"Talking Transportation"

THE HIGH-SPEED RAILROAD NEVER BUILT… 120 YEARS AGO

2026-08-12T15:40:41.039-04:00

What happens when a great transportation idea gets ahead of itself? Consider the story of the greatest American railroad that never got built.

We are all familiar with The Twentieth Century Limited and The Broadway Limited, the crack trains of the New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroads that ran for decades between New York and Chicago.

Those daily trains defined deluxe, pampering passengers with plush Pullman cars, fine dining and even an on-train barber shop. But they each took up to 20 hours to make the run because they took different, circuitous routes. The NY Central followed the “water level route” north to Albany, then across upstate New York and down the coast of Lake Erie. The Pennsylvania RR’s “Broadway Limited” (which would start in 1912) journeyed south to Philadelphia, then west to Pittsburgh and beyond.

But way back in 1905, inventor Alexander Miller had a better idea: build a brand new, flat and straight interurban railroad that would run directly between the two cities, The Chicago – New York Electric Air Line Railroad.

When building a high speed railroad, straight is better

Even over 120 years ago Miller knew the importance of straight-running tracks to achieve and hold high speeds, a lesson we in Connecticut wish they’d learned before building the New Haven RR along our winding coastline.

Miller’s train would be “faster than the limited” and make the run between NYC and Chicago in just 10 hours for $10 a ticket (worth about $380 today). Powered by the new marvel of electricity, the train could operate at a third the cost of steam engines. And by running in a straight line the 743 mile route would be 168 to 237 miles shorter than its competitors. In principal, it was brilliant. And the timing was perfect.

Mind you, this railroad’s interurban cars (think trolley cars on steroids) might not be as plush, but they would average 70+ mph thanks to the almost flat grade of one percent and no pesky grade crossings. There would also be few stops as the route would bypass all major cities. And this train would be fast… 100 mph on the straight-aways!

The electric rail cars that could do 100+ mph

Two million dollars worth of stock was issued with shareholders promised first priority for thousands of potential jobs. Railroads were the dot-coms of the era, and people rushed to invest. With no bonded debt, the company’s prospectus promised stock dividends of 14% on top of the shares’ appreciation. You just couldn’t lose!

Construction began from west to east, as the railroad would open in stages to help pay for itself and further building toward New York. A mighty four track railroad, akin to Metro-North, was envisioned and it was hoped that the project would be completed in just ten years. Spur lines would be constructed to serve the cities by-passed by the “air line”.

Then, reality set in with the depression of 1907 – 1908. Construction got as far as Chesterton IN, about 50 miles east of Chicago, when the money started to run out. The engineering of this mighty railroad was just too expensive.

Shareholders revolted when news came that the railroad’s officers were getting fat paychecks as the coffers were drained. A hoped-for bailout by British banks never happened. Those shareholders lost everything. And the impending arrival of automobiles might have doomed the line anyway. Even The Twentieth Century and Broadway Ltd eventually succumbed to the competition of true “air lines”.

But for a brief moment, a century ago, a dream almost became a reality in the greatest railroad that never was.

CT'S $1.6 BILLION RAIL PROMISE

2026-08-07T11:06:34.466-04:00

The Governor and the CDOT tried to make some “big news” about our trains last week. Here’s how most media summarized the story: “Connecticut has broken ground on the $1.6 billion TIME-1 upgrade of the New Haven Line, targeting speeds of up to 90 mph, improving service by 2035.”

Maybe you saw the media coverage and said “Wow. Great news”. Or maybe you had a sense of déjà vu and asked yourself two questions: “Haven’t I heard this promise before?” (yes) and “Should I believe this promise, delivered in an election year?” (no).

As a journalist I was disappointed (but not surprised) that almost no media asked those same questions, instead just regurgitating the press release. So let me try to separate the facts from the hype.

TIME FOR CT PROJECT: Your sense of déjà vu was correct as the Governor and CDOT made this same announcement five years ago. And their promises then have yet to be delivered.

In fact it was in 2019 that Governor Lamont promised us a 30 minute train ride from New Haven to Stamford. The fastest trains today are the early morning super-expresses which run non-stop in 45 minutes. Better, but not what was promised.

WILL THIS REALLY COST $1.6 BILLION ?: Yes, and it’s not yet fully funded. There’s money so far only for Phase One, just $340 million, to rebuild the catenary, fix one bridge and upgrade tracks and signaling. And this Phase One covers merely three miles of track.

Stratford RR Station

Phases Two and Three, which bring the biggest improvements, are not yet funded. Transportation money from the current White House is drying up so the prospect of the additional $1.3 billion that’s needed seems to me like wishful thinking. In the tech world they call such claims “vapor-ware”.

So why announce a project that won’t be finished for nine years when funding is still uncertain? Because it’s an election year.

Don’t get me wrong. This work is necessary and decades overdue. It will make the railroad safer and maybe even faster… assuming the money is found and the work gets done. But I predict it will all cost more and take longer than they hope… or are willing to admit.

FINISHED BY 2035 ?: This will really take nine years? Yes, and probably longer. Consider projects like the Walk Bridge in Norwalk, first announced by then-Governor Malloy in 2014, with construction finally beginning in 2023 with an expected completion now in 2029. Initial cost estimates of $465 million have since doubled. I’ve been calling it “the billion dollar bridge” since first writing about it 12 years ago.

Rebuilding a working railroad is expensive and slow. If Metro-North could shut down the railroad completely, work would go faster… but that is impossible. So expect a lot of delays for the next decade.

SPEEDS OF 90 MPH ?: This is the promise that most angers me because it’s just not true. It’s just like Amtrak’s claim that its new Acela NextGen runs 165 mph. Yes… for about 10 miles in New Jersey and a few more in Rhode Island, but not the full trip from Boston to Washington.

And Connecticut’s supposed “90 mph” trains… they’ll achieve that for a three mile straight stretch between Stratford and Bridgeport, but almost nowhere else. And by the way, the promised improved average speed of 70 mph on Metro-North will be the same speed limit before the Bridgeport and Spuyten Duyvil derailments prompted the FRA (Federal Railroad Administration) to lower the speed limits. And that was 13 years ago.

DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE: This project is important and I hope it gets built even if it takes longer and costs more than what’s being promised now. But as I’ve said for years in my CT Rail Commuter Council days, “Our train service will get worse before it gets better”.

There will be delays, just as we’ve seen on other CDOT projects (like the Darien train station, now 15 months behind schedule) or the never ending work on I-95, I-91 and I-84.

But can’t the CDOT and their pol bosses at least be honest with us and not over-promise and consistently under-deliver?

And to my fellow journalists… please stop being stenographers. Our job isn't to parrot press releases. It's to ask the question on every commuter’s mind: 'Will this actually happen?'

IS IT TIME TO TAX EVs?

2026-08-07T11:02:27.991-04:00

Why do electric vehicles (EVs) get a free ride on our highways?

Why do traditional ICE (internal combustion engine) car owners pay about 43 cents per gallon in gas taxes while EV owners pay nothing… and yet their cars are thought to cause more wear and tear on our highways because they’re so heavy (due to their batteries)? Is that fair?

Those were the questions posed last spring when the legislature considered a bill to make EV (and hybrid) owners pay their fair share. But HB 5568 never got out of the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee after a single public hearing brought unanimous, vocal opposition: 54 testified against, zero in favor… not even close.

As of December 2025, there were more than 73,156 electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles registered in Connecticut, a 20% increase over the previous year. But while those numbers are climbing, EVs and hybrids still represent less than three percent of all vehicles registered in the state. Still, it seems that you see (but often don’t hear) them all the time, whooshing around almost silently, their drivers wearing that smile of money-saving satisfaction.

If you’re the hypothetical “average driver” in CT and you drive about 12,000 miles a year you’ll end up paying about $209 a year in gas tax. Drive 15,000 miles and that number jumps to about $250 a year. And that assumes your car gets about 24.5 mpg.

Those gasoline taxes flow into the Special Transportation Fund paying for road repairs, the DMV, and mass transit that many drivers never ride but benefit from anyway (more people taking mass transit = fewer on the roads).

Opponents of a tax on EV’s and hybrids fear it would discourage their adoption, running counter to Connecticut’s state policy of reducing auto emissions.

Connecticut is one of only eight states that don’t tax EVs. In Pennsylvania the fee is $250 a year for EV owners and $62.50 for plug-in hybrids. In Vermont it’s $89 and $44.50, respectively.

The Connecticut bill, if it hadn’t died in committee, would have raised registration fees for battery electric vehicles to $345 every three years and for plug-in hybrids to $233 every three years, with standard gas vehicles remaining at $120.

Right now EV’s only pay $57 registration fees every three years, further incentivizing their adoption.

Lawmakers (and the CDOT) argue that the Special Transportation Fund is in trouble if EV adoption rates continue and gas tax revenues continue to fall.

Why did the bill die in Committee? Why didn’t it have the name of any lawmaker(s) as its sponsor? Because it’s an election year and nobody wanted their fingerprints on a bill that hurts affluent EV drivers… or the environment. “Bad optics”, as they say.

Never mind that CDOT recently replaced new, electric trains on Shore Line East with diesel locomotives belching exhaust as they run between New London and New Haven. I guess that saying you’re ‘green' is easier when you ignore the obvious.

