"Talking Transportation"

The Best High Speed Rail in the World: China!

2012-11-19T11:07:00.002-05:00

Last column I spoke of riding Japan’s Shinkansen, the oldest true high-speed rail (HSR) system in the world. This week, the story of the newest and biggest HSR… China.

Much has been written of the tragic accident in July 2011 when two Chinese trains collided killing 40 and injuring almost 200. A recent New Yorker article detailed the incident as an example of shoddy Chinese engineering and political corruption, which it was.

But that incident notwithstanding, in less than a decade China has built the biggest and best HSR network in the world, and it only cost a quarter trillion dollars. I just had to ride it, and did last month.

China's newest HSR at Beijing station.

Our train from Beijing (population 19 million) to Shanghai (23 million) covered the distance of 819 miles in five hours. That’s an average speed of 164 mph. Even Amtrak’s Acela takes 6 hours and 40 minutes to sprint from DC to Boston, a distance of only 448 miles, or an average speed of less than 70 mph.

Acela carries 300 passengers on one train per hour. The Chinese HSR carries 1,050 passengers per train and offers four to six trains an hour.

Acela rides on improved track on a 100-year-old right-of-way with tracks mounted on ties sitting on rock ballast. The Chinese train rides a dedicated right-of-way with tracks affixed to a cement roadbed, like a highway. The smoothness of the ride was amazing.

Cafe Car on Chinese High Speed Train

This single line between Beijing and Shanghai was estimated to cost $32 billion, but it’s anyone’s guess what the real cost was, given the rampant corruption. But to my Western eyes, it’s amazing what a totalitarian regime can do, unencumbered by environmental impact studies and private property rights. This is truly the best HSR in the world.

The Maglev

While in Shanghai I also rode the world’s only commercial maglev train: not steel wheels on tracks, but a magnetic floating train on a guideway. The line is only 19 miles long, running from the airport to the southern edge of the city. But at full speed of 268 mph (which my run did not achieve) the Shanghai Maglev is the world's fastest train in regular commercial service… faster even than the Chinese HSR.

Oh, it was fast. But it wasn’t smooth. And running only to the edge of the city and not downtown, it is ridden mostly by tourists and rail fans. The few passengers on our mid-day run were all in the second class cars. Why pay for first class on an 8 minute ride?

The builder, Transrapid, pretty much gave away the construction for just $1 billion, to use the Shanghai system as a showcase of the technology. Though a 34-mile extension from the international airport (Pudong) to the domestic airport (Hongqaio) is planned, that’s about all we can expect.

Maglev is interesting, but its incompatibility with existing tracks and the requirement for its own dedicated, unique tracks make the technology unattractive, especially given the advances in conventional railroading.

What can we in the US learn from China’s great leaps forward in railroading? Not much, aside from what is possible technologically. In this country we have neither the will nor the money to ever build such a railroad.

In transportation at least, China is the future. The US is a third world nation.

High Speed Rail in Japan: "The Nozumi Express"

2012-11-05T17:57:00.000-05:00

I am just back from two weeks’ travel in Asia where I have seen the past and the future of the world’s best high speed rail. This week, my thoughts on Japan and next week, China.

It was 1964 when the Japanese introduced the world’s first “bullet train”, the Shinkansen. Using a dedicated right-of-way (no freight, no slow trains), the Tokaido line between Tokyo and Osaka today carries over 150 million passengers a year at speeds up to 190 mph… not the fastest in the world, but easily the busiest.

Now on its seventh generation of equipment, I rode the Nozumi Express from Tokyo to Kyoto and was amazed at the service. Like Grand Central Terminal, Tokyo’s main downtown station is a dead-end. As trains arrive, passengers disembark and uniformed cleaning crews have about ten minutes to clean and freshen the equipment for the next run.

The Nozumi runs from Tokyo to Osaka, a distance of 314 miles, equivalent to the distance between Boston and Baltimore. And it makes that journey in 2 ½ hours with trains every five to ten minutes! Each 16 car train can carry up to 1300 passengers in first (“Green”) class (two by two seating) or second class (three by two… the Japanese are small).

Compare that to Amtrak with hourly Acela service in six car trainsets holding 300 passengers total. Acela’s fastest run from Boston to Baltimore is just shy of six hours with an average speed of 90 - 120 mph.

The Japanese trains are so fast there is no need for a diner or bar car. Instead, passengers can buy an “ekiben” boxed lunch from dozens of stores at the station. Because all seats are assigned, passengers que up at the exact spot on the platform where their car will stop, awaiting permission to board. When the cleaning crews finish, the doors open, passengers board and the train departs… always on time, and to the second.

As the conductor collects tickets, he bows to each customer. Train crew passing through the cars always turn and bow to the passengers before going to the next car. The ride is so smooth as to not be thought possible. And arrivals and departures are to the second with average dwell time at intermediate stations no longer than 90 seconds. And, of course, there is free Wi-Fi during the entire journey.

The first class fare on the Nozumi Express between Tokyo and Osaka is $186. On Amtrak’s Acela, the Boston to Baltimore ride costs up to $279 for business class, $405 in first class.

Japan’s Shinkansen is the grand-daddy of high speed rail, but still among the best. Next time I’ll tell you about the newest, and to my thinking, the world’s best high speed rail… in China! And I’ll recount my 11 minute ride on the world’s only commercial maglev in Shanghai.

The Gestalt of a Railroad

2012-10-08T10:51:00.003-04:00

On a recent Acela ride to Boston I tried to explain to a seat-mate why our high speed train was alternately crawling along at 45 miles per hour in Metro-North territory, then screaming northward at 125 beyond New Haven. I told him (a visitor from Switzerland used to amazing rail service) that a railroad is a great example of “gestalt”… that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

THE TRAIN: We focus a lot on the age and capabilities of our rail engines and passenger cars in defining a railroad. Sure, Acela is the fastest train in North America, running an average 125 mph in many areas between Washington and Boston. But it is capable of much higher speeds, recently being tested at 165 mph in nighttime runs in New Jersey. Even Metro-North’s old cars, let alone the new M8’s, can easily cruise at 90 mph. I say “can” because they are capable of those speeds. But there are too many other components of a railroad that often make such speeds undesirable for comfort or safety.

THE TRACK: Even Acela has a hard time in Connecticut because of old track and a century old right-of-way. (Think of running a Lamborghini on a pot-holed local road.)

The track must be strong enough to support heavy trains. In most places, track is welded for a smooth ride, avoiding the clickety-clack sound as trains ride over the joints.

The track sits on and is attached to a base plate which in turn sits on a tie, or sleeper. For centuries these ties have been made of treated wood, but increasingly are built with concrete. The ties sit on a roadbed or ballast, usually crushed stone, which distributes the weight of the train above while still allowing drainage. All of this requires maintenance and regular replacement of worn ties and rail to keep a smooth ride.

This is why even Metro-North’s newest cars bounce and creak as they ride along. The rough ride isn’t the fault of the train but the roadbed.

And because our “right of way” follows the coastline, our tracks curve and bank as they meander along, causing further slowdowns just for the physics of the run. The line from NYC to Boston has so many curves that a train makes the equivalent of six complete circles on that route.

THE SIGNALS: Even the fastest trains in the world running on the newest and smoothest roadbed can’t keep up speed without knowing that the track ahead is clear. And at 125 to 250 mph (US and world-class definitions of High Speed Rail), that requires a signal system that knows the location of every train within a matter of inches.

Like our century-old right-of-way, the ancient signal system on Metro-North is what’s preventing us from running trains at faster speeds and shorter headways (the time or distance between trains).

All US railroads are also struggling to meet a 2015 Federal mandate of “positive train control”, meaning that a train that runs through a red signal would be automatically stopped.

THE POWER: Whether Metro-North or Amtrak, our trains need power which comes in the form of electricity pulled from overhead wire, or catenary, some of which is almost a century old. The railroad and CDOT are midway through a 30-year, multi-million dollar plan to update all of that wiring while still running a full complement of trains each day. It’s like trying to change a fan-belt on a moving car.

So the next time you’re riding the train, give thought to the many components that make for a smooth, comfortable, speedy and safe trip. The whole is truly more than the sum of its parts.

Good News About Metro-North

2012-09-24T12:52:00.002-04:00

So often this column is a screed of complaints about Metro-North. This time, the good news, because I really think in the last year we have turned the corner in everyone’s goals and hopes for making Metro-North service better.

MORE SEATS: The latest monthly reports reviewed by the CT Rail Commuter Council show that 99% of all trains have enough cars. That’s a major improvement compared to a few years ago when “consist compliance” was in the 85% range (i.e. 15% of all trains didn’t have enough cars for the passenger load they usually carried). Why the improvement? The new M8 cars.

