Talking Transportation 2025
Plow Trucks winter

What the Darien DPW Does to Keep Town Roads Safe

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So, how have you been enjoying this winter so far? We’ve already had eight inches of snow in Hartford, compounded by heavy winds, downed power lines and wind-chills in the single digits. February is the cruelest of months. But thanks to local and state road crews, our highways get cleared and we can, though bundled up, get on with our business. Before a storm hits local TV stations do the inevitable lame stories showing salt being loaded into trucks and road crews honing their plows.

Cameron on Transportation
Metro-North railroad train car New Haven Line

Lots of Connecticut Transportation News: Here’s the Good, the Bad and the Impractical

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There’s so much news to cover this week on the transportation front! The Good
Kudos to Gov. Ned Lamont’s budget team for promising to prioritize long-planned transportation construction in their proposed $55.2 billion, two-year budget. Despite President Trump’s promise to tie federal funding to states’ compliance with policies on masks, vaccines, tolls and immigration enforcement, the Connecticut Department of Transportation says their work will continue. Congrats also to CDOT for their planned $32 million rebuild of the Derby-Shelton train and bus station on the Waterbury branch. Ridership on that line is up significantly since more trains were added (a 47% increase) and there are several TOD (transit oriented development) projects underway in those two towns.

Talking Transportation 2025

Some Good News For Commuters: Faster NYC Traffic; More Trains on Time, Happier Riders

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There’s just too much news. Trying to keep up with everything that’s happening is like drinking out of a firehose. But I’m not going to write about the horrific plane crash last week in Washington, D.C. Unlike President Trump, I’ll wait to hear from the experts on what happened and why. Nor am I going to write about the president’s threats to cut funding for already-approved transportation projects in Connecticut, tying that money to immigration enforcement, marriage and birth rates, vaccination and mask rules. My colleagues at CTMirror have already covered that well.

Talking Transportation 2025
Joe Biden Amtrak

Our Transportation President Left Connecticut with $9.6 Billion for Upcoming Rail Projects

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With the changing of power in Washington this Monday, let’s say thanks to Joe Biden, the president who has done the most for transportation in our country in the almost 70 years since Dwight Eisenhower built our interstate highways. While his predecessor (and successor) Donald Trump talked a lot about investing in transportation, Biden (and the Connecticut delegation to Congress) actually got it done. Biden’s major initiative was …

… The Infrastructure & Investment Jobs Act — $110 billion for roads and bridges, $105 billion for public transit, and $7.5 billion for electric vehicle (EV) charging stations. That means funding for more than 66,000 projects nationwide, encompassing road and bridge repairs, public transit enhancements, and airport modernizations.

Cameron on Transportation

Comments Worth Sharing in Reaction to Last Week’s Talking Transportation Column on Congestion Pricing

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Last week’s column about New York City’s congestion pricing experiment seems to have struck a nerve, generating a huge number of comments. Yes, friends, I do read all your emails and I try to reply, valuing your feedback — though not always agreeing with you. But I thought some of the comments posted below were worth sharing. David wrote: “ Some people maintain that tolls aren’t taxes, but really anytime government takes money out of citizens’ pockets, it’s a tax. Adding one more arrow to Hartford’s already full quiver of ways to shake money out of CT residents and those passing through is a bad idea.”

A train rider turned driver noted:

“For many years I rode the train five days per week.