We used to think of the necessary reform of our Social Security system as the “third rail of politics.” Maybe taxing electric vehicles is the same thing? Or there’s always the idea of tolls.

PT BARNUM’S BRIDGEPORT WAS NO CIRCUS

2026-07-24T17:44:56.220-04:00

When you think of P.T. Barnum your first thought is probably about his circus, or maybe his museum of oddities in 1840’s New York City.

What you may not know was that Barnum lived in Bridgeport and was once a State Representative in Hartford and, in 1875, Bridgeport’s mayor. His real genius wasn't just in filling circus tents. It was understanding logistics…how to move goods, people and opportunity efficiently.

Barnum was truly a city builder, especially because he understood that Bridgeport's future depended on its railroads.

When the New York and New Haven Railroad reached Bridgeport in 1849, most people saw a passenger line. Barnum saw the foundation of an industrial empire. He invested accordingly, donating land for Seaside Park, backing Bridgeport Hospital and subdividing his 30-acre Waldemere estate into neighborhoods that attracted Bridgeport's industrial elite. But most importantly he knew those civic amenities couldn't survive without an economic engine.

That “engine” was the New Haven and Housatonic Railroads.

The railroads gave Bridgeport something neither Hartford nor New Haven could match: direct coastal access plus rail connectivity to New York, Massachusetts, and the entire Northeast. Manufacturers could ship south to New York markets, north to New England, and worldwide via Long Island Sound.

Bridgeport manufactured everything: sewing machines, buggies, machine tools, munitions, every product imaginable. But by the 1880s, there was a problem.

Bridgeport’s railroad tracks used to run at street level right through downtown… trains competing with pedestrians, horses, carriages. It was constant gridlock. For local factories trying to move freight 24/7, those grade crossings were a productivity killer.

As mayor in 1875-1876, Barnum pushed hard for grade separation, elevating the tracks above street level. Though he didn't live to see it completed, the New Haven Railroad spent $5 million in the 1890s ($183 million in today’s inflated dollars) to build that viaduct.

Think a kind thought of Barnum the next time you ride Metro-North through Bridgeport, high above the streets.

Once those tracks were elevated, something remarkable happened. The Railroad Avenue industrial district exploded. No more street-level bottlenecks. Freight trains moved around the clock. Factories adjacent to the viaduct could load and unload directly onto rail cars.

Bridgeport boomed, eventually becoming one of Connecticut's largest cities, filled with skilled immigrants making good money.

What Barnum understood better than most modern planners was that you can't build a thriving city on civic projects alone. Parks and hospitals matter. But they're all built on an economic foundation.

Today we've got it backwards. We debate roundabouts and bike lanes while underinvesting in regional rail connectivity. The New Haven Line still runs through Bridgeport. It still carries passengers and could still be an economic engine… carrying freight.

Why no freight trains today along the coast? Stay tuned.

HOT & BOTHERED – Summer’s Transportation Meltdown

2026-07-17T16:28:57.190-04:00

Last week’s heat wave was neither the worst nor the last we’ll see this summer. But its effects on our trains, planes and automobiles are worth remembering, and planning for, because this kind of weather will return. Heat can take a serious toll on our travels. Just consider…

WILDFIRE SMOKE: Fueled by hot and tinder-dry conditions in Canada, last week’s smoky skies contributed to flight delays and travel disruptions. Drivers were warned to keep their windows closed, switch the ventilation system to recirculate, and make sure the cabin air filter was clean.

TRAINS: Heat can make railroad tracks lengthen by an inch (in an 1800-foot piece of track) for every ten degrees of temperature. Because much of the track in the Northeast is welded rail (without many expansion joints) that can lead to buckling, known in the biz as “sun kinks”, where tracks get seriously out of alignment. That can force the railroads to slow their trains down, in Amtrak’s case to just 80 mph in extreme cases, to avoid derailments.

Sun Kinks caused by heat

Heat can also cause older fixed-tension catenary wires to expand and sag. Much of Metro-North’s original overhead power system was more than 100 years old before Connecticut replaced it with modern constant-tension equipment. But when the old wires sagged, a passing train’s pantograph could snag them, bringing down the power system and halting service.

You may remember just such an incident in 2011 on the then-hottest day of the summer with Manhattan pavement heating to 147 degrees. A train near Westport got its pantograph tangled in the sagging power lines, stranding over 200 passengers onboard with no AC and no windows that could open. The passengers, understandably, panicked and called 911 seeking rescue by local first responders. One positive outcome was improved emergency planning, including provisions for supplying water to passengers on stranded trains.

PLANES: Aviation also has trouble with the heat, in some cases because it’s just too hot to fly.

Hot air is lighter than cold air, right? Add higher elevation to the mix (think Denver, where the air is already thinner) and the physics of flying just doesn’t work.

In 2017 Phoenix’s Sky Harbor Airport had to cancel dozens of flights when the air temps hit 120 degrees. Where runways are shorter some aircraft, particularly smaller regional jets, may not be able to operate safely without reducing their weight or waiting for cooler conditions.

AUTOMOBILES: Your car is not immune to heat, either, especially its tires. Sustained high temperatures can accelerate tire deterioration, while an underinflated tire flexes and builds up even more heat as it rolls, increasing the risk of tread separation or a blowout. Check tire pressures when they are cold and use the recommended pressure printed on the driver’s-door.

But it’s your car’s cooling system that’s strained the most, working overtime to keep the engine temperature stable. If the temperature gauge starts climbing, turning off the AC can reduce the load on the engine. But if the car is actually overheating, pull over safely and shut it down.

And the road itself is also under attack: concrete can buckle (from expansion) and asphalt can soften and start rutting. As with the trains, the safest solution is to slow down and watch for trouble ahead.

We like to think of Connecticut summers as reliably hot. What we’re not prepared for is heat this intense… or wildfire smoke this frequent. Our trains, planes and roads weren’t designed for heat this extreme and this persistent. Neither were we. The heat is coming again. The only question is whether we’ll be ready.

AIRLINES’ WINDOWLESS WINDOW SEATS

2026-07-10T12:10:05.857-04:00

Let’s be honest. Flying is no fun anymore. Traveling, yes. Flying, no. Again this summer the airports are crowded, the TSA lines are long, the flights delayed (and sometimes cancelled) due to weather and the fares have soared because of the Iran War.

But the airlines seem finally to be raking it in. Estimates are this summer may be one of their best in many years as demand far exceeds supply. People want that long-wished-for summer vacation, the price be damned.

One of the ways the airlines are draining our pocketbooks is through “unbundling”… charging for a basic seat and them upselling us for perks like checking our luggage, those sumptuous in-flight meals, a tiny bit more legroom and, yes, the choice of our favorite seat.

Mine has always been the window seat.

I’m somewhat of a white knuckles flyer and looking out the window gives me some peace of mind. So I’ll pay that (2023 industry average) of $31 extra charge to get my ‘view’. But imagine paying that surcharge for a window seat, boarding the plane and finding there’s no window at my seat, just a blank wall.

A "window" seat with no window

Depending on the type of aircraft, as many as five window seats per plane can lack windows. It’s just the way the plane is built and the seats placed. But why would the airlines sell you a “window” seat with no window? Because they could. Until now.

As I wrote last November, United Airlines alone pulled in $1.3 billion last year for selling assigned seats. But now a pair of class action suit s is pursuing millions of United and Delta airlines passengers’ claims that, having paid for window seats and ending up with no window, they were duped.

Last week one of those lawsuits was allowed to proceed when the judge rejected United’s claim that they never promises a window at a window seat… that the description referred more to the location of the seat, not the amenity. As United’s lawyers tried to argue… “the use of the word ‘window’ in reference to a particular seat cannot reasonably be interpreted as a promise that the seat will have an exterior window view.” Don’t you just love lawyers?

Can you imagine an aisle seat that’s not on the aisle? I can’t. And they’re as pricey as the window seats. Some people get nauseous when flying or claustrophobic and seeing out that window helps them chill. I get that.

But whatever the reason, simple logic says if I pay for a window seat I should get a window. Other airlines, like American and Alaskan, have added a warning to online bookers that some window seats don’t offer a real window. That’s at least honest.

If you go to a Broadway show you’re warned when choosing seats that there may be “an obstructed view”. Fair enough, and probably priced accordingly. So why can’t airlines do the same sort of disclosure.

If they lose these suits it may cost them tens of millions in refunds and possible penalties. And the cost to their reputation? That’s already left the gate.

250 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE. 350 YEARS OF CONNECTICUT TRAFFIC

2026-07-03T07:47:31.656-04:00

People complain about Connecticut's roads. I get it. The potholes. The detours. The construction that begins in April and somehow ends in April of the following year. But before you curse your GPS, consider this: getting anywhere in colonial Connecticut could be genuinely life-threatening.

We're talking about a time when "road conditions" meant snakes, waist-deep mud, fording unbridged rivers, and a footpath barely wide enough for a horse. And yet, Connecticut built America's first great transportation network. It started with the King's Highway.

In 1672, New York Governor Francis Lovelace had a problem: getting a letter from New York to Boston took forever and often arrived mangled, late, or not at all. Sound familiar? His solution was a monthly postal route, and in January of 1673 the first rider began to blaze what would eventually become the Boston Post Road, US Route 1.