NEW CARS: The new M8 cars continue to arrive at the rate of about ten new cars a month, an aggressive delivery schedule few thought Kawasaki could ever achieve. On average, each car is going 139,000 miles before it has a problem. That’s an MDBF (mean distance between failure) twice as good as the M4 and M6 cars. So far 128 new M8’s are in service, meaning you have about a 30% chance of riding in a new-car train at rush hour and a 50% chance on weekends.

RIDERSHIP: Despite the economy, ridership continues to climb about 5% annually. The biggest increase? Weekend day trippers.

ON TIME: This has always been a justifiable point of pride with Metro-North, as 97% of the trains arrive “on time” (within 6 minutes of the timetable).

NEW SIGNALS: The signalization system being installed on the Danbury branch continues apace with one of the first sections to be activated within a month. When it’s completed this will mean more trains, in both directions, on this one-track railroad.

NEW SERVICE: With the new October timetable there will be added service on weekends… eight more trains on Saturdays and 20 more trains on Sundays.

MORE STOPS: Thanks to years of persuasion by The CT Rail Commuter Council to the CDOT, that new timetable will also eliminate the old “skip stops” at less used stations like Rowayton, East Norwalk, Greens Farms and Southport. Now, instead of trains every two hours, those stations… in fact, all stations… will have train service every hour. The brief added time for these stops will hardly be noticed but will offer vastly improved service to hundreds of daily riders.

QUIET CARS: It took about a decade of lobbying by the CT Rail Commuter Council, but since Metro-North initiated the “Quiet CALMute” cars a few months ago, they’ve been a big success.

BETTER COMMUNICATIONS: By cell phone, e-mail, PA system and ‘seat-drops’, the railroad is doing a much better job of communicating with its passengers on the rare occasions when things go wrong.

THE PASSENGER PLEDGE: Though not quite the “Passenger Bill of Rights” that the CT Rail Commuter Council had crafted, this first-time-ever written pledge to passengers about the kind of service they deserve and can expect was a major step by Metro-North.

But wait, there’s more! There are further enhancements being considered by the railroad:

WI-FI: Testing continues, but we could be seeing on-train Wi-Fi accessibility in a matter of months, not years.

SMARTPHONE TICKETS: Yes, you’ll soon be able to buy a ticket on your phone, show it to the conductor, and never have to handle paper.

So, for those of you who think that all I do is moan and complain, re-read everything above and let’s both give credit where it is due. Good job Metro-North!

The Bridgeport - Port Jefferson Ferry

2012-09-10T17:28:00.001-04:00

Every now and then it’s great to see a transportation system that works really well. Case in point, the Bridgeport (CT) to Port Jefferson (NY) ferry.

I’ve written in the past about some folks’ crazy idea that ferry boats are the solution to our traffic problems along I-95. They are not. But they do prove useful when they take you where the roads and rails can’t, like across Long Island Sound.

The first ferry ran this 18-mile route in 1872. By 1883 permanent service was offered by a company owned in part by Bridgeport’s PT Barnum (after whom one of the line’s current vessels is named). In 1980 all-season service began with the line’s largest vessel, “The Grand Republic”.

The Bridgeport & Port Jefferson Steamboat Company is 100% owned by Brian McAllister, a fourth generation seaman and tugboat czar who lives on Long Island. You’ll usually see one of his tugs in Port Jeff’s harbor.

Each of the line’s three ferries is “RO-RO”, for roll-on, roll-off. At Bridgeport, cars and trucks drive on from the rear and exit in Port Jefferson by driving off thru the raised bow of the vessel. The ferries can carry between 90 and 110 vehicles and a thousand passengers.

The crossing takes about an hour and a quarter but you can save considerable time, tolls and aggravation by avoiding driving to New York City and crossing the Whitestone or Throgs Neck bridges.

When it began, the ferries carried food grown on Long Island to industrial cities in New England. Today you’ll still see an occasional truck ferrying seafood, but most of the traffic is tourists and business people.

In season, all three vessels are in operation allowing for almost hourly departures. If you’re bringing a vehicle a reservation is a good idea, though on most weekday runs you can just drive right up and catch the next boat.

The vehicle unloading and re-loading process is smooth and when passengers leave their cars they can join foot passengers upstairs at the snack bar or cocktail lounge. In good weather the sundeck affords a wonderful view. There’s Wi-Fi available onboard and cell-phone signals are strong, even in the middle of the Sound.

In Bridgeport, the ferry dock is a two-minute walk from Metro-North. But in Port Jefferson it’s about a 25-minute walk from the dock to the nearest Long Island Railroad station. Taxi service is available at both terminals.

Fares aren’t cheap: $54 for a car and driver, $15 for each additional passenger. Foot passengers are $18 one-way, $26 for same-day roundtrip. Seniors (age 60+) are $13 one-way, $18 for a same-day return. Kids 12 and under are always free when traveling with an adult.

There was talk a few years ago of offering additional service from New Haven to Port Jeff. More recently there was discussion of also running to Stamford and from there to NYC using a high speed ferry, but rising fuels costs sunk those plans.

The current ferries are hardly high speed… just 17 mph according to my GPS on a recent crossing. But they’re a fun way to travel, avoiding the traffic mayhem of New York City when going from Connecticut to Long Island.

Metro-North’s Ticket Rules Are a Rip-off

2012-08-27T09:07:00.002-04:00

Metro-North’s “new and improved” fare policy taking effect on September 4^th is neither new nor improved. It continues to be a rip-off of riders.

Until 2010, you could buy a one-way or round-trip ticket and use it anytime within 90 days. Convenient ten trip tickets were good for a year. And unused tickets could be refunded anytime for free.

Then, in December of 2010, things changed for the worse: one-way tickets were only good for 14 days and ten-trips for six months. Refund any ticket and you’d be hit with a $10 service fee.

Why the change? Metro-North admitted it wasn’t able to collect all tickets on trains and was losing money. So rather than staff trains with enough conductors to collect tickets, they thought it wiser to penalize passengers.

How did these faster-expiring tickets hurt? In many ways:

Some passengers who bought ten trip tickets for occasional trips found they’d expired, leaving them with four or five unused rides costing $10 or more apiece. Ouch!

That was a mistake you’d only make once, so those passengers then abandoned the 30 – 40% savings of ten-trip tickets and had to buy one-ways. Ka-ching!

That means many passengers must buy a new ticket before every trip, which means getting to the station early and standing in line.

But while passengers were inconvenienced and lost money under the new rules, Metro-North scored a windfall of millions of dollars in additional revenue… some of it, perhaps, from previously uncollected tickets, but how much more from tickets bought in good faith but unused because they had expired?

And $10 to refund a ticket? By whose accounting? The same agent who handles refunds doesn’t charge $10 to sell a ticket, so why charge for a refund?

The Commuter Council representing LIRR riders has a better idea: tickets sold could not be refunded, but neither would they expire.

This September 4^th, responding to “massive complaints” from riders, the rules will change, but only slightly: one-way and roundtrip tickets will then be good for 60 days, not 14. But ten trips are still worthless after six months.

To my thinking, tickets should never expire. If there’s a fare increase, pay the difference between the old fare and the new one. Otherwise, if you’ve paid for a ticket, you can take the ride. Period.

Conductors should do their jobs, placing seat-checks when tickets are collected so they know when new passengers get aboard and can then collect their tickets. How often have you seen a conductor walk through a train crying, “Stamford tickets,” as the newly boarded commuters avoid eye contact?

Watching someone board at Stamford who doesn’t pay their fare is like watching someone shoplift. We all pay for their theft.

The new M8 cars mean more seats and fewer standees. It’s a rare Friday afternoon train that’s packed so tight a conductor can’t move through to collect tickets. If you ride a train where fares aren’t collected you should report it. A well paid Metro-North conductor hiding in their booth from angry passengers instead of collecting their fares is unacceptable.

We already pay the highest commuter rail fares in the US. These unfair Metro-North ticket rules just make commuting less convenient and more expensive.

Amtrak's Future in Connecticut

2012-08-13T12:22:00.002-04:00

Amtrak, what passes for America’s national railroad, has some big plans for the future. The problem is finding any consensus, let alone the money, on what those plans should be.

Before we detail their vision for the year 2030, here’s a snapshot of how Amtrak operates today. Amtrak runs 46 trains a day through Connecticut serving 1.7 million passengers annually. New Haven, the busiest station in the state, is also the 11^th busiest in the nation.

