Darienite (https://darienite.com/tag/talking-transportation-2023/page/3)
There must be something in the water. How else can we explain Bridgeport, our state’s largest city, and what goes on there? Bridgeport politics are infamous. The fact that they keep re-electing convicted felons to high office should tell you a lot. But on the transportation front the locals’ behavior is equally hard to understand.
The Connecticut Legislature is back in session, saving us from ourselves (and each other). And the collection of proposed bills this session, numbering in the hundreds, includes many that would affect our state’s transportation laws. Once again lawmakers are debating our state’s “open container” law as Connecticut is one of only 10 states where it is legal for a passenger in a car to have an open can of beer, hard cider or even a bottle of Jack Daniels as the vehicle drives along. Of course, the driver would never be drinking, just the passengers — so that would keep us all safe, right? At the same time, some lawmakers want to extend the pandemic happy hour law to keep allowing “to go” drinks from bars and restaurants.
Grand Central Madison, the new train station bored into the rock beneath Grand Central Terminal, is finally open. When it’s fully operational it’s expected to serve 160,000 daily Long Island Rail Road riders. And by freeing up space at Penn Station (once dominated by LIRR), some Metro-North trains will be able to terminate there instead of at GCT. As a friend from an engineering consultancy put it in social media, “This new station proves we CAN build great things (in the US).” Yeah … a decade late and 400% over budget. I hate always to be the cynic, but if we don’t understand our mistakes we’ll keep repeating (and over-paying for) them.
Why do the folks who run our commuter railroads act like their customers are stupid? Though desperate for ridership to return (to fight huge post-COVID deficits), they ignore legitimate commuter feedback and do everything they can to hide their failures. Case in point: the Commuter Rail Council, the independent watchdog group created by the Connecticut legislature almost 40 years ago, on which I served for 19 years. During the Malloy administration we were getting a bit too vocal in our complaints, so a senior Democrat warned me (and another Council member) to cool it or “your little Commuter Council will be written out of existence”. Sure enough, they tried, slipping a bill into the hopper to eliminate our group and its criticism.
In my last column I wrote about the amazing success of high speed rail in Europe based on cheaper fares and more frequent service than anything you’ll find on Amtrak, even on the Northeast Corridor. Another reason for their success is competition: the state-run railroad (SNCF) now competes against an Italian railroad even on its most popular domestic TGV routes. That’s led to a doubling of ridership and fares dropping by 17%. Many ask: why can’t Amtrak get some competition? Sure, they compete against the air shuttles (faster, but more expensive), buses (much cheaper and slower) and, of course, cars (also slower).
How can we persuade more people to take the train? Well, maybe we should take a cue from our friends in Europe, especially the French. We know, of course, about the famous French TGV, or Train à Grande Vitesse. Since 1981 these sleek trains have carried over 100 million passengers a year at speeds averaging almost 200 mph from Paris to all corners of the nation. Passengers can travel in either first or second class (Coach) and enjoy on-board meals and beverages along with free Wi-Fi.