Here in Connecticut, that route followed an ancient Pequot trail, a path Native Americans had kept clear for centuries, it’s said, by burning back the brush each November. So we didn't build the road. We inherited it. And then we paved over the history with good intentions and, for a while, added toll booths.

In 1792, Connecticut solved the pesky problem of "who pays for roads" the way it still does: user fees. The Mohegan Turnpike was the state's first, and the country’s second, turnpike: proof that Connecticut has always been eager to be an early adopter of charging people money to get somewhere. Over the next four decades, roughly 100 private turnpike companies laid some 1,400 miles of toll roads across the state. Most of those concerns eventually went bankrupt.

By the early 1700s, Connecticut had three branches of the Post Road threading through the colony: the Upper route through Hartford and Springfield, the Lower route hugging the Sound through Stratford and Saybrook, and a Middle route cutting diagonally through Bolton and Woodstock. The road system was, for its time, impressive. Travel was still agonizing… a trip from Hartford to Boston could eat up several days.

In 1753, it’s said that Benjamin Franklin himself drove the Lower Post Road in a carriage fitted with an odometer, standardizing postal rates by distance and ordering stone mile markers placed along the route. Connecticut's General Assembly then required every town to erect them. Imagine that: State Government mandating infrastructure improvements while arguing about who pays for it. Some things never change.

But the real transportation superhighway of colonial Connecticut wasn't a road at all. It was the water.

Long Island Sound was our I-95, only it actually worked. New London, blessed with deep water and a protected harbor, was one of the colony's busiest ports. In a single year, 1748 to 1749, 62 vessels departed for foreign ports. Norwich and Middletown, reached by river, funneled the colony's farms and forests down to waiting ships. New Haven moved goods both north and south.

And what were they shipping? Horses, cattle, lumber, salted beef, and barrel staves, all headed to sugar plantations in the West Indies. What came back in exchange? Molasses, rum, coffee and, shamefully, enslaved human beings. The slave trade made Connecticut both prosperous and complicit in equal measure.

Much of this water commerce ended, suddenly and violently, in September 1781, when Benedict Arnold sailed into New London harbor and burned it to the ground. The King's Highway survived. The waterfront never fully recovered.

So, next time you're stuck on I-95 wondering why our state can't seem to get transportation right, remember: we've only been at this for 350 years. And we've always moved but never moved quite fast enough.

TWO RAILROAD GIANTS AT WAR – AND RIDERS PAY THE PRICE

2026-06-29T12:30:02.035-04:00

There’s a feud brewing between Metro-North and Amtrak and it’s getting nasty. Worse yet, this tiff is already hurting our train service in Connecticut.

Since 2021 construction has been underway to bring some Metro-North trains into New York’s Penn Station, rather than Grand Central. At New Rochelle, select Metro-North trains headed to NYC will “hang a left” and go over the Hell’s Gate Bridge, just as Amtrak trains now do, with new station stops in the Bronx.

This is significant not only for getting Connecticut and Westchester commuters to Manhattan’s west side, but more importantly, to harvest the labor of Bronx residents for jobs in Connecticut via a speedy, reverse-commuter train ride.

But now Amtrak is dragging its feet, slowing construction. Why? Because Amtrak is angry with Metro-North for not allowing high-speed tests of its new Acela NextGen train while running in Connecticut. And that’s because Metro-North says the new Acelas have been losing their pantographs on Metro-North’s overhead power lines. Not once, but five times.

Amtrak's NextGen Acela

Amtrak sued MTA (parent of Metro-North) to regain access to our tracks to test their flagship train and they lost. Now they’re appealing their claim. Perhaps in revenge, Amtrak is slowing MTA contractors’ access to the new Bronx stations, pushing back their opening from 2027 to 2030. That means lost employment (and taxes) in Connecticut.

Meanwhile, Amtrak has also throttled the already diminished Shore Line East rail service as CDOT has decided to replace the electric M8 cars running there since 2022. Why? Because CDOT says that Amtrak (which owns those tracks and wires east of New Haven) is charging too much money to use its overhead catenary electrical lines to power those electric trains. So, forget about speed and clean-running electric trains and it’s back to the slower diesels. Still, CDOT claims this will save them $8.8 million. I guess that’s the price of clean air?

On top of all this CDOT’s next fare hike (5%) kicks in July 1^st on all Connecticut commuter lines. Fares are going up because CDOT says its costs are increasing and the only alternative would be service cuts. That’s not altogether true.

The better alternative would have been for the legislature to adequately fund CDOT operations in the first place by giving them the $11 million needed (and requested by CDOT) this year to run trains at current fares and schedules. But lawmakers didn’t, so we really have those pols to thank for the fare hike. Remember that in November.

And forget about the highly-touted revival of trains on the Waterbury branch where ridership is up almost 150% in recent years. Commuters there are looking not only at that same fare hike but bus substitutes for ten months due to construction. But when the work is done CDOT will open four station upgrades on the branch, so that’s something.

So here's the scorecard: Amtrak and Metro-North are feuding, Shore Line East is going backwards, Waterbury riders will be riding buses, fares are going up, and your legislators didn't lift a finger to stop any of it. Connecticut commuters aren't just being taken for a ride… they're being taken for granted.

SHAPIRO’S FOLLY – PART DEUX: THE BRIDGE THAT WON’T DIE

2026-06-18T12:34:44.229-04:00

Connecticut: the land of steady habits where bad ideas don’t go away, they just get bigger.

Easton housing developer Stephen Shapiro is back again, expanding on his idea of a bridge across Long Island Sound from Bridgeport to Suffolk County NY. Now he’s even added the idea of a tunnel for parts of the bridge, as shown in a fresh set of AI renderings, gobbled up by the media without asking many questions.

AI Rendering by Shapiro

Go big or go home, seems the theme, though the Shapiro ‘plan’ is just an amateur’s vision as Shapiro is neither a bridge engineer nor transportation planner. He still thinks the 14 mile bridge / tunnel (or is it 18 miles, as he said this week?) can be built for about $50 billion. But what do the experts think?

“Fifty billion dollars is a fantasy number,” says Pete Harrison of the widely respected tri-state Regional Plan Association which has been working in this field for over a century. “The era of big bridge highways has passed. But just imagine if that much money was spent on our trains and buses (in Connecticut),” he added.

What does CDOT think of Shapiro’s idea? Not much. “This proposal has never been vetted by CDOT or any transportation planning organization,” says CDOT’s Josh Morgan echoing Governor Lamont’s comments earlier this year.

And the MTA (parent of Metro-North) is similarly uninspired. “The cross-sound tunnel was not part of the agency’s 20 year plan,” Aaron Donovan told me.

One might guess that Shapiro thought he could win those agencies’ favor with his new design which adds a rail line down the middle of the bridge / tunnel. Shapiro’s beautiful AI renderings show what looks like an Amtrak Acela hurtling across the bridge. But elsewhere in his descriptions the train line is described as for “light rail”, which Amtrak and Metro-North certainly are not.

None of this bodes well for Shapiro or his political allies who promise to try again to find funding for a study. The bill introduced this past session (HB-5320, which rightfully died in committee) called for a one year study of indeterminate cost.

That’s not realistic, one transportation insider-turned-consultant tells me: “A market / feasibility study would probably take about three years and cost $5-10 million. An EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) would cost $25-50 million more.”

Is there even demand for such a crossing? Shapiro guesstimates as many as 100,000 cars a day, each paying a one-way toll of $39. For perspective, Fred Hall, the VP-GM of the cross-sound ferry from Bridgeport, carried only 525,000 vehicles in all of last year (at a toll for cars starting at $78 one way). That means an average daily ferry load of 1400 vehicles. Would a bridge / tunnel toll of half that amount really mean more than 70 times as much traffic?

Most of the speakers at last week’s media event at the capitol spoke about how much Bridgeport would benefit from this new structure. That city’s former mayor and State Senator Bill Finch (now a lobbyist for the electricians union) compared the project to putting a man on the moon.

Among the other speakers, a college student from Long Island who’d like a quicker ride home from school… a local disc jockey… and a state rep from West Haven hoping the crossing would bring Long Islanders to his town’s beaches. Not one of the speakers was a transportation expert.

Noticeably absent from the Shapiro cheering squad… anyone from Bridgeport city hall, the city most affected by such a scheme.

Why should we spend a single taxpayer dollar on a study that’s D.O.A. when we can’t even fund our existing transportation network properly?

This idea has been proposed and studied before… and never built, for good reasons. Let’s keep that track record intact.

CONFESSIONS OF A KID WHO PLAYED WITH REAL TRAINS

2026-06-12T11:56:16.584-04:00

I have a confession to make.

First, let me caution my readers that you should never, ever try this. It’s dangerous and probably illegal. But what did I know, a kid of maybe age ten, so fascinated with trains, that I did something this stupid?

I uncoupled a parked freight train on a siding.

Yes, I crawled under a fence and went up to a stopped freight train maybe a half mile long, that I knew from experience would be parked there for a while. I climbed up on the box car, turned wheels and pulled levers. I was having so much fun!

Then the train started up.

I could hear the engine, far out of sight, blast its horn and slowly start tightening the slack between the railcars. Jumping well off to the side I was amazed to see so much mass starting to move. And then it happened.

As the cars tightened at their couplers I saw that one of those levers I had pulled had uncoupled the front of the train from the rear. The last thing I remembered was a huge hose between the cars tightening and disconnecting with a loud “pop”. More of a bang than a pop, but by that time I was running toward home.