Amtrak’s flagship, Acela, running from Boston to Washington, also stops in Stamford (and once-a-day in New London), while the slower “Northeast Corridor” trains serve Bridgeport, Old Saybrook and Mystic with branch-line trains running from New Haven to Hartford and Springfield.

Amtrak is also hired by the CDOT to run Shore Line East commuter trains between New London and New Haven.

Unlike the rest of the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak does not own or control the tracks from the New York state line to New Haven. Those tracks are owned by the CDOT which pays Metro-North to maintain them and the overhead power (catenary) lines. Amtrak pays a flat fee (far too low, says CDOT) to run its trains on “our” tracks, plus a little bonus money to the state for prioritizing its schedule over that of the commuter lines.

Connecticut’s section of the Northeast Corridor contains more miles and serves more stations than any other state from D.C. to Massachusetts. And it includes several 100+ year-old bridges crossing the Thames, Niantic and Connecticut Rivers, crucial to inter-city service. It’s old and expensive to maintain.

It’s hard to run a true high speed railroad on a century-old right-of-way. In fact, Acela goes no faster than Metro-North (90 mph) between NY and New Haven and cannot engage its tilting mechanism on the many curves.

So, as Amtrak looks to the future, it’s thinking of building an entirely new line through Connecticut to connect New York City and Boston. Rather than following the coastline (parallel to I-95) it envisions an inland route (parallel to I-84).

As the last phase of its 2030 – 2040 “Next Gen” high speed rail, 220 mph Amtrak bullet-trains (faster than the current French TGV) would bypass Stamford, New Haven and New London and instead zip through Danbury, Waterbury and Hartford. “Super-Express” service would be non-stop thru Connecticut while “Express” trains would make brief stops in those inland Connecticut cities. Northeast Corridor service would continue along the coast as either “Shoreline Express” or “Regional” trains.

Needless to say, Governor Malloy and the CDOT are not happy with Amtrak’s plan, especially given Connecticut (and the Feds’) investment in the New Haven to Hartford high(er) speed corridor. They want the existing coastal corridor to New Haven to be served by the super-Acela service which could then continue north through Hartford to Springfield before heading east to Boston. Put the trains where the people are, is their argument.

Amtrak thinks the coastal corridor is too old, has too many curves and would be too expensive to operate. They think it would be cheaper to build a new line from scratch, and they’re probably right.

We are so lucky that, a century ago, a four-track rail line was built along Connecticut’s coast. It was state-of-the-art for its time and could never be built today. But for the 21^st century, this line is obsolete. Every serious high speed railroad in the world operates on a new, dedicated right-of-way, not some hand-me-down from the past.

So, good for Amtrak for bold planning for our future. It’s time for our Governor and CDOT to get on board. A new, inland high-speed route is the best way to go.

“The Bicycle Revolution”

2012-07-30T10:16:00.001-04:00

In the seven years I’ve been writing this column, I’ve offered my views on everything from trains and planes to trolleys and trucks. But I’ve missed out on a major revolution in personal transport: the bicycle.

Now personally, I’d sooner travel by limo than be perched on a bicycle seat, exposed to the elements, but that’s just me. Mine is not the generation that’s moving from four wheels to two.

And admittedly, the suburbs of Connecticut are not bike-friendly, but that too is slowly changing. So this week’s column is a chance to play catch-up on how bicycles are integrating into our transportation network and the work that’s still to be done.

BIKES ON TRAINS: Now that we have more rail cars (and seats for all paying passengers), it’s time to hold CDOT to its promise of developing (not just testing) bike storage hanger-racks on our trains. Especially for people traveling intra-state, being able to bring your bike with you makes sense. And all trains should accommodate bikes, not just those in off-peak.

BIKES AT STATIONS: For those who want to ride to the train station and leave their bikes there, we need more and more-secure bike racks and lockers at stations. Westport has some great bike lockers, but most other stations lack this critical amenity. Biking to the station doesn’t require a seven year wait for a parking permit, but it does require a safe place to lock your bike.

BIKES ON BUSES: This was an early win for bikers as most local buses now carry bikes on front-mounted racks. (And no, that would never work on Metro-North trains.) Bus racks give bike commuters visibility and a secure ride for longer trips.

BIKES ON THE ROAD: If bikers and drivers must share the same right-of-way, they’ve got to respect each other. Car-centric drivers are often to blame for accidents, but so too sometimes are aggressive bikers. New York City has even started a remedial bike riders’ course for offenders to teach them what stop signs and red lights mean. Better lane markings, signals and ways of separating cars and bikes should make both camps happy and safe.

BIKE PATHS / LANES: By law, a 1% set-aside in highway spending goes to what’s called “bike-ped” access… building sidewalks and bike-lanes. Compared to rails and roads, building bike paths and lanes is cheap. But in our car-centric state, we need to do more.

BIKES AT WORK: If we’re going to encourage people to bike to their jobs, they need a secure place to lock their wheels during the day… and maybe a place to shower and clean-up.

BIKE SHARING: Many cities offer racks of bikes available for pick-up and drop-off at nominal rates. NYC Bike Share will be among the biggest when it finally gets going, offering 600 stations and 10,000 bikes. But “software” problems are delaying the rollout, which should have started a month ago. The city hopes to offer 1800 bike-lane miles by 2030, rivaling even Paris.

BIKE ADVOCATES: Here’s more good news. The folks who ride bikes by choice are well organized and very vocal. They’re even found official representation in State government with a CT Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board within the CDOT. And in towns and cities large and small there are numerous bike clubs and organizations that can help you get started.

Bicycles may never replace cars or trains, but they are a common sense alternative for many of our transportation needs and need public support.

CT DOT Sells Out To Developers

2012-07-17T12:28:00.000-04:00

Sometimes, when you’re tight for cash, you think about hocking the family jewels. That’s what CDOT is doing, turning over to private developers a most precious piece of real estate and leaving 1000+ daily rail commuters in the lurch.

After years of debate, CDOT has finally issued an RFP (Request for Proposal) for the demolition and replacement of the old parking garage at the Stamford train station. While the plan calls for a replacement garage with more parking spaces (1000 vs the current 727), it also allows the new garage to be built up to a quarter mile from the train station, not the 200 feet away as the current garage is now.

The “jewel” of this project is the state-owned land where the old garage now sits. And CDOT seems ready to entertain bids for its use for offices, condo’s, shopping… everything but parking.

If you read the 139-page RFP (as I have, thoroughly), you see that the winning bidder will be decided weighing two considerations: one-third of the weighting going to proposed design and operation of the new garage, but two-thirds of the weighting goes to maximizing income (profit) for the CDOT from rents or sale of the land.

In other words, the CDOT is twice as interested in making a buck off this land as in serving commuters with a safe, convenient, close-in parking facility.

Bids on the RFP are due in two months, an extraordinary “fast track” for such a once-in-a-lifetime proposal. Then the negotiations begin with a final decision due by the end of the year. Ground could be broken by January 2013.

But before the old garage can be demolished (a near impossible task in those tight quarters), replacement parking must be found for the 727 daily parkers within that quarter-mile walking distance of the station.

What that probably means is this: build a new, permanent 1000-space garage a quarter mile from the station, then demolish the old garage and replace it with condos. CDOT makes a ton of cash, there are 3 years of construction mayhem and commuters get screwed, hiking to their trains in snow, sleet and rain.

All this in the name of “TOD”, Transit Oriented Development. What can be done to stop this plan? Nothing.

In fact, until the CT Rail Commuter Council brought pressure on the CDOT, they were not even going to release the details of the RFP, keeping it all a big secret! Who’s bidding on the RFP, what their plans are, who’s paying who… all of that is kept from the public. So much for transparency.

What will the parking rates be at the new state-owned garage? Nobody knows. How will Amtrak passengers schlep their bags a quarter-mile to the train? No details. How will the neighboring towns of Darien, Greenwich and New Canaan handle the “commuter diaspora” during the three years of this project? Sorry, that’s their problem. Why not build the offices / condos a quarter mile from the train station and rebuild a new garage at the station where it belongs? Nah, that wouldn’t make CDOT any money.

The CT Rail Commuter Council has been studying this garage plan for six years, always asking CDOT to replace the old parking structure with a new one on the same location. Those appeals have been heard, politely, but ignored.

At the very least the RFP could have given priority to the bidder promising to keep commuter parking on-site, but CDOT refused.

Sure, there will be some pro forma public hearings this summer on the environmental impact of this project, but the rants of angry commuters will mean nothing. The deal is done. The Malloy administration and its CDOT have told us very clearly that developers’ interests matter more than those of taxpaying commuters.

