Cameron on Railroads 2023
Commuters Riders at GCT Grand Central Terminal

Service Cuts and Higher Ticket Prices on Connecticut Trains — It’s a Done Deal

By |
Download PDF

How’s this for a double-whammy? The Connecticut Department of Transportation is proposing a cut in train and bus service while also raising fares — just as I predicted months ago. Blame both plans on Covid and what it did to ridership, still down about 30% on Metro-North compared with 2019 — but climbing, day by day. On Shore Line East, CDOT’s railroad from New Haven to New London, the ridership is down 68% from pre-Covid numbers. Low ridership like that, says CDOT, is unsustainable.

Cameron on Railroads 2023

When Metro-North Let Riders Get Beaten by the Heat

By |
Download PDF

As summer arrives I’m reminded of one of Metro-North’s greatest “fails” of all time, recounted in this column I wrote days after it happened …

Friday July 22, 2011 was the hottest day I can ever remember. The pavement in Manhattan was 147 degrees, and I could tell that my commute home was going to be awful. Luckily, I wasn’t on the 1:34 p.m. train to New Haven. Three cars on that train lacked good air conditioning, so the remaining cars were standing room only. Just past the Westport station, an aging pantograph snared the overhead catenary (power) line, sagging in the heat, and the train lost power.

Cameron on Transportation
U.S. Merchant Marine logo

What It’s Like When Your Life, Your Love and Your Lady are At Sea in the U.S. Merchant Marine

By |
Download PDF

Looking for a career in transportation with good pay, incredible job security, free room and board and a chance to “sea” the world? Check out the U.S. Merchant Marine. Though the U.S. is heavily dependent on overseas imports, most of the big container ships and tankers serving our ports are not American. But under federal law, any shipping between U.S. ports must be on vessels owned, built, flagged and staffed with U.S. crews. Although there are only about 200 U.S. vessels that meet those “Jones Act” criteria, they all need crews.

Talking Transportation 2023
Standing Room Only Train

Cuts in Connecticut Train Service Coming

By |
Download PDF

As predicted in this column, the legislature has approved Gov. Ned Lamont’s new budget, which will cause cuts in train service in the state. WHY THE CUTS? Post-COVID train ridership has not returned as fast as CDOT or Metro-North had hoped or predicted, stabilizing now at about 71% of pre-2020 numbers. Though it looks like passenger loads are increasing (with more anecdotal reports of SRO conditions at rush hour), the lack of riders means huge, unsustainable losses. HOW BIG A CUT IS COMING?

Talking Transportation 2023

The New Haven Railroad Commuter Revolt of ’55 — and How That Panned Out

By |
Download PDF

Gather ‘round and listen to how your grandfather helped lead a commuter revolt against the New Haven Railroad over 65 years ago, way back in 1955. You see Timmy, folks were commuting by train from Connecticut to their jobs in New York City even back then. “You mean there was no ‘work from home’, Grandpa?”

No Timmy. Back then we worked for a living — five or six days a week! The railroad was privately owned back then and its president, the now infamous Patrick B. McGinnis, had finally succumbed to pressure and paid $3 million to pave the parking lots at train stations.

Talking Transportation 2023

Hang on, New Canaan Branch Commuters — You’re in for a Bumpy Ride

By |
Download PDF

It’s going to be a rough summer for commuters from New Canaan as they cope with Metro-North’s shutdown of all trains on the New Canaan branch from Tuesday May 30 to Sept. 1. TRACK WORK: The Connecticut Department of Transportation says it’s doing major track work on the branch, including replacement of 8,000 ties, 1,600 feet of rail and needed bridge work. Because the New Canaan branch is just a one-track railroad, trains cannot operate while the work is being done. BUSING ALTERNATIVES: In place of the trains, Metro-North will run bus service from New Canaan to Stamford.

Talking Transportation 2023

Transportation Roundup: Construction, Bed Bugs, Twitter, Fiscal Cliff and a Revolving Door

By |
Download PDF

It’s been an interesting week for the transportation scene in Connecticut, with good news and bad. See if you can figure out which is which:

BED BUGS: The ornate waiting room at the New Haven Union Station had to be closed the other day as the Parking Authority undertook a cleaning after bed bugs were discovered. Though it’s a very busy station and any passenger might have brought the critters into the space, it’s the people who are “unhoused” (the new euphemism for homeless) who are the likely source. This is what happens when the city treats a public transit facility as a solution for those lacking access to shelter. STAMFORD STATION: Like New Haven’s station the Stamford Transportation Center also has a lot of homeless lingering at all hours.