The train seemed okay but as the front of the consist pulled, away the rear just sat there. I assume that eventually, somewhere down the track they realized what had happened, maybe when the crew in the caboose (they still had them in those days) noticed they’d been left behind.

Pretty stupid thing to do, I’ll admit. And dangerous too. It took me weeks before I could even confess to my Mother what I’d done, and even then she thought it was just my imagination. But it wasn’t.

But my ‘crime’ had given me a lesson about air brakes. That hose, connecting each car to the next, was how the train’s brakes worked.

Brakemen at work

In the early days of railroading the brakemen literally were stationed atop the boxcars and, on signal from the locomotive crew blowing its whistle, they’d run across the cars tightening brake handles, hopefully stopping the entire train in time.

Then, in 1872 George Westinghouse (yes, the same guy who later brought us so many innovations in electricity) invented the automatic air brake.

All train cars’ brakes were connected to a hose-fed air pressure system controlled at the locomotive. When the lines were pressurized, the brakes on all the cars would be released and the train could move along. When it came time to stop, the pressure was slowly released and the brakes were automatically applied.

The system was also fail safe. If the train started to derail (or was uncoupled by a naïve young rail fan), the pressure was cut and the brakes applied automatically just as I had witnessed. (I still wonder how the front of ‘my train’ kept moving after I’d popped the hose).

Westinghouse’s system worked so well that by 1900 air brakes were required on all trains. And they’re still in use today. That invention became WABTEC, the Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Company, merging in 2019 with GE Transportation which makes locomotives. Today WABTEC is a $45 billion company. A spinoff, WABCO, put the same technology into trucks.

Stopping a huge train or a truck with just the power of air. Quite an invention.

But a final word of caution from a once-stupid kid who should have known better: never, ever play with trains. Not stopped ones. Not parked ones. Not “just for a minute.” They can move without warning, and one wrong step can be fatal. So please…stay off the tracks.

CT TRANSPORTATION FIRSTS

2026-06-05T17:24:53.397-04:00

I’m tired of people bad-mouthing Connecticut.

Yes, our taxes are high. Yes, I-95 often feels like a rolling Town Meeting with brake lights. And yes, Metro-North can still turn a simple trip into a test of faith.

But let’s give Connecticut some credit. For almost 400 years, our small state has punched above its weight.

Sure, we love our firsts. New Haven will always claim the hamburger at Louis’ Lunch. Bridgeport gave Buckminster Fuller room to build his futuristic, three-wheeled Dymaxion Car, which looked like tomorrow until tomorrow changed its mind.

Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion

But let’s also consider Connecticut’s transportation history: a story of roads, wheels, rails, engines, submarines and aircraft. It is also the story of a state that always wants to move faster. Just look at our roads.

Before I-95, before the Merritt Parkway, before the toll debate that refuses to die, Connecticut had turnpikes. In the 1790s, private companies built toll roads to connect towns, farms and ports. The idea was simple: better roads helped commerce. The second idea was more important: somebody had to pay for them, proving that some things never change.

Then came better road-building technology. New Haven’s Eli Whitney Blake patented a stone-crushing machine in 1858, making crushed stone more practical for road construction. Long before orange traffic barrels became our unofficial state flower, Connecticut was already trying to build better roads.

Then came bicycles. Hartford became a national bicycle center in the late 1870s, when Albert Pope contracted with the Weed Sewing Machine Company to build Columbia high-wheel bicycles. The bicycle was more than a toy. It was personal mobility, freedom and an early argument for better roads. Long before motorists demanded smooth pavement, cyclists were already lobbying for it.

The "Pope" Bicycle

Connecticut’s bicycle story didn’t end in Hartford. In 1971, now-famous Cannondale was founded in Wilton. It began by building camping gear and bike-towed trailers, not bicycles, later applying aluminum to sturdy but light-weight bike frames.

Or consider our trolleys.

Electric streetcars once linked cities, mill towns and neighborhoods across the state. They let people live farther from work, shop beyond their own neighborhoods and travel without owning a car. They stitched Connecticut together… before the automobile helped pull it apart.

Connecticut also got into cars early. Hartford, Bridgeport and New Britain all had their moment in the auto industry. But we also got into regulation early, because this is Connecticut and we do enjoy a good rule. In 1901, Connecticut passed the nation’s first statewide motor-vehicle speed-limit law: 12 miles per hour in cities and 15 on country roads.

But transportation here was never just about roads.

David Bushnell of Saybrook developed the Revolutionary War submarine “Turtle”. That future eventually became Groton’s Electric Boat and the nuclear submarine age. Then look skyward: Pratt & Whitney made East Hartford synonymous with aircraft engines, while Igor Sikorsky made Stratford a helicopter capital.

So yes, we complain about traffic, late trains, fares, parking and the CDOT. But Connecticut has never just watched transportation happen. We shaped it.

So be proud of our state the next time you’re stuck in the traffic our forefathers helped make possible.

THE REVOLT OVER SPEED CAMERAS

2026-05-29T18:25:14.408-04:00

Few transportation issues have divided Connecticut residents more quickly than automated speed cameras.

Warning signs in Greenwich

Supporters say the cameras slow drivers down and protect children near schools. Critics argue they represent government surveillance, outsourced enforcement, and a “money grab”.

The controversy has played out most visibly in Greenwich, Fairfield and Milford.

In Greenwich, the debate became so heated that town officials suspended the speed camera program in April after determining that mandatory public hearings required before launching the program had somehow been missed. Oops.

That decision followed months of complaints from residents who questioned everything from privacy protections to vendor involvement and the town's vendor selection process.

By mid-December 2025 Greenwich had issued 12,006 warnings and 2,294 citations, and later reported 7,225 citations in January 2026 alone.

Coverage by my colleagues at Greenwich Free Press documented the outrage. A citizen petition gathered more than 700 signatures calling for the cameras to be removed.

May 14th Hearing in Greenwich

At a long-overdue public hearing in mid-May, residents raised concerns about the selection process of vendor Blue Line Solutions, its data collection and privacy policy, and whether the system was designed more to generate revenue than improve safety.

Town officials and police strongly disagreed. Greenwich Police Chief Jim Heavey recently argued the cameras were "working exactly as intended" and reported reductions in speeding around schools since they were turned on. Greenwich First Selectman Fred Camillo repeatedly rejected claims that the program was a "cash grab," emphasizing that the goal was protecting children.

The Greenwich RTM takes up the issue June 8. My guess is voters' representatives will reject it, adding another chapter to the town's remarkably clumsy handling of this program.

The same tensions are now emerging in Fairfield.

Fairfield's cameras issued more than 114,000 warning tickets in their first 17 days, with officials projecting roughly 190,000 violations during the initial warning period. The numbers immediately fueled skepticism.

In Fairfield the violations kick in when you go more than 10 mph over the speed limit. The first fine is $50, with additional processing fees possible depending on how the citation is paid.

Residents questioned why cameras operate 24 hours a day rather than only during school arrival and dismissal times. Others worried about revenues projected to reach approximately $3.2 million during the first month of enforcement.

State Sen. Tony Hwang publicly acknowledged the backlash and urged town leaders to create a dedicated roadway-safety account so residents would not see the program as a "revenue grab."

Fairfield First Selectperson Christine Vitale pushed back, saying the program is "fully about children's safety" and adding that zero revenue would actually be the best outcome, meaning drivers obeyed the law.

So far fifteen Connecticut municipalities have received CDOT approval to install the cameras. At least one town, Kent, has voted (by a four to one margin) not to install the speed cams.

Still, many crucial questions about the program remain unanswered at the local level: how are vendors properly vetted, what happens when the three-year test period expires, how do citizens know ticket revenue will be properly spent and even a more basic question… are our speed limits too low?

Supporters insist these cameras are not about revenue. Fair enough. If every driver obeyed the speed limit, the towns would collect nothing. But when local governments begin projecting millions of dollars in future ticket revenue (and dreaming of how it might be spent), they shouldn't be surprised when taxpayers become suspicious.

The challenge for Connecticut isn't proving that speeding is dangerous. Most of us already agree that’s a real issue. The real challenge is convincing drivers that speed cameras are truly about safety and not simply the latest government innovation in “contactless fundraising”.

TAKING YOUR BIKE ON THE TRAIN OR BUS

2026-05-22T12:02:39.534-04:00

Now that summer is unofficially underway, let’s revisit a recent column of interest to bikers…

Taking mass transit is great. But when you step off your train or bus, what do you do to get to your final destination? Increasingly, that means BYO wheels: a bike, e-bike or scooter.

The problem is, the rules for bringing your “wheels” can be very different depending on your carrier.

METRO-NORTH:

You can bring your non-electric-powered bike on the train anytime… except rush-hour and certain holidays. Some train cars include wall-mounted racks; check the TrainTime app for bike-friendly trains and car markings. If you have a folding bike that can get stowed in the overhead rack, you can bring it anytime.

But if your bike or scooter is powered, the rules are quite different.

First, you can’t ride your e-whatever at the station, on the platform or in the train. You can only bring your wheels on the train if it folds up, weighs less than 100 pounds and is your property, i.e. not a CitiBike, VEO etc.