Summer Daytrips Riding CT's Rail History

2012-07-03T07:23:00.004-04:00

If you’re looking for family fun this summer, consider visiting one of Connecticut’s many living museums celebrating our rail heritage.

The Shore Line Trolley Museum in East Haven (www.shorelinetrolley.com) was founded in 1945 and now boasts more than one hundred trolley cars in its collection. It still runs excursion trolleys for a short run on tracks once used by The Connecticut Company for its “F Line” from New Haven to Branford. You can walk thru the car barns and watch volunteers painstakingly restoring the old cars. There’s also a small museum exhibit and gift shop.

The Connecticut Trolley Museum in East Windsor (www.ceraonline.org) began in 1940, making it the oldest trolley museum in the US. It too was started on an existing right-of-way, the Rockville branch of the Hartford & Springfield Street Railway Company. You can ride a couple of different trolleys a few miles into the woods and back, perhaps disembarking to tour their collection of streetcars, elevated and inter-urbans in the museum’s sheds and barns.

Both museums also offer you the chance to “drive” a streetcar… under supervision and after a little training. Passengers are not allowed, but your friends can join you if they are brave. If you’re looking for a day-trip, especially for kids, I can highly recommend either museum.

If you’re looking for trains, you’re also in luck.

The Danbury Railroad Museum (www.danbury.org/drm) is walking distance from the Metro-North station, making this a potential full-day, all-rail adventure. On weekends they offer train rides and for a premium you can even ride in the caboose or the engine. They have a great collection of old rail cars and a well stocked gift shop.

For nostalgia fans, The Essex Steam Train (www.essexsteamtrain.com) offers not only daily rides on a classic steam train, but connecting riverboat rides up to the vicinity of Gillette Castle and back. The first Saturday of each month there’s even a free shuttle train from Old Saybrook rail station, which is served by Amtrak and Shore Line East. In addition to coach seating you can ride on an open-air car or in a plush First Class Coach. There’s also a great dinner train, “The Essex Clipper” which offers a 2 ½ hour, four-course meal and a cash bar.

In downtown South Norwalk you can visit what once was a busy switch tower, now the SoNo Switch Tower Museum (www.westctnrhs.org/towerinfo.htm) . Admission is free (donations welcome) weekends 12 noon to 5 pm.

Also open only on weekends is the Connecticut Eastern Railroad Museum in Willimantic (www.cteastrrmuseum.org). In addition to guided tours, visitors can operate a replica 1850's-style pump car along a section of rail that once was part of the New Haven Railroad's "Air Line".

The Railroad Museum of New England in Thomaston (www.rmne.org) offers rail trips on Sundays and Tuesdays along the scenic Naugatuck River in addition to a large collection of restored engines and passenger cars including a last of its kind 1929 New Haven RR first class “smoker” complete with leather bucket seats.

All of these museums are run by volunteers who will appreciate your patronage and support. They love working on the railroad and will tell you why if you express even the slightest interest in their passion. Try ‘em.

If You See Something...

2012-06-18T09:34:00.000-04:00

Ever since 9-11 commuters on Metro-North have been told “If you see something, say something.”

One commuter recently did that, taking a smart-phone video of an engineer reading a newspaper while running his train at high speed, then posting that video on YouTube.

To their credit, management at the railroad reacted quickly, suspending and disciplining the 24 year veteran. They also reminded every engineer on the railroad that this was inappropriate, dangerous and unacceptable.

How did those train operators and their union react? With a cover-up, literally.

Since the video was posted, many if not most engineers have been covering their windows withnewspapers and cardboard to prevent anyone from seeing them at work. They claim this is to reduce glare and reflection of interior lights, but we know better.

In my view, the only glare they want to avoid is the glare of public opinion for potentially being caught not doing their job.

How can commuters “say something” if they can’t see anything?

Metro-North says there is no rule forbidding such a “cover-up”, but they’re conducting a best practices review of other railroads to see how they handle this. Whatever the results of that research, it will doubtless require union cooperation to take down the papers and reassure passengers about who is running their train and how.

Meantime, don’t worry, says Metro-North, we have inspectors on trains watching for misbehavior. Oh, really?

Days after this YouTube video, New York state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli released an audit showing that the railroad’s train inspectors were often web surfing rather than conducting on-train inspections. While they should have been riding trains to see if conductors used seat-checks to prevent fare evasion or make surprise visits to engineers in their cab to see if they were reading, those inspectors were goofing off.

The audit says that the five inspectors and supervisor missed one third of their assignments while pulling down $832,676 a year. Four of the inspectors were paid $170,000 each for work not done.

As Bloomberg Business Week reports: “Investigators also found that an assistant vice president in charge of the unit referred a relative to a worker under her supervision. The relative was then hired, despite receiving a lower rating than two other applicants, and was given an $84,700 salary, about $27,000 more than was posted, auditors found. The employee and the assistant vice president had their paychecks deposited into the same bank account, investigators found.”

Since the allegations came to light, the inspection unit has been disbanded. So who’s riding the trains, watchdogging the employees?

All this comes on top of other malfeasance uncovered by DiNapoli, including a 30 person Metro-North unit that abused overtime rules to pad their pay by $1 million and future pension payments by $5.5 million.

And last fall, eleven LIRR workers were indicted on charges of taking $1 billion in disability benefits for alleged on the job injuries. Investigators tracked them only to see them playing golf and living the high life.

Who pays for these scams? We do, through our fares and taxes.

So when Metro-North says they need more money because of rising costs, maybe we should ask its President, Howard Permut, just who’s running this railroad… managers appointing their relatives to jobs they don’t do… no-show employees abusing OT… or the unions covering up misbehavior at the controls?

Mega Projects of a Lifetime

2012-06-03T17:59:00.002-04:00

If you’re lucky, you get to see one mammoth construction project in your lifetime. Like the building of Grand Central, the George Washington Bridge or LaGuardia Airport.

But our generation is lucky enough to see two such mega-works: The Long Island Railroad’s East Side Access tunnel to Grand Central and the New Britain to Hartford busway, now dubbed CTFastrak.

Recently the CT Rail Commuter Council was given a tour of the East Side Access construction site, bored out of solid granite 180 feet below street level. The size and scale of the project are hard to comprehend, extending from 37^th Street in Manhattan all the way north under Grand Central, the existing Park Avenue tunnel and turning east at 63^rd Street to go under the East River to Queens where it meets the present LIRR tracks. (For hundreds of photos of the project, click here)

The main station at 42^nd Street will feature two football-field length platforms, two tracks wide and two tracks high, feeding banks of escalators that will bring LIRR passengers to their own mini-GCT under Vanderbilt Avenue, just west of Grand Central.

None of this will affect our existing service to GCT (except for the added throngs of riders heading to the Lexington Avenue subway). But the hidden benefit for Metro-North, especially New Haven line riders, may be direct service to Penn Station. Only when the LIRR can divert some trains from Penn Station will there be room there for Metro-North.

Meantime, the project is behind schedule and 30% over budget, the biggest problem being the soil in Queens which is too soft for tunneling. The $8 billion project should be finished in 2018.

Here in Connecticut, ground has finally been broken on the controversial New Britain to Hartford busway, now known as CTfastrak.

This 9.4 mile long bus-only highway will feature 11 stations, carry 16,000 daily passengers and kick-start TOD (transit oriented development) along its route while offering a much faster ride to downtown Hartford than can be found today.

I’ve written before about this project which has been widely criticized. My rail-fan friends say it should be a light rail system. But that would cost considerably more than the current $600 million price tag ($460 million of that coming from the Federal government). The pro-auto lobby says it’s all a boondoggle and that nobody will ever take the buses. We should all know the answer by 2014 or so when the road is finished and the service begins. (I think it will prove to be a huge success).

Both projects are way over budget and behind their time line. But so too were many other mega-projects which were similarly scorned. Robert Moses was widely attacked for his highway projects in New York City in the middle of the last century. But without him there would have been no Tri-Borough Bridge, United Nations, Jones Beach or parkways on Long Island.

Some of Moses’ greatest projects were built in economic hard times worse than today. But generations later, we’re still relying on them to get around. They may have seemed then like engineering folly, but they turned out to be a solid investment in the future we call “today”.

Big dreams like East Side Access and CTfastrak come with big price tags. But if we didn’t think big, we’d still be in horse carts stuck in the muddy ruts of the Boston Post Road. So tell your kids and your grandchildren that in your lifetime you saw not one, but two mega-projects turn from dreams into reality.