Talking Transportation 2023
The Barbazon in flight artists rendition

In 1949, a Low and Slow Luxury Airliner for Pampering Transatlantic Passengers — Built, But Never Bought

By |
Download PDF

Imagine a double-deck airplane with wings wider than a 747, sleeping berths, a sit-down restaurant and a separate movie theater, all designed to serve just 60 passengers crossing the Atlantic. Such a plane was built in 1949, but it never was adopted by the airlines. Built not by Boeing and long before Airbus even existed, the Brabazon was the creation of the U.K. company Bristol (and named after the government committee that dictated its specifications), a company best known for its heavy bombers in WWII. But the Brabazon’s design was inspired more by cruise ships than aircraft. Catering to the well-healed passengers who’d otherwise opt for a luxury sea voyage, this beast was designed to pamper, not provide low cost travel.

Talking Transportation
Walk River Bridge artist rendering replacement

Metro-North’s — and Its Riders’ — Bridge Headaches

By |
Download PDF

On a recent hot, spring afternoon I was waiting at a Metro-North station to pick up a friend arriving from NYC when the platform PA system made an ominous announcement:

“Due to a draw bridge failure at Cos Cob, the 4:28 train to New Haven is being held.”

Drawbridge failure? WHAT?!? Did the bridge collapse? No, apparently the bridge had been opened but wouldn’t close. Sure enough, checking my phone I found an earlier text from the railroad warned me of the bridge opening, at least.

Cameron on Transportation
Warning Signs CDOT Work Zone Speed Cameras

Here’s Hoping Work Zone Speed Cameras Give More Protection to Highway Workers Than Some Orange Cones

By |
Download PDF

Visit the headquarters of the Connecticut Department of Transportation in Newington and inside the front lobby you’ll see a strange memorial: orange safety cones draped in black. It’s a tribute to the nearly 40 men and women of the CDOT who’ve been killed in recent years doing their jobs maintaining our highways. On any given day there may be more than 1,500 CDOT staffers and hundreds of other private contractors in highway work zones. Some are fixing guard rails or picking up litter. Others could be engineers surveying the site for needed improvements.

Talking Transportation 2023
Refueling gasoline at the gas pump

Gas Tax Holiday Over, and Connecticut’s Crazy Zone Pricing, of Course, Is Still With Us

By |
Download PDF

Connecticut’s free bus fares are gone and lawmakers have allowed gas taxes to rise to 20 cents a gallon as of April 1. But the end of our state’s “gas tax holiday” on Saturday isn’t the reason gasoline prices vary so much from town to town. Just why does gasoline cost 60 cents a gallon more in Greenwich than in Bridgeport — 84 cents a gallon more compared to Hartford and 90 cents a gallon more than in East Hartford? Is it because folks in Greenwich are richer and can afford it? Or is it because it costs gasoline station owners more to operate in that Gold Coast zip code?

Talking Transportation 2023
Crosswalk

Readers Respond to Last Week’s Column on Rising Pedestrian Deaths from Vehicle Accidents

By |
Download PDF

Last week’s column on the increase in pedestrian deaths brought us a lot of comments. Here are a few for you to consider:

I have always enjoyed your column. Today’s was particularly alarming, and perhaps a canary in the coal mine. There have been more pedestrian deaths in the past twelve months here in West Hartford than I ever recall reading about. But I’m not surprised.

Cameron on Transportation
Crosswalk

In Five Years, Vehicle Accidents Involving Pedestrian Deaths in Connecticut Went Up by 50 Percent

By |
Download PDF

She was just walking her dog. Seconds later she became the latest statistic in a growing list of pedestrians killed or maimed this year in Connecticut by motor vehicles. Donna Joy Berry, age 63, wasn’t on the road or even the sidewalk as she walked her dog in the Glenville neighborhood of Greenwich. She was on a grassy area away from the road. Seconds later a Lexus traveling north on Weaver Street crossed the yellow line, jumped the curb and struck her.

Cameron on Transportation
Highway traffic congestion Stamford Interstate 95 I95

What to Do About One of the Worst Highway Bottlenecks in the Nation, Right Next to Darien

By |
Download PDF

Why do we keep “studying” problems instead of fixing them? Why do we still pay consultants millions of dollars, over and over again, to look at the same issues while we avoid spending that money to change the conditions that create them? Because we keep hoping there’s an easy solution… that some savvy consultant will find the missing link, shout “Ahah… we’ve found the answer!” and then we can fix it. But we should know that’s not going to happen. If the solutions were easy, we’d have found them long ago.