Hanging bike rack on Metro-North

You cannot charge your e-bike on the train. It must have UL-certified batteries and be stored in an area so it doesn’t block other passengers. Whatever the rules may be, the train conductor or railroad staffer always has the final say and can stop you and your bike from being on the train. If the train’s too crowded, you may be denied boarding.

Remember… if your final destination is Grand Central Terminal there are any number of Citi Bike stations just outside on the street. At New Haven there are bike-shares available through Ride New Haven.

SHORE LINE EAST & HARTFORD LINE: The e-bike rules here are quite similar. Unlike on Metro-North, regular (non-electric) bicycles are welcome anytime. On the Hartford Line, CT Rail trains welcome bikes anytime for free. But Amtrak’s Hartford Line trains accept bikes only with a reservation and a charge of $20. You should call Amtrak at 800-872-7245 to purchase your ticket and secure a bike spot, as space is limited.

Confused yet? Best if you check your railroad’s rules carefully, as e-bike policies differ between CT Rail and Amtrak-operated trains.

At Hartford’s Union Station you can rent a scooter (but no bikes) through VEO. Bikes may be added in the future.

CT TRANSIT BUSES:

Connecticut’s buses were pioneers in allowing bikes… not in the bus, but on racks mounted on the outside front of the bus. The racks only hold two bikes, and its first-come, first-carried.

Only standard non-motorized bikes are allowed on racks; e-bikes, scooters, and motorized vehicles are not permitted, regardless of weight.

OTHER BUSES IN CONNECTICUT:

All GBTA (Greater Bridgeport) buses are equipped to carry your bicycle… two-bike maximum, first-come first-served. Norwalk Transit rules aren’t crystal clear. You might want to consult your carrier’s website or ask the driver before trying to transport your device.

PORT JEFFERSON FERRY:

The Port Jefferson Ferry allows bicycles and e-bikes onboard, but according to company policy, they are considered luggage and must be kept with the rider at all times. Cyclists are required to carry their bikes as well as any baggage up and down staircases to the passenger decks. If there’s room you can use the elevator.

Whatever your destination, always BYO (and wear) a helmet when operating on two wheels. And remember: E-bikes and scooters should use UL-certified batteries and never be charged aboard any vehicle or station.

NO GAS LINES... YET

2026-05-08T16:33:00.000-04:00

Got vacation plans this summer? Better stay flexible as the war with Iran is going to make travel this summer more expensive and unpredictable.

Even when the war is declared “over” there is such a backlog of shipping in the Mideast that supply chains will be disrupted for many months. We’re not just talking about gasoline but dozens of other chemicals the world’s manufacturers are dependent on. The impact of this will affect us all.

Roughly 2,000 ships are reportedly delayed, anchored or awaiting clearance across the Persian Gulf region. Their cargoes are going to face months of delays heading for China, India and Japan when they can resume travel. Not only will prices for their cargoes soar, but so too will the cost of the products those cargoes are used to manufacture… plastics, electronics, fertilizers and pharmaceuticals.

The Oil Crisis of 1973

So far oil supplies are at a deficit (lower than they should be) but are not seeing real shortages: no “gas lines”…. Yet.

If you’re planning a European vacation this summer, double check. Because jet fuel prices have nearly doubled since the war began Lufthansa has already cancelled 20,000 flights this summer.

Flights are being consolidated even as fares are hit with fuel surcharges. Older, less fuel-efficient aircraft like the Boeing 767 are increasingly being replaced by newer jets such as the Airbus A350. Some analysts have warned that Europe could face critically tight jet fuel supplies within a few weeks if disruptions continue.

Trans-Atlantic flights out of New York City will continue, albeit it at higher costs for travelers.

And remember; summer tourism affects more than just the passengers. If they can’t travel, tourism dollars they would spend on both sides of the Atlantic will plummet. European tourism officials were counting on free-spending American visitors this summer. Instead they may get cancellations and angry customers staring at airfare apps.

Even if you’re not flying to Europe, domestic road trips will be affected.

As of last Friday, AAA says the average price for gas in Connecticut was as high as $4.66 and diesel was $5.84. Experts say that an end to the war may see an immediate price dip at the pump for gas but not for diesel. High diesel costs mean higher prices for everything we buy. And it may be 2027 before prices return to pre-war levels.

Remember the supply chain disruptions after COVID? They may be the new normal. Take pharmaceuticals, for example.

America is hugely dependent on India and China for the pills we take. Certain cancer drugs and vaccines, may be especially vulnerable to shipping disruptions. Pain killers, antibiotics and anesthetics could be in short supply. Even generic drugs (which make up 90% of those sold in the US) will be affected.

The world economy now runs on floating warehouses, fragile supply chains and optimistic assumptions. One conflict half a world away can raise the price of gasoline in Connecticut, disrupt vacations in Europe and threaten the supply of medicines in your local pharmacy.

We built a global economy based on speed, low cost and “just in time” delivery. But “just in time” just isn’t anymore.

RAIL CATHEDRALS... BUT NO TRAINS?

2026-04-25T14:30:00.000-04:00

In Connecticut, when it comes to transportation we don’t seem to have a transportation strategy… we just have a construction strategy.

Sure, the plans for redevelopment of the New Haven Union Station are certainly impressive… the new European-style roof and canopy over the tracks, the redone passenger tunnel, etc. All of it serving as a beautiful gateway to The Elm City and a new TOD (transit oriented development) project on adjacent state land.

But why are we spending $402 million on this while we can’t find a paltry $3 million to restore some train service on Shore Line East? We seem to be able to afford a cathedral for trains, just not the trains themselves.

I get it that infrastructure spending is important, much of it paid for with OPM (Other Peoples’ Money, i.e. the Feds). But shouldn’t we be providing actual transportation, not just architectural marvels? I guess it’s easier to ribbon-cut a station than run a schedule.

Consider just two other projects, small and large, as examples:

The $33 million installation of electrically-heated station platforms at the Darien RR station (already 15 months behind schedule)… or the seven year-long, billion dollar rebuild of the Walk rail bridge in Norwalk. There seems to be plenty of money (and jobs) for construction but not for the trains and buses that will then use what’s built.

Why is the legislature looking at potential cuts affecting up to 30% of the bus service in Bridgeport while keeping the future of nine different Microtransit projects in some jeopardy?

Greater Bridgeport Transit carries as many as 15,000 passengers daily. And there are 17 towns and cities served by nine Microtransit pilot programs, serving up more than 100,000 trips annually with Uber-like door-to-door service. Norwalk’s Wheels2U has proven the concept’s success with 200+ riders per day.

And guess what one of the bigger destinations of these bus and Microtransit riders: that’s right, the train station. This is how CDOT hopes to increase ridership on the rails, by cutting bus service? With the price of gasoline these days, is this any way to encourage commuters to leave their car at home and try transit?

Why has CDOT plans for another 5% fare hike this July on Metro-North with no expansion of service and no increase in speed? And the Governor’s campaign of super-fast express trains to New York City… just that, a campaign promise never fulfilled.

Why is Amtrak suing the MTA (parent of Metro-North) instead of cooperating to provide better train service? MTA claims that Amtrak is slowing development of their new commuter service to the East Bronx while Amtrak says the railroad is denying it the right to run non-revenue and test trains on the New Haven line.

Why does Amtrak bicker with CDOT over The Hartford Line, limiting U-pass (student) riders’ access to its too-short, always-crowded, trains between Springfield and New Haven?

Why have high access and power costs charged by Amtrak made running the shiny, new M8 electric trains on Shore Line East uneconomical, persuading CDOT to pull out old passenger cars and run diesel locos just to save money? Another nail in the coffin of Shore Line East.

It seems that we’re not investing in transportation. We’re investing in transportation projects… real estate, not real people. And riders (voters) can tell the difference.

WILL HIGHER GAS PRICES HELP MASS TRANSIT?

2026-03-28T13:17:00.001-04:00

Who’s not upset about higher gas prices? Proponents of mass transit.

Transit advocates might be accused of a little schadenfreude, taking satisfaction in drivers’ pain at the pump. Or maybe they’re renewing their long term dream: Maybe this will finally push people out of their cars and onto the train and bus!

Maybe not.

In 2008, when gasoline spiked, ridership on Metro-North surged. Connecticut commuters did the math and decided the train beat sitting on I-95 burning $4 gas.

But these days gasoline is not the main cost of driving.

Sure, the price of gas is just the most visible expense … the one glowing at you on every street corner. But for most drivers, that’s only a fraction of what they’re already paying. The real costs are “sunk”: car payments, insurance, maintenance, depreciation. Whether gas is $3 or $5, you’re still writing those checks every month.

Your car doesn’t get cheaper just because you leave it in the driveway. It just sits there like a very expensive lawn ornament, depreciating.

So when gas rises by a dollar a gallon (as it has in a month), the typical commuter might spend an extra $30 or $40 a month. Painful, yes. But not exactly life-changing when you’re already paying hundreds monthly for the car itself.

Gas prices are the classic example of an inelastic market. Prices go up… and people grumble, but they keep driving, in many Connecticut locales because it’s the only option.

Of course, the transportation equation depends on what alternatives to driving you might have. Is there a bus? When’s the train? How frequent and reliable is the service? And what’s the fare?

Assuming there are mass transit alternatives to the daily drive, some commuters may become part-time transit riders. They’ll drive some days, take the train others, especially when traffic or the weather are brutal. Or maybe when gas spikes even higher. Or when parking in Stamford or New Haven feel like highway robbery.