Hartford Lawmakers Put New Taxes on Commuters

2012-05-21T11:55:00.001-04:00

Usually, I have a lot of respect for our elected officials in Hartford. But what happened in the final hours of the legislative session in recent weeks is just shocking. You probably didn’t hear about it because there are no reporters left covering the state house for what passes for newspapers and TV news in our state, but that’s another story.

Lawmakers know they aren’t being watched and are, therefore, not accountable. (I do commend veteran reporter Ken Dixon’s blog for the gory details of what they pulled off.)

Working late into the night, in their final hours in session, our elected officials wheeled and dealed on hundreds of bills, painstakingly crafted and considered in recent months. By 3 am they were voting on bundles of bills they had not read, some introduced at the last minute, acting like bleary-eyed college students pulling an all-nighter. This is the government we deserve?

Amidst this annual frenzy, the Malloy administration was also trying to plug a $200 million gap in the current budget. Unwilling to raise taxes any further, they turned to rail commuters and motorists and picked our pockets instead. But the session had started on a better note.

Thanks to State Rep Kim Fawcett (D-Fairfield), a previously announced 4% rail fare hike to take effect 1/1/13 had gone away during the writing of the new budget. But at the 11^th hour, Malloy’s budget team put it back… not to raise money to fix our trains, but to raise funds to close the deficit. This was less a fare increase than a tax on commuters. And it was Governor Malloy’s idea, rubber stamped by the Democratic majority.

But worse yet, lawmakers stole $70 million from the Special Transportation Fund, also to plug that deficit hole. That takes money raised by gasoline taxes, which was supposed to be used to fix highways and bridges, and uses it to pay for everything but those efforts.

As I have written before, the Special Transportation Fund (STF) is less a “lock box” than a slush-fund, dipped into regularly by Democrats and Republicans looking for money but reticent to raise taxes.

When he was running for office, candidate Dannel Malloy decried such moves. He said he would call for a constitutional amendment to safeguard the STF from such pilfering. Not only did he not introduce such an amendment, he did the same as past governors, raiding the STP and making commuters pay for his budgeting mistakes. In my book, that makes him a hypocrite.

Months earlier, we discovered that this past January’s 4% fare increase wasn’t going to be spent on the trains, but was going into the STF. When State Rep Gal Lavielle (R – Wilton) tried, along with 20+ lawmakers, to get introduce a bill requiring fare hikes to be spent on mass transit, she couldn’t even get it out of committee.

Commuters: the fix is in. Your fares (the highest of any commuter railroad in the US) are going higher. But the money won’t be spent on improving rail service. Those millions will just go into the STF slush-fund. And there’s not a damn thing you can do about it.

Of course, this is an election year. So you might ask those running for State Representative and State Senator who want to represent you, why they allow rail fares to be used as yet another tax on commuters.

Support the Busway !

2012-05-06T20:20:00.002-04:00

You think rush hour traffic is bad in Fairfield County on I-95 and the Merritt? Try driving on I-84 or I-91 into Hartford! That’s why the planned Busway from New Britain to downtown makes such sense.

Yet, the project has been widely scorned and almost scuttled by rail advocates and lawmakers who would rather see rail service than buses. Even though I’m all about trains, this Busway project makes sense.

But first, what is a “busway”, you ask? Let me explain.

A busway is a dedicated highway just for buses. In this case, it would run 9.4 miles from downtown Hartford to New Britain on an old railroad right-of-way. There would be 11 stations, each with plenty of parking like at a Metro-North station. So rather than be stuck in rush hour traffic on the interstates, you’d drive to a Busway station and hop aboard for a high-speed ride to downtown.

For more distant commuters, at the end of the dedicate bus-only Busway, the bus would enter the road system and head off into other towns and neighborhoods… something that rail cannot do… giving you a one-seat ride from home to work.

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) has had great success in other cities like Ottawa, Bogota and Jakarta. In the Canadian capital, ridership grew so strong on one line that the buses were replaced with trolleys. But in all the BRT cities, bus traffic drew riders because it was removed from the congestion of car and truck-jammed highways and given its own roadway.

So why the opposition to the New Britain to Hartford project? Two reasons… money and prejudice.

First, the Busway has gone from $325 million to $600 million in cost. That’s typical for CDOT accounting, so nothing new here. But I think it’s worth $600 million, and better to build it now, in this economy, than to wait until it’s unaffordable. And $460 million of the project is Federal money.

Pull the plug now on the project and a) the Fed’s will never trust the state with a new funding application and b) we’ll be missing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

This project is visionary. It’s planning for the future, not fixing the neglect of the past (as we’ve been trying to do for a decade on Metro-North). It’s an investment in the Hartford area’s growth and, as I say, can easily be converted to or supplemented with light rail when traffic warrants.

Why not build a railroad and skip the bus step? Too expensive and not as flexible. And remember, this is coming from a huge rail fan. If a Busway would cost $600 million, light rail would be easily twice that.

Which brings us to the second, and more serious, cause of opposition: prejudice. Nobody likes buses. Trains are cool. Buses are for losers. People take Metro-North by choice, preferring it to driving their cars. But most people think of bus riders as indigents who don’t have cars, and who wants to sit next to one of “them”?

Designers have tried to make BRT systems look like trains, but the bus-hater prejudice is hard to overcome. I just wish that the opponents of this plan would be realistic about the true goals: moving people in large numbers, fast and safely.

The Busway achieves those goals. And I predict it will be a big success and prove its detractors wrong over time.

Tired of Traffic? Don't Blame The Trucks.

2012-04-27T12:46:00.001-04:00

Driving to Hartford the other day (no, you cannot really get there by train) I saw a beautiful sight: hundreds of trucks! What surer sign of an economic recovery?

Yet, motorists hate trucks and mistakenly blame them for traffic congestion and accidents that cause hours of delays.

Readers of this column know I’m a “rail guy” and would love to see freight trains replace trucks, but that ain’t gonna happen anytime soon. But as motorists we should not blame truckers for traffic woes of our own creation.

Check the facts and you’ll find most highway accidents are caused by motor cars, not the trucks drawn into the incidents.

Do trucks drive too fast? Sure, but don’t we all? Next time you’re on I-95 check who’s in the high-speed left lane and you’ll see cars, not trucks.

Should there be better safety inspections of trucks? Absolutely! But for every over-weight truck or over-worked truck driver there are doubtless hundreds of unsafe cars and equally road-weary warriors behind the wheel whose reckless disregard endangers us all.

Truckers drive for a living. They are tested and licensed to far more rigorous standards than anyone else. And because they drive hundreds of miles each day, overall I think they are far better drivers. When’s the last time you saw a trucker juggling a cellphone and a latte like many soccer moms?

And remember… they’re not out there driving their big-rigs up and down the highway just to annoy us. We put those trucks on the road by our voracious consumption patterns. Every product we buy at stores large and small, including the very newspaper you hold in your hand, was delivered by trucks. Want fewer trucks on the road? Just stop buying stuff.

By definition, trucks are high-occupancy vehicles. Compare the energy efficiency of a truck delivering its cargo to you in your “SOV” (single occupancy vehicle), even if it is a hybrid. Only rail offers better fuel efficiency.

Why are trucks jamming our highways at rush hour? Because selfish merchants require them to drive at those times to meet their delivery timetable. If big-box stores and supermarkets only took truck deliveries in the overnight hours, our highways would flow must better at rush hour.

Truckers must use the interstates while passenger cars can chose among many alternate routes. Why is the average distance driven on I-95 in Connecticut just eleven miles? Because most of us drive the ‘pike for local, not interstate trips.

If we were smart enough to “value price” our highways (ie return tolling) we’d see fewer vehicles of all kinds on I-95, and those that were willing to pay for the privilege of motoring there would get real value in a faster ride.

I’m hardly an apologist for the trucking lobby. But neither is it fair for us to blame anyone but ourselves for highway safety and congestion. It’s the SOV crowd, not the truckers, who are to blame. Excessive speed and drinking cause most accidents, and the majority of accidents involve cars, not trucks.

Let’s be honest about this mess of our own making and stop trying to blame truckers as our scapegoat. As the great philosopher Pogo once put it, “We have met the enemy and he is us!”

What's a Fair Fare?

2012-04-09T16:12:00.002-04:00

Governor Malloy is quick to tell us that creating a state budget is like making sausage, something he has done in years past (the sausage making). “It’s not pretty. It’s work,” he says in describing the process. The question is, how palatable will the end result be, especially for riders of mass transit.

Last year the Connecticut Department of Transportation said it desperately needed a fare increase of 16% for riders of Metro-North. That got whittled back to a “modest” 12%, spread over three years and riders felt victorious.

