JIM CAMERON | May 8, 2022

Airplanes have Wi-Fi. Even Connecticut’s CTfastrak commuter bus system from New Britain to Hartford gives its passengers free Wi-Fi. Commuter railroads across the US offer Wi-Fi, including Boston’s MBTA. Wi-Fi is everywhere — but not on Metro-North. So the Connecticut legislature has just budgeted $23 million to install 5G technology on the railroad’s M8 cars.

Cameron on Transportation

Talking Transportation: Leaders Take A Step Forward, A Step Back — The Dance of the Sugar Plum Ferries

By JIM CAMERON | May 1, 2022

As our Connecticut legislators wrap up their “short session” this week, it’s time to assess their work: things accomplished, mixed messages sent and issues left unresolved. Transportation is responsible for almost 30% of all air pollution in the U.S., more than half of that spewed by cars and trucks. The EPA says Connecticut is in “severe noncompliance” with Federal clean air rules, especially Fairfield, New Haven and Middlesex counties. Our air literally stinks. So while I’m happy the state has finally committed to a Clean Air Act, it will take until 2040 for many of its provisions to take effect.

Talking Transportation 2022

If State Employees Were Overpaid, They Wouldn’t Be Leaving for Better-Paying Jobs in the Private Sector

By JIM CAMERON | April 25, 2022

Are Connecticut state workers overpaid? I don’t think so. Connecticut state employees are about to get a retroactive, four-year contract that gives them a $3,500 bonus, annual 2.5% pay increases and their “step increases” tied to seniority and their jobs. By one estimate, this all works out to an additional $10,000 per worker over four years. Total cost to taxpayers: $1.86 billion.

Talking Transportation 2022

Metro-North’s Ongoing Failure to Enforce the Federal COVID-19 Mask Mandate

By JIM CAMERON | April 18, 2022

I love getting email, especially from frustrated Metro-North commuters. Consider this thoughtful email I received a week ago from a six-day-a-week rider, Scott Mikita, who works on Broadway:

“I am actually on a train into work right now and Googled ‘Metro North conductor claims he can’t enforce mask mandate’ and your article from September 2021 popped up. I take 12 train rides per week and have seen ridership increase since coming back to work in September 2021. I have also noticed that trains are often shorter than before and some conductors reluctant to open empty cars, even on busy, crowded trains. “Just now, I asked the conductor if the mask mandate is still in effect (there is a couple sitting on the train, maskless) and he said yes, but that he ‘couldn’t enforce it.’

Cameron on Transportation 2022

The Big, Six-Decade Mistake on the Danbury Line: They Took Down the Wires

By JIM CAMERON | April 11, 2022

It was a huge mistake, one that commuters and planners have regretted for over 60 years. For it was in 1959 that the last electric locomotive pulled a train on the Danbury branch. Yes, that meandering 24 miles of single track railroad connecting South Norwalk and Danbury was once electrified. For 34 years, long before the invention of diesel locomotives, it saw electric trains running “under the wire.”. Why did that change?

Cameron on Transportation

At New Jersey Gas Stations, Attendants Will Serve Your Fuel: It’s the Law

By JIM CAMERON | April 4, 2022

You can pump your own soft-serve ice cream at trendy yogurt shoppes. But you still can’t pump your own gasoline in New Jersey. Why? Once again, lawmakers in Trenton have killed an effort to save motorists money at the pump, allegedly in the name of safety. Self-serve gasoline has been allowed across the country for 73 years, ever since the first pump-your-own gas station opened in California in 1947.

Opinion

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CT Gas Tax Cut Shows the Mediocrity of Our State Legislature

By JIM CAMERON | March 29, 2022

Attention all chiropractors and physical therapists! Please report immediately to the state Capitol to treat the sore muscles of lawmakers who’ve twisted themselves into a pretzel, patting themselves on their backs for cutting the gasoline tax! What a surprise (in an election year) that lawmakers voted unanimously to cut the gasoline tax 25 cents a gallon from April 1 to June 30. What a massive sense of relief for money-short taxpayers to save — what? — $25 per car this spring.