Early signs are already there. Commuter ridership on Metro-North Railroad was ticking up even before the Iran war. That may continue.

Ironically, the railroad is now running a social media campaign encouraging riders to avoid standing in the aisles and vestibules on crowded trains, instead sitting in that dreaded middle seat on the three-seat side. They say this will “avoid crowding”. That’s putting the mass back into mass transit.

So the real “trigger price” for behavior change in commuting isn’t just a number on the gas pump. It’s a combination of factors: sustained high prices, lousy traffic, expensive parking, and most of all, whether you actually need to make the trip at all.

Work from home seems a lot more attractive these days, something we didn’t have as an option in previous oil “shocks”. Thank you COVID, the ultimate commute-killer.

Let’s be honest: you can’t argue with the convenience of driving. But to save money, people will adjust: combine trips, carpool, skip errands, shop online. Or even rethink that low-mileage SUV.

PS: Just as gas prices rise, there’s another 5% fare increase coming this summer for commuter rail in Connecticut … and a potential 30% cut in Bridgeport bus service. Timing is everything.

COULD YOUR MAIL REALLY STOP?

2026-03-21T10:43:00.000-04:00

You may not get any Christmas cards this year. Or bills. Or junk mail. The U.S. Postal Service is once again warning it’s in real trouble, and this time, they’re not whispering.

You want to see someone speaking truth to power, check out Postmaster General David Steiner testifying to a House Oversight Subcommittee. “Without action,” he told the pols, “the Postal Service will run out of cash.”

Without Congress doing something the USPS won’t stop your home deliveries, at least not every day. But we may lose Saturday mail. And see smaller post offices close. And first class rates could zoom up to about $1 per letter.

The problem is simple: first-class mail is dying. Not sick. Not struggling. Dead… replaced by email, autopay, and whatever app you’re using to read this.

Think of it. How much “real” mail do you get each day? I mean letters from people, not just companies trying to sell you something. How many letters do you send and how many stamps do you buy? Compare your volume of paper mail to your email and you’ll understand the problem.

Not that the USPS hasn’t innovated on technology. I love their “Informed Delivery” option telling me (ironically, by email) what will be delivered to my real mailbox later in the day.

There’s been a 50% drop in first class mail since the early 2000s. And it’s first class where the USPS has historically made its real profits, not with marketing mail or packages. In 2019 a stamp was 55 cents. Today it’s 73 cents. And despite that jump the Postal Service is losing about ten cents per letter in delivery cost vs revenue.

That’s what we call a death spiral: raising prices to cover losses, only to drive away the customers you needed to survive… just like on our commuter rail lines.

The problem is worsened because the Postal Service has to deliver to every address in the US. In Connecticut that means everywhere from Hartford to Union (population 785, so small it doesn’t even have its own zip code).

To do its job the USPS maintains a fleet of 257,000 vehicles, from trucks to delivery vans, serving 168 million delivery addresses. They have over 530,000 employees making the USPS one of the largest employers in the country.

And those employees, while they presumably enjoy the jobs, are also promised nice pensions. Long time workers (hired before 1984) can retire with pensions of 60%+ of their final salary.

Despite staffing reductions of 25% between 2008 and 2015, the Service is looking at $10 - $15 billion in annual pension and retiree health benefits in the next few years, long-subject to pre-funding requirements.

The USPS also supports more than 33,000 physical post offices nationwide, making it the largest retail network in the US, roughly the same as Starbucks and McDonalds combined but with a lot fewer customers. That’s a lot of overhead.

How will the Congress respond to the Postmaster General’s dire warnings last week? Probably by letting USPS borrow even more money beyond its current $15 billion cap, because nothing says “long-term solution” like more short-term debt.

So pick your poison: higher prices for stamps, fewer post offices, reduced deliveries, all of the above… or just “kick the can down the road”? Which do you think Congress will choose in this election year?

A GIFT AT THE PUMP IN AN ELECTION YEAR

2026-03-13T16:55:00.002-04:00

Do you want a “gas tax holiday” to help buffer the rising cost of fuel? Your first reaction is probably a loud and enthusiastic “Yes!”

But before we all start planning what to do with those extra quarters’ savings per gallon, it’s worth asking a couple of uncomfortable questions: who really benefits and who’s really paying for it later?

Governor Lamont says suspending the gas tax would help your already-squeezed wallet as global oil prices climb during the Iran war. Fair enough.

But let’s not forget one small detail. It’s also an election year.

And if that sounds familiar, it should. The last gas tax “holiday” came in 2022 — another election year. Funny how that works.

Still, as one seasoned Connecticut legislator once told me: “Sometimes good politics is also good policy.” Translation: even a political stunt can occasionally help people.

Gas taxes fund the state’s Special Transportation Fund (STF) which spends about $2.3-billion-a-year for highways, buses, rail service and the endless maintenance required to keep Connecticut moving.

Right now the STF looks healthy enough. But the state’s own forecasts show trouble ahead as costs rise and revenue from gasoline taxes slowly declines.

A gas tax holiday would drain about $40 million a month from the fund… money that normally pays for things like fixing potholes, maintaining bridges and subsidizing Metro-North.

So yes, a gas tax holiday would save you a little money at the pump. But remember: the state’s transportation system still needs to be paid for somehow.

Until recently, transportation planners worried that electric vehicles would slowly starve the STF because EV drivers don’t buy gasoline and therefore don’t pay gas taxes. But now federal policy toward EVs has been, shall we say, less enthusiastic. Which means that deficit problem may arrive later than expected.

Of course, with gasoline pushing toward painful levels again, an electric car is suddenly looking pretty attractive, assuming you can afford one.

Remember the last “holiday” in 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine and fuel prices surged? The state suspended the 25-cent-per-gallon tax for nine months, then slowly restored it over five months so drivers wouldn’t feel the shock all at once. Average savings worked out to roughly $100 to $120 per driver. Nice, but not exactly life-changing.

In other transportation news this week… the Connecticut Department of Transportation seems to be going after truckers again.

During February’s blizzard, CDOT did an admirable job clearing the highways. Unfortunately, their work was repeatedly slowed by tractor-trailers ignoring the statewide truck ban and jackknifing across the interstates.

Currently the fine for violating a truck ban is just $90. That’s barely more than a parking ticket. CDOT wants to raise the penalty to $250, which might finally get some drivers’ attention as a deterrent to risking travel in a blizzard.

But where exactly are trucks supposed to go? If they pull off the highway during a storm, where exactly can they park? Connecticut has only 363 truck parking spaces statewide at rest areas. But CDOT estimates that more than 10,000 trucks a day travel I-95 alone.

Truckers get paid for delivering freight on time, not for sitting in a parking lot waiting for the snow to stop.

So if the state wants stricter compliance with truck bans, it might help to provide drivers with two things: more notice … and somewhere safe to park.

IS OUR ECONOMY IN A "STRAIT" JACKET?

2026-03-06T16:55:00.000-05:00

Why are your gasoline prices jumping? Because oil tankers can’t travel through the Strait of Hormuz… and not just due to the Iranians, but because of insurance.

Funny thing about global oil trade: it’s not controlled by admirals or presidents.
It’s controlled by insurance underwriters in London.

My favorite go-to expert on all things regarding world shipping is Sal Mercogliano’s amazing YouTube channel, “What’s Going on with Shipping”, a nightly TV addiction of mine. As a former merchant mariner turned academic, Mercogliano points out that the cost of war risk insurance is what’s really stopping the tankers.

When you own a $100 million tanker (empty and not carrying a drop of oil) you usually pay 0.1% – 0.3% of the vessel’s value per trip for coverage. This past week the underwriters were demanding 1-3%, or about $1-3 million per voyage.

If 20–40 tankers make that transit daily, the theoretical exposure could reach $5–10 billion per day of insured cargo and vessels.

At those prices, anchoring your tanker becomes cheaper than risking the transit. Because crippling a tanker doesn’t take a $100 million fighter jet anymore. A $50,000 drone boat will do just fine: a lot of bang for the buck.

Russian LNG tanker attacked by drone in Mediterranean

The recent Red Sea crisis of 2023 shows how widespread these attacks have become: 164 missiles and 265 drones fired at shipping, 79 ships targeted and 29 vessels hit. And that’s just by the Houthis. Imagine if a real navy joined the party.

Can the White House realistically offer to have Uncle Sam underwrite that cost and assume those incredible amounts of risk? It may have to, right after it finishes fixing health care, student loans, and the Northeast’s commuter rail system.

How about US Navy escorts? That could be done, though in the Red Sea crisis the Pentagon did not run full convoy escorts like it did during the 1980s tanker war. And again, not cheap.

What’s this all mean to Connecticut, the economy and your wallet?

Like Covid, this may qualify as what economists call a “black swan” event: extremely rare and unexpected, having a massive impact and, after the fact, people claiming it was predictable (which it probably was). So maybe that makes this a gray swan instead?

Think of the 39-mile-wide Strait of Hormuz as the Merritt Parkway of global oil traffic: too narrow, over‑capacity, and one bad move from a miles‑long backup. The difference is that when something goes wrong in Hormuz it’s not a Subaru crashing into the guardrail near Trumbull… it’s a supertanker full of crude and a shock to the global economy.