That’s like a mugger threatening to take your life but only kicking you in the groin. For this you’re supposed to be grateful?

Then earlier this year we found that the fare increase wasn’t being spent on the trains but getting tossed into the sieve-like “Special Transportation Fund” which also pays for bridge repairs and even CDOT pensions.

To her credit, State Representative Gail Lavielle (R-Wilton) and 26 other lawmakers tried to pass a bill requiring fare hikes to be spent on transit. The bill never got out of the Transportation Committee.

But State Representative Kim Fawcett (D-Fairfield) had better luck in her role on the Appropriations Committee. Not only did she get a $1.9 million set-aside to be spent on station repairs and improvements, but somehow she got next year’s 4% fare hike eliminated.

Are you as confused by the workings of Hartford as I am? Oh, I’m grateful! Just confused.

But so too are other taxpayers, especially those who don’t ride our trains or buses. They wonder why tax money is being spent to subsidize transit at all. (In Westport the Board of Finance is even slashing subsidies for local bus routes, following on this populist theme.)

I’ve often noted that fares on Metro-North in Connecticut are the highest fares of any railroad in the US. That’s because the subsidy is the lowest.

For example, a one-way ticket from Bridgeport to NYC (a distance of 55 miles and running right alongside I-95) costs $16.25.

But ride the MBTA commuter train from Boston to Providence (51 miles, also paralleling I-95) and you’ll pay only $7.75. Or avoid the traffic mess on the 10 lane wide I-95 in Miami by riding there on Tri-Rail from Boynton Beach (58 miles) and you’ll only pay $6.25. Similar distances against the same competing roadway… so why the fare differences?

Are the MBTA or Tri-Rail trains any cheaper to operate? No. But ironically, the lowest fares are where the lowest ridership is found.

Most commuter railroads keep fares low to attract passengers out of their cars. But in Connecticut, where trains are standing room only (and driving options are few and undesirable), the commuter gets screwed with the highest fares, not to mention over-priced parking in limited supply.

Not everyone riding Metro-North is a “1%’er”. Sure, we have a few millionaires. But we have far more middle-income, blue collar and minority workers and students. By constantly raising train and bus fares, we are going to literally drive those people out of our state. They can get to their NYC duties faster and cheaper from Long Island, Westchester or New Jersey.

Forty percent of all the taxes paid in this state are paid by residents of Fairfield County. Lose those commuters and the entire state loses… especially those we subsidize who live up-state and who never take mass transit.

So kudos to those in the legislature who “get it”, who see the value of keeping our mass transit as affordable as possible. As these budget proposals come to a vote, we will be watching closely who votes in support of the commuter… and who sees them just as a convenient target of taxation.

"Politicians and The Price of Gasoline"

2012-03-26T09:12:00.000-04:00

Last weekend I was honored to be a judge at the National History Day competition. Why is it that Middle School kids understand what adults don’t: that you can learn from history and, hopefully, not repeat the same mistakes? Case in point, the tax on gasoline.

As gas prices push toward the $5 per gallon mark, politicians are trying to give the impression of doing something they cannot do: get prices back down. Politicians don’t set gas prices, the free market does. But sometimes, in their haste to appear engaged, the pols do more harm than good.

Obama speaks in Oklahoma, saying he’ll fast-track the southern portion of the Keystone pipeline, even though the White House has no say on the already approved project. It’s political grandstanding, but harmless enough.

But in Hartford when the D’s and R’s get together and agree to mess with gas taxes, watch out. This is no more than bipartisan pandering to motorists, which will end up hurting both drivers and the users of mass transit. Here’s the story.

In Connecticut we pay about 49 cents a gallon in taxes… 25 cents in regular taxes and the balance in the Gross Receipts Tax paid by wholesalers and passed along to us at the pump.

The lawmakers want to put a cap on the Gross Receipts Tax for about a year, savings us about 1.7 cents a gallon. That’s right… less than two cents.

Pennies in savings, but at what cost? Do lawmakers forget where the gas taxes go… and what happened the last time they cut gas taxes when Rowland was in office?

Here’s the math: for every penny a gallon collected in gas taxes, $15 million goes into the Special Transportation Fund to pay for highway and bridge repairs, salt for winter roads and subsidies for mass transit, taking cars off the road.

That fund is already in trouble and could run out of money in two years, leading to talk about finding new sources of revenue… like tolls. A political stunt like this gas-tax cap will save the average motorist pennies, but leave our highways in disrepair and push bus and train fares ever higher.

Even at $5 a gallon, gas in the US is cheap compared to the rest of the world. Yet, we drive the biggest and least fuel efficient cars and moan at the cost. Why do Americans think they have a God-given right to cheap gas?

Sure, gas in New Jersey is cheaper. But they have tolls on their roads. Pick your poison… taxes or tolls… because there is no free ride.

What’s driving gas prices higher is not state taxes but Wall Street speculation and geopolitics. Why not do something to regulate investors betting gas prices will go higher and, in effect, making them do just that?

And when (not if) Israel attacks Iran and the Straits of Hormuz are closed, choking oil deliveries and sending gas to $8 to $10 a gallon, do lawmakers really think that a two cents a gallon saving in state gas taxes will mean anything except for less spending on our roads and rails?

Next time you’re driving on I-95 and wonder why the potholes aren’t filled or worry if the bridge you’re on might collapse, thank your elected officials in Hartford for their short-sighted penny pinching.

First Class: The Only Way To Go

2012-03-10T18:00:00.002-05:00

For a guy who writes so much about transportation, trust me, I’m something of a homebody. I don’t like traveling anymore. Not that I don’t enjoy visiting different cities (and do so almost weekly for business), it’s just that the journey from here to there is not much fun. When Cunard used to say “getting there is half the fun” they were talking about cruise ships, not flying.

Getting to and from the airport is a major hassle and expense. Airports (and planes) are jammed. Getting through security is like visit a proctologist. Flights are inevitably delayed. Meals enroute are but a memory. Frequent flyer programs have whored themselves, passing out “elite” status to so many passengers that it’s impossible to get an upgrade, let alone a free ticket. (You should have heard the grumbles on a recent flight from Continental mileage mavens now vying with United road warriors for upgrades since the merger!)

But there is an alternative: first class… or at least business class on transcon flights. Sure, it costs more… either in higher fares or in redeeming those once precious frequent flyer miles… but it’s worth it.

You get to check in faster. You can cut the line with the TSA’s blessings. The seats are bigger. The flight attendants are actually friendly. And they sometimes give you real food. Plus, there’s that slightly smug feeling as you ease into your seat and watch the coach customers walk in, heading for steerage, that you’re, well, “special”.

Even on Amtrak, first class is a better experience. On Acela to Boston or Washington there’s a comfier seat and a decent meal. (I don’t drink, so the free booze in flight or on the train matters little to me). And, unlike the airlines with their pricey airport “clubs”, first class passengers can use Amtrak’s “Metropolitan Lounge” (now dubbed “Club Acela”) for free, complete with wi-fi and free beverages.

When time allows I’ll even opt for an overnight Amtrak ride in a comfy sleeper to Chicago or Miami rather than endure two plus hours of turbulence.

Even traveling by bus there’s a first class option. The “Limo Liner” between Boston and New York makes the Bolt Bus or Fung Wha bus look like a cattle car.

What may surprise you is that going first class doesn’t always mean taking out a home equity loan. In fact, compared to full fare coach, first is often only a few bucks more. And tickets can be changed without charge.

There’s a great Norwalk-headquartered travel meta-search engine, www.kayak.com that allows you to price all your alternatives, coach / business / first, at one site, so you’ll see the hidden bargains. (Full disclosure: Kayak is a consulting client of mine… but trust me, I wouldn’t recommend them if I didn’t think they were great).

My New Year’s resolution for business travel is to “treat myself right.” Life is too short to be trapped in coach. I am reminded of a bumper sticker I saw once at a TWA ticket office. It read: “Fly First Class… Your Heirs Will”.

Rethinking The Tappan Zee Bridge

2012-02-26T12:02:00.003-05:00

Why is a column that usually writes about Connecticut’s transportation problems suddenly interested in The Tappan Zee Bridge? Because the pending rebuilding of this bridge across the Hudson River will have a major impact on our lives, our economy and travel patterns.

The mighty Hudson River is what separates New England from the rest of the country. Sure, you can cross over or under the water by car on any number of bridges and tunnels in New York City, but north of the George Washington Bridge there are few options. And for freight trains, there are none, short of going all the way to Albany.

