Jim Cameron Jim Cameron 8-2-16

Metro-North Timetable Showing It’s Age: You’d Be Slower Too If You Dated Back to the Woodrow Wilson Presidency

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Metro-North rail commuters received a recent spring surprise: a new timetable with slower running times. Rush-hour trains now leave earlier and arrive later, adding anywhere from 1 to 10 minutes to published running times, depending on the length of the trip. But what happened to that 30-30-30 plan for faster trains? Why are the trains running slower, not faster? In one word: repairs.

Jim Cameron Jim Cameron 8-2-16

Colorful Comments from Curmudgeonly Commuters : Cameron on Transportation

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As I hope you can tell, I love writing this column. As New York Times columnist Tom Friedman once said, a commentator should be in the heating business and the lighting business — getting people fired up while providing factual support for his arguments. The comments I receive from readers each week reminds me that heat runs both ways. Here are some of the recent highlights:

When I wrote about the power failures on Metro-North, user cantchangestupid commented on the column: “I sure hope a thorough investigation gets done on why those transformers failed. I see sabotage as the democratic conclusion.” Gee, and I thought I was cynical.

Jim Cameron Jim Cameron 8-2-16

Trouble for Tolls: Cameron in Transportation

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Gov. Ned Lamont’s tolling plan is in trouble. I knew it when I recently got a call from Dan Malloy. The former governor and I know each other going back to his days as mayor of Stamford, but he’s only called me once before (many years ago when he sought my endorsement in his run for a second term as governor). This time he was calling about my recent column on the Transportation Strategy Board, the panel tasked 18 years ago with prioritizing our state’s transportation needs and how to pay for them. It wasn’t my fawning over then-TSB Chairman Oz Griebel that prompted Malloy’s recent call.

Jim Cameron Jim Cameron 8-2-16

Finding Parking for Your Train Commute — Now There’s an App for That: Cameron on Transportation

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How can you get people to commute by train if they can’t get to the train station? Those two-wheeled, buff millennials would have us believe we should all bike our way from home to the train. But not all of us are that athletic or inclined to take our lives in our hands wheeling through traffic and bad weather. No, the real solution (at least for now) is car-parking. But with a parking permit wait list of up to seven years in many communities, shouldn’t towns be thinking of building new expensive, decked parking lots?

Jim Cameron Jim Cameron 8-2-16

CT’s Great at Producing Transportation Master Plans, But Lawmakers Won’t Fund Them: Cameron on Transportation

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When are we finally going to do something about our transportation crisis? That question has been asked for decades, but never answered, or more importantly, acted upon. I remember in 2001 when Moira Lyons, who at the time was the Connecticut Speaker of the House, held a news conference about our state’s transportation mess. The six-term Stamford Democrat, who was long on power but short in stature, stood next to a stack of consultant studies and reports almost as tall as she was. Enough with the studies, she said.

Jim Cameron Jim Cameron 8-2-16

My Lead Foot, My Hybrid Car — and Your Gas Saving: Cameron on Transportation

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I like to go fast. Really fast. Nothing makes me happier than hurtling along to Boston on Acela at 145 mph, even if those sprints are brief, or catching the jet-stream on a flight and hitting 600 mph. And nothing frustrates me more, like you, than being in slow-moving, bumper-to-bumper traffic on Interstate 95, that highway’s normative state. But I’m also thrifty, some might even say “cheap,” especially when it comes to buying gasoline.

Jim Cameron Jim Cameron 8-2-16

Predictions on Getting Around in Connecticut for 2019: Cameron on Transportation

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Each year, I share my predictions for the coming months — and grade myself on last year’s crystal-ball gazing. Upon reflection, I was way too pessimistic last year, predicting fare hikes, service cuts and delays in new M8 car orders for Metro-North. I must have had some bad eggnog when I said the Special Transportation Fund lock box would be defeated. Bah, humbug. I’ll admit it: I was wrong.