2 million bbl VLCC - Very Large Crude Carrier

With about 20% of the world’s oil passing through this, the world’s most vulnerable oil chokepoint, we can expect higher gasoline and home heating oil prices, a devastating effect on the stock market, a disruption of global supply chains and soaring inflation. That probably means higher food prices, more expensive airline tickets… and, of course, even higher gasoline prices.

When Hormuz sneezes, the global economy doesn’t just catch a cold; it ends up in the ER with a stack of unpaid bills and a lecture from the IMF.

WINTER WARRIORS: CDOT VS MOTHER NATURE

2026-02-27T17:22:00.000-05:00

I used to think March 1st meant Spring was around the corner. This year it means Winter is just getting warmed up. Last week’s blizzard followed by mid-week “flurries” convince me that May is a better hoped-for date for a reprieve.

Meantime let’s give credit to all those who kept us moving in the worst of what Winter has had to throw at us.

ON THE RAILS: While some railroads (like NJ Transit and the LIRR) “temporarily suspended most service” (i.e. shut down) before or during the blizzard, Metro-North kept chugging along, albeit on a reduced schedule. Amtrak kept the Northeast Corridor technically open which in a blizzard counts as a small miracle. Understandably, people were warned to stay off the roads, but if travel was absolutely necessary the train could get you there. So thank you to the crews that worked tirelessly to keep the station platforms plowed, track switches cleared and the trains still running.

ON THE ROADS: Here’s where the miracles happened. The faceless teams of plow operators and salters worked night and day reopening our interstates as quickly as possible. Even on Wednesday, with another brief storm, my drive along the coast on I-95 from Fairfield County to Rhode Island appeared clean and well plowed. I saw several conga-lines of plows clearing the travel lanes and shoulders and using bucket and dump-trucks to remove what remained.

Where does all that snow go? Most is what they call “toss snow”, literally tossed off to the side of the road. On bridges and overpasses, giant snow blowers are called into action. In cities like Hartford larger amount of snow are trucked to state property to await melting.

But there was so much snow to be removed this week that CT’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) temporarily allowed dumping in local rivers and even Long Island Sound. That’s despite the fact that plowed snow carries road salt (chlorides), sand, oil, tire particles, litter, fertilizers, and other contaminants, which can degrade water quality, harm fish and aquatic life.

Clean water is important. So is clean pavement.

CDOT uses salt brine to pretreat our highways, roughly the equivalent of 100 pounds of salt per lane-mile in each direction, lowering the freezing temperature of water to - 6 degrees F. Years ago they used sand but abandoned that for environmental reasons. Then come the plows and salt trucks.

Morton Salt mines

Understandably, rock salt is in short supply this year so it now costs over $80 a ton. Most comes from Morton Salt’s mines in upstate NY while some is also imported by the shipload from as far away as Chile.

In some states, fracking brine (euphemistically called “produced water”) is used for highway treatment. But that’s banned in Connecticut due to its residual radioactivity.

All of these salty corrosives aren’t good for your car, damaging the frame, underbody, brake and fuel lines, suspension components, and fasteners. Rust never sleeps. That makes washing your vehicle after a storm even more important… after, of course, removing the ice and snow atop your vehicle lest it fly off at high speed endangering other drivers.

CDOT had almost 650 trucks clearing 10,000+ lane miles of state highways during the blizzard. In your town or city your local DPW cleared the local roads. And in shoreline communities like Madison the 22” of heavy, wet snow was still being cleared days after the storm.

So effective were the CDOT crews that Governor Ned Lamont later dispatched CDOT personnel (drivers and mechanics) and equipment to Rhode Island and Massachusetts to assist in their clean-up.

Thank you also to neighbors who didn’t park their cars on local roads impeding plowing and then cleared their sidewalks, incentivized by local ordinances.

And then there are the private plow operators whose long hours during and after the blizzard have made for a lucrative if exhausting period of work.

The Winter of ‘26 isn’t done with us yet. The crews will keep plowing. We’ll keep salting. And come April we’ll all complain about potholes instead.

DIESEL DEJA VU ON SHORE LINE EAST

2026-02-20T16:51:00.002-05:00

It was only three years ago that CDOT made a big hoopla over adding electric-powered M8 trains to the Shore Line East rail line from New Haven to New London, promoting how clean, quiet and fast they were.

Governor Lamont hailed them as “fighting climate change by investing in cleaner, greener transportation.” Passengers loved the new cars for their quick acceleration, comfy seats and plugs for charging their devices.

Now CDOT says they’re too expensive to operate and will be replaced by the older diesel locomotives and second-hand coaches from Virginia.

As CDOT Commissioner Eucalitto told lawmakers, reverting to diesels is better than cutting service, as if this was the only option in his $15 billion five-year transportation program.

DOES CDOT WANT TO KILL SHORE LINE EAST?

It sure seems so… and with Amtrak’s help. Post-COVID while the other rail lines were restored to full service, Shore Line East was not. CDOT blamed low ridership … the predictable result of running fewer trains and then acting surprised when fewer people ride them.

Compared with the shiny M8 trains, diesels are slower to accelerate and create a witches brew of noxious gases even though they burn what’s called ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) fuel, the railroad equivalent of “clean coal”. Nothing says “climate leadership” like bringing back the spewing exhaust.

Photo Credit - Ewing Leon

The real reasons for this reversion?

First, Metro-North needs those Shoreline East M8’s to run elsewhere. They’ve already been sighted on the Harlem line. When equipment gets tight, the shoreline always seems to be the first place CDOT looks for “flexibility.”

And second, because CDOT says it can save $8.8 million by not having to pay Amtrak for electricity to power the M8’s or for the privilege of using their overhead catenary power lines.

Amtrak is acting like a greedy electric company… charging you to plug your hair-dryer in their socket even before you turn it on. But saving $8.8 million by making service worse is the kind of efficiency that only works on spreadsheets.

DOES AMTRAK HATE COMMUTER RAIL?

While in most of the US Amtrak operates as a guest on freight railroads’ tracks, in the Northeast Corridor they’re the boss and their profitable Acela trains get the VIP treatment while commuter lines schedule their trains in between. That’s why Amtrak is able to bully CDOT and Shore Line East: it’s their tracks and wires.

But in Connecticut where the state owns the tracks west from New Haven to the NY state line, Amtrak is our customer and we get to call the shots. So why doesn’t CDOT just tell Amtrak to play nice if they want to keep those over-priced Acela trains on time?

Amtrak pays Metro-North a bonus for keeping its trains on schedule in Metro-North territory. Maybe we could make a deal for letting our M8’s keep running on Shore Line East?

NEW LOCOS & RAILCARS

CDOT has 60 new passenger cars and six dual-mode locomotives on order which should start arriving later this year. But none are promised to Shore Line East. Instead the branch line riders to Waterbury and Hartford will be riding in style (in cars with Wi-fi) while Shore Line East commuters (or what’s left of them), are clunking along in 35-year-old hand-me-down trains. Hartford gets Wi-fi while New London gets nostalgia with a cloud of diesel exhaust.

Shore Line East was created to relieve highway congestion on I-95. Now it risks becoming a case study in how to discourage rail ridership without ever formally abandoning it. Is it any surprise that locals refer to the southeast part of our state as “Connecticut’s forgotten corner”?

VANITY LICENSE PLATES

2026-02-06T17:26:00.002-05:00

Your car has a face, and in Connecticut, that face can be subject to editorial review by the Department of Motor Vehicles. Six characters may not seem dangerous, but in the wrong order your choice of vanity plates may apparently pose a serious threat to public morality. Or so says the DMV.

Since 1937, Connecticut motorists have been allowed to personalize their license plates… slowly, cautiously, and always under supervision. The earliest vanity plates were just two initials. When possible combinations maxed out, you could do four letters. And by the 1970’s, six characters combining letters and numbers.

Today you can also order one of the dozens of different special plates supporting various organizations or causes ranging from Friends of the Amistad to Preserving Long Island Sound. There are plates for your pet, Special Olympics, Greenways, the Marine Corps League, Gold Star families, the Red Sox and Amateur Radio too. The DMV’s most recent addition celebrates Connecticut as “The Pizza State”.

Mind you, not all requests for vanity plates are approved, despite their application fee of roughly $90 to over $140, depending on the plate. That’s because the killjoys at the DMV don’t allow anything profane, crude, obscene, or vulgar. Context, irony, and spelling variations are apparently not mitigating factors.

Examples of some of the 350 applications reportedly rejected in 2024 include WEEDBIZ (drug dealer?), F4RTBOX (bad muffler?), BIGSEXY (don’t ask) and GR8FUL (presumably a Jerry Garcia fan). But somehow these plates got approved: DICKS, BUTTS, BALLS and TOOL. And we have confirm sightings of FUBAR, COVFEVE, PUTIN and RUSSIA.

So yes, these plates have existed in the wild, roaming our highways freely, confusing children and giving their parents a chuckle and something to explain to the backseat crowd.

I had a doctor once whose plate read NOPCMD. I asked him why he hated computers. He said I was misreading the plate and that I’d forgotten he was a urologist.

In a similar vein there’s the New Hampshire woman, Wendy Auger, who for many years has proudly displayed her plate PB4WEGO, harkening back to the phrase always uttered by Dads to their kids before a road trip.