When it was originally envisioned in 1950, the new trans-Hudson bridge was going to be built by The Port Authority between Dobbs Ferry and Piermont NY. Instead the Thruway chose the wider, but shallower section a few miles north between Nyack and Tarrytown. Opening in 1955, the bridge was soon followed by the Cross-Westchester Expressway (now I-287) in 1960, forever linking access to Connecticut from the west. (A planned extension of I-287 over Long Island Sound as the Oyster Bay – Rye Bridge never came to pass.)

The Tappan Zee, like our old Metro-North railcars, has been repaired, patched and kept going long beyond its 50-year life expectancy. Maintenance costs over the past four years have cost $389 million. The old, seven lane bridge is literally falling apart and was highlighted on a recent History Channel documentary about our nation’s crumbling infrastructure as a disaster waiting to happen. Think collapse.

Even the White House recognizes the urgency of replacing the bridge, putting The Tappan Zee on a list of 14 projects to receive expedited federal approval. And while NY state has opted for a design / build replacement… where the winning bidder designs and builds the new structure, rather than working from a state-created blueprint… the $5.2 billion project may get underway this summer.

The real question is, what kind of vehicles will use the new bridge?

While most of the traffic (170,000 crossings per day recently, ten times the original traffic in 1955) is private cars, the bridge is also a crucial truck crossing, especially for cargo bound for Connecticut. There are also commuter buses from Rockland County connecting to Metro-North.

Many say the new Tappan Zee should also carry trains, or at the very least offer dedicated BRT (bus rapid transit) lanes, but neither is in the current plans. This is a huge mistake.

An east-west rapid transit corridor, rail or bus, running from Rockland County across the new bridge, then down the median of the Cross-Westchester Expressway (I-287) and connecting with I-95 and the New Haven line of Metro-North / Amtrak, would be a game changer. So much of our mass transit runs on a hub and spoke system, into and out of New York City, while we lack an east-west connection. To miss the once-in-a-century opportunity to accommodate mass transit on a new Tappan Zee Bridge would be a tremendous loss.

But as with the much discussed MTA plan to run Metro-North into Penn Station, the future of the Tappan Zee (and with it, Connecticut’s link to the west) lies in Albany, not Hartford. New York will again decide our fate with no input from those of us in Connecticut.

Much has been made of late about what to do with the old bridge after the new one opens. The latest plan is to leave the bridge open as a pedestrian and cyclist walk-way, much like the repurposed Highline on Manhattan’s west side. Demolition would cost $150 million, they say, so why not turn the old bridge into a cement park?

It’s a shame that so much discussion has focused on this petty, parochial side issue when the real question about building the new structure to handle more than cars and trucks seems pushed aside.

For more on recent public hearings on the bridge rebuild, click here.

Next Stop Penn Station?

2012-02-12T17:14:00.004-05:00

There’s discussion again about bringing some Metro-North trains directly from Connecticut into New York City’s Penn Station. But will it happen?

As with many good ideas that seem so easy, this one also has been studied thoroughly and found to be problematic in a number of respects. Governor Rell floated the idea in 2007 but it went nowhere, aside from an experiment by NJ Transit to run trains from New Haven to the Meadowlands. Here are the reasons that daily commuter service isn’t yet possible:

INADEQUATE EQUIPMENT: As any commuter on Metro-North can tell you, we don’t have enough seats for existing service to Grand Central let alone expansion to new stations. It’s standing room only in rush hour and on weekends.

ELECTRICITY: Our existing fleet of MU cars cannot take a left turn at New Rochelle and head over the Hells Gate Bridge onto Long Island, then hang a right, in through the tunnels into Penn Station. The old cars’ overhead power catenary system operates under a different voltage than Amtrak. And in third rail territory on Long Island, even our new M8 cars use a different kind of shoe to contact the third-rail power source. The 2009 experimental direct train from Connecticut to Giants Stadium in New Jersey was actually run with New Jersey transit railroad equipment which was only available because it was on weekends.

CAPACITY: Even if we had the cars with the right electrical equipment to make it over the Hells Gate Bridge and through the tunnels to Penn Station, there’s no room in the station… that the station is full-up serving Amtrak, the Long Island Railroad and NJ transit. If and when the $6.3 billion East Side Access project bringing some Long Island Railroad trains into Grand Central is completed (many years from now), says the MTA, there might be room for Metro-North trains to access Penn Station.

CUT LIRR SERVICE? Recently the MTA has hinted they might run some Metro-North trains into Penn Station, but it would have to cut Long Island RR service. You can imagine the push-back that got, pitting one set of commuters against another. (See more on our Facebook page).

Whatever the decision, it won’t be made by us here in Connecticut. Once again, Connecticut is being told by the New York MTA what our transportation future will be. Connecticut still has no say in the matter… not even a voting seat at the table, either on the MTA or the Metro-North boards.

Connecticut may be the MTA’s largest customer, hired by CDOT to operate Metro-North trains in our state, but when it comes to important decisions, like expanding rail service to Penn Station, the MTA is clearly in control.

Years ago Governor Rell acknowledged the inequity in this position, and promised to fight for a seat on the MTA board. But nothing happened. Nor has Governor Malloy said anything about this unfairness.

So, just why is a New York agency still in charge of Connecticut’s transportation future?

The Five Biggest Lies About Highway Tolls

2012-01-31T11:53:00.004-05:00

Like it or not, get ready to pay tolls on our Interstates and Parkways. Transportation officials in Hartford say there’s just no other way to raise badly needed money for over-due infrastructure repairs. Tolls may not be popular, but neither are collapsing bridges.

In the last decade’s debate on highway tolling, here are the five biggest lies that opponents have used to stall the return of highway tolls:

1) The Federal Government Won’t Let Us: Also known as “We’ll have to return millions in federal funding”. Not true, as US DOT officials told us at a SWRPA-sponsored meeting in Westport years ago. The federal government regularly allows tolls to be used as traffic mitigation and revenue raising tools.

2) Our Highways Should Be Free: So should ice cream and donuts. Nothing is free, including the cost of repairing I-95 and removing snow from the Merritt. Gasoline taxes come nowhere near to raising the needed revenue. Driving is a privilege, not a right. It should come with a cost.

3) Tolls Will Slow Traffic: It’s not 1965 anymore. Tolling doesn’t require highway-wide barriers with booths and gates. Just look at the NJ Turnpike or Garden State Parkway, where barrier-free tolls using EZPass allow you to pay at 55 mph.

4) Tollbooths Cause Accidents: See #3 above. This happened once, 29 years ago, in Milford, and was used as an excuse to end tolling in the state. If toll barriers are unsafe, why don’t fiery truck crashes happen daily at the hundreds of other toll barriers around the US?

5) Highway Tolls Will Divert Traffic to Local Roads: This may be true, for about the first week. If people would rather drive for free on the Boston Post Road than pay 50 cents to save an hour by taking I-95, let ‘em. Few drivers are that cheap, or stupid.

Trust me, I know about tolls and toll booths. I spent three summers in college working as a toll collector on the Tappan Zee Bridge. The toll was only 50 cents to cross the mighty Hudson, but people still didn’t like paying it. (Today the toll is $5).

Connecticut pioneered toll roads as early as the late 18^th century. But today our state is facing billions in over-due bridge and highway repairs. And federal aid for transportation may be cut from $469 million to $301 million. So why are we in this current mess? Who’s to blame? Us!

We’re the ones that stupidly pushed CT lawmakers to cut the gas tax 14 cents a gallon in 1997. And we’re the ones making it political suicide for legislators today to say they support tolls, even though they know tolls are inevitable.

Pick your poison: “free” driving on pothole-filled highways with collapsing bridges… or pay a few bucks for a safe, speedy ride. I vote for the tolls.

Congress to Commuters: "Drop Dead"

2012-01-16T11:49:00.002-05:00

Back in 1975 when New York City was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, then- President Ford declined to offer help and the NY Daily News’ headline screamed “Ford to City: Drop Dead”.

Well, last month the US Congress said about the same thing to us users of mass transit. In their quagmire of inaction, bickering and partisanship, they let expire an important tax benefit to commuters: whether you drove or took mass transit, you used to be able to spend up to $230 a month in pre-tax dollars to fund your commute. But by not acting to extend the law, that benefit dropped to $125 a month for riders of mass transit but increased to $240 a month for drivers’ parking expenses.

What? Commuters who ride the train / bus /subway get screwed but drivers get a benefits hike? Yes, friends, it’s all true and you have Congress to thank.

This isn’t a red-state / blue-state issue. I see it as a “gray state” victory, the gray states being those paved with asphalt that have scorned mass transit. Meanwhile, big city riders of the rails get penalized.