Talking Transportation 2022

In Ukraine, Railroads Are a Flexible Tool, Quickly Flexed — If Only We Could Do That Here

By JIM CAMERON | March 14, 2022

In the waning days of World War II, the Americans sent a special unit into Germany to find one man, not to bring him to justice but to eventually put him in charge of the U.S. space program. His name was Werner von Braun. Now I think, whatever the outcome of the Ukraine conflict, a similar effort should be made to rescue Oleksander Pertsovskyi. Not familiar with his work? Well, two million Ukrainians are benefiting from his skills.

Talking Transportation 2022

Simple Ways of Saving on Gas

By JIM CAMERON | March 7, 2022

The Russian invasion of the Ukraine has thrown the world energy markets into turmoil, raising the price of gasoline in Connecticut to more than $4 per gallon. And given that 26% of all energy in this country is spent on transporting people, sticker shock at the gas pump will affect all of us. I’ve written before about our state’s crazy “Zone Pricing” for gasoline, which is why you’ll pay 42 cents more per gallon for fuel in Greenwich than in Bridgeport. But wherever you drive, there are some simple ways of saving on gas. Less Driving
DRIVE LESS: Duh!

Cameron on Transportation

How COVID-19, Working From Home and Train Fares Factor Into Metro-North Budgets and Ridership

By JIM CAMERON | February 28, 2022

As Metro-North returns to charging peak fares at rush hour this week, it’s time to get honest about the unsustainable nature of commuter rail in Connecticut. Sure, our state’s rail riders already pay some of the highest fares of any commuter line in the U.S. (because the railroad’s subsidy, though high, is the lowest in the country), but those fares don’t come close to covering the actual cost of operations, let alone the cost of capital equipment (new trains, locomotives, stations). Metro-North is losing taxpayers’ money with every trip — lots of it! Back in the good old’ pre-COVID era, almost half of the railroad’s cash flow came from the sale of monthly commuter passes. Now the railroad is offering a further 10% discount on those all-you-can-ride tickets to try to encourage dwindling sales.

Cameron on Transportation

The Historic Connection Between Railroads and Racial Justice

By JIM CAMERON | February 21, 2022

As we celebrate Black History month, let’s remember that the path to civil rights began long before the march to Selma. It happened on city buses in 1955 in Montgomery Alabama and for decades before that on railroads across America. In the history of American transportation, there is one crucial intersection between railroads and civil rights: the formation in 1925 of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car porters by A. Phillip Randolph. This was the first predominantly African-American labor union in the US. Pullman Cars
It was in 1859 that George Pullman launched the first deluxe railroad sleeping cars bearing his name.

Cameron on Transportation

Transportation Tidbits: Crumbling Darien RR Platform, Peak Fares Returning — and More …

By JIM CAMERON | February 14, 2022

This week, updates on a few interesting developments in transportation:

PEAK FARES: On March 1, Metro-North will again start charging peak fares during rush hours. But the railroad will also offer new discounts: 10% off a monthly pass and discounted 20-trip tickets. On the subways and buses they’ll give passengers free rides for the week after they pay 12 one-way fares via the new OMNY scanners. They’re calling it “fare capping,” giving frequent riders free rides after paying $33. ADDED SERVICE?: The railroad says it’s evaluating adding more service, speeding up express trains etc.

Cameron on Transportation 2022

‘Bed-Buggers,’ ‘Parking Lot Attendants,’ ‘Suicide Jockeys’ and ‘Lifestyle Transition’

By JIM CAMERON | February 7, 2022

Why do most motorists hate truck drivers? Is it because their big rigs are so intimidating? Or do we think they’re all red-neck cowboys, living the life on the range and we’re secretly jealous? I respect truckers and think, for the most part, they are much better drivers than the rest of us. They have stiffer licensing requirements, better safety monitoring and much more experience behind the wheel.