It took the NH DMV 15 years to notice, which says less about the plate and more about the review process. For a time the DMV told Auger to return her plates as they suddenly realized they refer to a bodily function. The state has since relented. After all, New Hampshire is the “Live Free or Die” state.

Not surprisingly, Connecticut lawmakers receive special plates identifying them as members of the House or Senate, with leadership titles prominently displayed. We’re told these plates confer no special treatment, no parking privileges, and no immunity from law enforcement. The word “told” is doing a lot of work here.

SNOW, SALT AND UNPLUGGED PROMISES

2026-01-30T17:56:00.000-05:00

Connecticut seems to be surviving the recent series of winter storms the way it always does: with salt, overtime, and lowered expectations. Life must go on and we’re all counting on CDOT to keep us moving.

So kudos to their 900 drivers and 650 trucks that worked tirelessly to first, pre-treat some 10,000 “lane miles” our state highways with salt brine, then plow the snow when it came.

If only our municipalities did as good a job.

Drive from town to town and you’ll see a vast difference in road clearing. In some, because cars were taken off the road before the storm, streets are clear. In others where cars were left parked at the curb, it may take days to chisel them out from the icy berms caused by plowing… like some sort of archeological dig.

Still to be excavated as well are dozens and dozens of bus stops across the state.

Kudos also to our railroads which, even in the teeth of a giant snow and ice storm, kept service running, albeit at a reduced level. Where other states’ railroads pre-emptively shut down before the storm (think NJTransit), Connecticut’s trains kept running.

Amtrak did what Amtrak always does in a storm: run enough trains to claim victory while canceling enough to remind you who they are. A week later and they’re still struggling.

As I wrote last week, rail riders deserve open waiting rooms and cleared platforms at stations (a service usually provided by local towns). But one experiment in keeping platforms clear of ice and snow without using tons of rock salt has proven something of a disappointment.

I refer to the state’s boldest experiment yet: electrically-heated station platforms in Darien! What could possibly go wrong?

Back in 2023 a $32 million contract was awarded by CDOT to rebuild crumbling station infrastructure at Darien with new platforms heated by electricity… the first such project in the state.

Now, explain the math to me: how will we pay some of the highest electric rates in the US to melt snow vs the cost of human shovelers and bags of salt? Where’s the savings?

Admittedly there’s more to this particular contract… better speakers for train announcements, improved lighting, public information display boards, new elevators, ADA-compliant ramps and sidewalks, and EV charging infrastructure. But we’re talking 32 million taxpayer dollars!

Work on the whole project was due for completion by the middle of this year, but almost immediately the project ran into trouble.

Demolition of the old platforms encountered unmapped underground utilities and unexpected infrastructure requiring extra work. The original steel railing vendor went bankrupt. The completion date was pushed back and another $6 million was added to the cost. Funny how that happens.

Last November the first half of the project was finally done but they’re far from being finished. The elevators still aren’t running and only half of the platforms have been replaced.

But how did the one new electrically-heated platform do in the recent ice and snow storm? Just OK.

Heated Platform - Darien

The one platform that is working (on the NY-bound side of the station) seems to have fared well in the recent storm. But Eversource says it is still waiting for paperwork from CDOT as well as state and local inspections before they can throw the switch on the other side. And CDOT says they’re waiting for Eversource to return a signed agreement.

And we’re all waiting for Spring.

WINTER TRAVEL HACKS

2026-01-25T12:48:00.004-05:00

I hate Winter. And Winter hates transportation.

Growing up in The Great White North (Canada, eh?), Winter seemed to last about six months. This Winter in Connecticut seems even longer. But feet of snow and sub-freezing temperatures don’t have to stop you if you follow some tried and true travel hacks.

TRAVELING BY CAR:

If a storm is coming, get your car off the street and into a garage. That way the trucks can plow and you don’t have to dig out your ride. If you do have to clean off your car after a storm, include the roof in your efforts. Otherwise your car may start launching “ice missiles” at unsuspecting targets as you’re driving down I-84. That can mean a fine and possible injury to others.

Keep your gas tank full. Your windshield washer tank too… with ice-melting fluids, not water. Replace worn wipers before winter storms. Frozen, shredded rubber on dirty glass turns night driving into roulette.

When you start your engine, let it idle for at least 20 to 30 seconds before driving to ensure adequate oil distribution. Don’t race the engine. This isn’t Daytona, and cold oil doesn’t respond well to your enthusiasm.

Drive with your traction control turned on and proceed with caution. Just because you’re in a SUV, don’t assume that because your car is bigger it’s safer.

Check your tires. For every 10 degree drop in temperature you lose one PSI in tire pressure. Under-inflated tires mean longer stopping distances (before factoring in the ice), lower fuel economy and higher risk of blowouts.

If you’re in an EV anticipate that your car won’t charge as well in the cold. And expect to lose 20-40% of your normal driving range. Pre-conditioning the battery while plugged in can claw back some of that mileage.

Without sounding like a scolding parent, just assume the worst because Winter always does. Keep an emergency kit handy: a blanket, flashlight, phone charger, and gloves in the car aren’t paranoia, they’re planning.

TRAVELING BY TRAIN:

While train travel is much safer in bad weather, it’s not immune to physics. Sub-zero temperatures are the enemy of all things mechanical.

To their credit, Connecticut’s railroads have a much better record of performance in Winter than in years past when service was pre-emptively cancelled to avoid stranding passengers. But remember… parts of this railroad are 100+ years old and centenarians don’t like playing in the snow.

While apps like TrainTime have vastly improved communications, they’re not perfect. Trust your eyes and crowd-source any mistake you see to our Twitter account (@CTRailCommuters) to advise your fellow riders.

If your station’s waiting room is locked or the platform is not shoveled / sanded, document it and call your Town Hall. Commuters deserve heat and a safe path to their train.

Grabbing the first train in the morning darkness turns you into a guinea pig as it encounters frozen switches and doors so later trains don’t have to. Overhead power lines can snap and strand you without heat, so opt for diesel powered trains if they’re an option.

And don’t forget to download and activate your ticket before boarding in case cell service is lost and you’re hit with an $8 fine under Metro-North’s new rules.

Keep your cell phone (and its Winter-hating battery) fully charged and close to your body heat to preserve its power. Stashing your phone in a bag or outside pocket will drain your power quickly.

Finally, ask yourself “Is this trip really necessary?” Sometimes the smartest winter travel decision is deciding not to travel at all.

PRIVACY IS DEAD

2026-01-16T16:40:00.001-05:00

OMG! Wegman’s supermarkets are using artificial intelligence and facial recognition? Outrageous! Alert the authorities! Cancel dinner!

Never mind the fact that on your way to shop you passed by dozens of video cameras and license plate readers. Or the fact that your cellphone has been constantly pinging your location enroute. Attention shoppers: you have no privacy!

Supermarkets are not alone in their use of this tech. CVS, Home Depot, Macy’s, Target and Walmart do too. They say it’s just for controlling theft (of which there is plenty), but I’m not buying it. By knowing your face they know everything about you: your online shopping history, social media posts and credit history.

With digital price shelf tags that update in seconds, the only real question is how long before the algorithm decides your face looks like it can afford to pay another 12 percent.

Even turning on your cellphone may involve recognizing your face. Calling Customer Service? They may use voice recognition or even measure your tone of voice for signs of stress and frustration.

Airlines can deduce the reason for that last minute trip you’re booking. If it’s for a funeral, critics wonder if they might charge you more because you absolutely need to travel ASAP. Airlines insist they’d never raise fares because you’re flying to a funeral. Of course not. They just happened to notice you booked one way, last minute, to Des Moines… right after your phone searched for “obituary.”

And when you do board your flight, it may be facial recognition scans that will get you on the plane, not just a boarding pass. Coming home from overseas your quick processing will depend on facial scanning by Customs and Border Patrol.

Did you buy anything overseas you didn’t declare? With a few (pesky but legal) steps, your credit card statement becomes a travel diary, complete with timestamps, locations, and a helpful list of things you “forgot” to declare.

Want to catch a Knicks or Rangers game at Madison Square Garden? Facial recognition may deny you access, even with a ticket, if you’re a lawyer who’s sued them in the past. Justice may be blind, but MSG security definitely isn’t.

In your car your face is less visible so companies like Flock depend on your license plates, color and model of your vehicle to ID you. That’s why cops are cracking down on obscured or “ghost” plates used to avoid tolls, the automotive equivalent of shoplifting. Here’s a site showing Flock cameras near you.

Flock also can also deploy drones to keep an eye on things… useful in law enforcement but a bit too scary for the Bridgeport City Council which, in a rare moment of restraint, overwhelmingly rejected a $500,000 contract covered by state funding.

Bridgeport joins a growing list of cities rejecting Flock out of privacy and data-sharing concerns. Those cities claim that Flock does more than scan license plates, but also the faces of protestors. And shares its data with the Feds.

Imagine the possibilities.

In China facial recognition identifies jay-walking pedestrians, shames them publicly and gives them demerits. Rack up too many points and you must take re-education classes… and you’re not allowed to ride high speed trains.

Washington got upset about TikTok and its ties to China. The Feds panic about a funny app while quietly building their own all-seeing data ecosystem.

Not that there’s much you can do, at this point. Privacy is dead. Our lives are an open book. The only question left is who’s still pretending not to read it.