There’s something egalitarian about mass transit… millionaires riding in the same smelly Metro-North cars as blue collar workers. People of color actually mingling with white folks! It’s like we’re all in this together, sharing space, giving up our individual liberties (smoking, singing, traveling exactly when we want) for the greater good (less highway congestion, air pollution, saving money).

People in the gray states don’t understand that. Theirs is a culture of selfishness: my car, my space, my right to travel where I want and when, to heck with you. Oh yeah, and the right to have free parking (or at least subsidized, as under this bill).

Connecticut commuters welcomed the New Year with a 5.25% fare hike on Metro-North (with similar fare hikes to come the next two years), thanks to the Malloyadministration seeing rail riders as an easy target for “revenue enhancement”. So losing this federal tax benefit is just adding insult to injury.

The Federal government doesn’t do much in terms of our commuter rail. They didn’t pay a penny for the new M8 cars. They don’t set the fares, determine the station parking rules or set the timetable. All of those are state functions. (Sure, the feds did kick some Tiger III grant money to Stamford for station work, but aside from that, nada.)

That’s why Senators Blumenthal and Lieberman are trying to restore this federal taxbenefit, the one thing they can do to help us commuters. They’ve been flooded with angry letters. Their bill (S-1034) has 10 co-sponsors but so far hasn’t won support from their colleagues who matter, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Ranking Member Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). Not a lot of commuter rail in Montana and Utah, eh?

Time will tell if Congress can fix this mess. I’m not optimistic, despite the best efforts of our Connecticut delegation.

For more information on what you can do, visit this website.

Metro-North's "Passenger Pledge"

2011-12-28T13:23:00.001-05:00

Never let a crisis go to waste. With that philosophy, the CT Rail Commuter Council has turned last July’s stranding of a train full of desperate passengers into something which will benefit every rider of Metro-North: “The Passenger Pledge”.

That incident, on the hottest day of the year, showed several failures on the part of the railroad… poor communications, lack of coordination with first responders and the need for better training of conductors. While the railroad has taken the first tentative steps to remedy those problems, The Commuter Council wanted to go further.

At the suggestion of State Senator Toni Boucher, in August the Council drafted a “Passenger Bill of Rights” enumerating what passengers should expect in exchange for a ticket. Some of those “rights” seemed pretty obvious… heat in the winter, AC in the summer, lighting and clean restrooms. We even dared to suggest that every passenger should get a seat, a concept quickly rejected by the railroad.

CDOT (which hires Metro-North to run our trains) also rejected our call for refunds or credits for weekly and monthly pass holders when service was cancelled and alternative busing was not provided. Impossible, said the state! We’ll see.

But over five months of negotiations with Metro-North and CDOT, we did hammer out an important, precedent-setting document, merging our “Bill of Rights” with what Metro-North called a “Passenger Pledge”.

Among the promises from the railroad… timely communications when service is disrupted… moving stranded trains to stations so passengers can get off… maximizing available seating by equipment scheduling and conductor enforcement of one-passenger, one-seat rules… railroad employees should be courteous and display name badges when on duty… and cars will be kept clean and safe.

These service pledges will be posted at stations and on trains for all to see, quite a concession from a railroad that has never before committed in writing to such standards.

Some on the Commuter Council were disappointed that we didn’t get all that we’d sought, but most felt that a compromise document that was 90% of our ideal is a major victory. (I wish members of Congress could similarly compromise!)

The “Passenger Pledge” isn’t perfect. And it doesn’t guarantee that there won’t be slip-ups. But now we all know what the standards are and if they’re not achieved, we can discuss what the penalties should be. (You can see the full Pledge on our website: www.trainweb.org/ct)

So let’s greet 2012 with optimism. The fares may have gone up and we only have a few more new M8 cars in service. Winter will probably bring service cuts. But we finally, for the first time in the 25+ year history of Metro-North, have a written pledge of customer service.

Quiet Cars Finally Arrive On Metro-North In Connecticut

2011-12-17T13:35:00.001-05:00

More than ten years ago the CT Rail Commuter Council first proposed the idea of Quiet Cars on Metro-North. They seemed to work just fine on Amtrak, first introduced in 2001 at the request of passengers. And other commuter lines across the US had also adopted the idea, usually to great acclaim.

For the most part, the rules are self-enforced by passengers. Those whose phones start ringing are quickly reminded they are in the wrong car and they usually move. There have been exceptions, including a celebrated case last spring on Amtrak when a woman was arrested for yacking for 16 hours on her cell phone and refusing to move from the Quiet Car.

But over the years Metro-North refused even a small trial. The idea was summarily rejected by management as unworkable. Conductors didn’t have time to police the “library like” requirements, they said (though they seemed to have no trouble enforcing no smoking, no feet on seats and other rules). And passengers wouldn’t abide by the rules anyway.

Oh what a difference a half-decade can make.

Last fall the railroad finally decided to rollout a pilot program on a handful of trains on all three lines, the Hudson, Harlem and New Haven. But the proposed test in Connecticut, involving only Danbury branch trains, was clearly flawed and was, to their credit, rejected by the CDOT.

Much to the railroad’s surprise, the Hudson and Harlem train trials (involving 32 peak trains) were a big success. A November survey of 4388 riders in both “quiet” and regular cars, showed 90% customer satisfaction. And 82% of respondents thought the program should be expanded to all AM and PM peak trains.

Best of all, the railroad admits there were “no significant operational issues”. Wow. Treat passengers like adults and they’ll act that way… even on the LIRR where another trial is underway.

The railroad promoted the program heavily (the survey showed 90% awareness) and rather than being confrontational with those violating the quiet rules, conductors just handed the offenders discreet cards explaining the program’s rules.

Those that wanted to use cell phones could still do so, either quietly at their seats or by moving to the vestibules for longer calls. Groups traveling to the city who wanted to talk could also do so without the withering stares of those affected by their chatter.

Best of all, those seeking a little peace (and maybe a nap) could find the quiet car and be assured of, well, quiet.

Now the Quiet Car program is finally coming to Connecticut. Starting January 9^th, 18 AM and PM peak New Haven line trains (designated with a big Q on the timetable) will be testing the concept. And Metro-North says if the tests go as well here as in New York, the Quiet Car plan could roll out system wide in peak hours on all trains come April 2012!

The railroad was wrong. The people were right. This is certainly cause for (quiet) celebration.

Winter on Metro-North

2011-12-05T12:47:00.001-05:00

It may not officially start until December 21^st, but winter is already on the minds of Metro-North and its 125,000 daily commuters. We all remember what happened last year with bad storms, train breakdowns and a month of reduced service (fewer trains and fewer cars).

Well, though I can’t forecast the weather I can safely predict another tough winter for the railroad and its passengers.

I honestly believe that Metro-North wants to run an all-weather railroad and does all it can to prep our aging fleet of 40-year-old cars. But the old cars’ poor design probably means that more break-downs are inevitable.

We don’t have enough diesel train sets to come anywhere close to being able to offer full service if the old MU (electric) cars freeze up again. And we’ve only received 56 of the 405 new M8 cars ordered years ago, so those few train sets will be of little help if our 300+ older cars can’t run.

And the M8’s we do have on hand have yet to be run in nasty winter weather, so fingers-crossed when they’re sent out in their first blizzard.

So what’s Metro-North’s plan for the months ahead? In a nutshell, lower your expectations and hopefully exceed their few promises.

Rather than try to run in bad weather, Metro-North is warning riders not to expect full service when the snows come. I think this move is wise, if unfortunate, given the realities of our ancient fleet.

It really makes no sense to run the old MU cars if we all know they may freeze up mid-run, stranding passengers in dangerous conditions. Though the railroad has done all it can engineering-wise to fix them, the cars were poorly designed and still ingest snow into their electronics bays where it melts, short-circuits the train’s electronics, then refreezes into a giant block of ice.

So expect reduced or potentially cancelled train service if the weather is bad. Make your plans now to stay with a friend or relative if you’re trapped in the city, or work from home if the morning trains don’t run.

When the forecast looks bad, check for updates on the MTA website, Clever Commute and through local media. (The CT Rail Commuter Council tweets the latest @CTRailCommuters on Twitter.)

There will probably be better rail service than the railroad is warning, but it will be nowhere close to the full service we enjoy in good weather. What trains that do run will be packed and will probably be late.

By this time next year we should have a hundred additional shiny new M8 cars, which have been designed to withstand the worst Mother Nature can dish out. If they live up to expectations, this winter may be the last where we have to worry about winter train service.