Creative Commons License

The 7:11 AM Hartford Line CT Rail train leaves Berlin station on February 13, 2025. Advocates are urging lawmakers to increase funding and services for the state's commuter railroads. Credit: Shahrzad Rasekh / CT Mirror

Connecticut’s commuter rail and bus services will continue running at current levels for the next year under Gov. Ned Lamont’s latest budget proposal, which otherwise warned of an impending fiscal cliff due to loss of pandemic-era federal funding for rail.

Lamont’s budget proposed a increase of $19.7 million for rail and $9.4 for buses in the fiscal year beginning on July 1. That would amount to an increase of 6% and 3%, respectively, over the current year’s budget. The intention of the increase is to keep their operations flat, budget officials said.

In addition, the governor proposed spending $3.5 million to provide half-priced bus fares to students and free bus fares for veterans. That money would be split between the Department of Transportation and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

This year’s budget proposal does not include any increases in the cost of a bus or rail ticket, following an overall 10% fare hike for Metro-North and CT Rail that will take effect by July 1.

After 2027, the budget document prepared by the Office of Policy and Management warned that roughly $45.6 million in federal pandemic relief funds being used to subsidize CT Rail services will expire and need to be replaced. Several of the state’s commuter rail services, including Metro-North’s New Haven Line, have struggled to rebound to their pre-pandemic ridership.

Sen. Christine Cohen, D-Guilford, co-chair of the Transportation Committee, said Wednesday that she and other lawmakers planned to push for additional funding that would allow for increased service, including along Shore Line East.

“I’m a firm believer that you really need to expand and enhance public transportation in order to get ridership up to lower the subsidies,” Cohen said. “It’s a win-win for the environment, in terms of workforce development, and making sure we’re getting the flow of people and things to where they need to go.”

Cohen and other Senate Democrats also filed legislation on Wednesday to provide for a one-year extension of a microtransit pilot program that began in 2024. The initial $19.5 million in state funding for that program is due to expire in July.

The pilot provides on-demand rides for people in nine different towns and transit districts. Some of those services, such as New Haven’s Via NHV, operate similar to private rideshares such as Uber and Lyft, but at a subsidized cost to riders. The program is intended to boost last-mile service to and from existing transit stations.

Lamont’s budget also proposes slowing the growth of the Special Transportation Fund — the primary vehicle used to finance road and public transit projects — which represents about 10% of the overall state budget.

The STF would grow by $114 million next fiscal year, under the governor’s budget, pushing it to nearly $2.4 billion. But that’s still $12 million less in growth than he and the legislature originally endorsed in an earlier draft of 2026-27 finances approved last June.

Lamont, who tried unsuccessfully to convince legislators in 2019 and 2020 to approve electronic tolling on state highways, warned in November that Connecticut might need to curb borrowing for highway, bridge and rail repairs.

The Special Transportation Fund pays off the principal and interest on the infrastructure rebuilding program while subsidizing public transit costs and operating expenses for the departments of transportation and motor vehicles.

Connecticut, which finances most of its transportation construction work by selling bonds on Wall Street, has issued $1.3 billion this fiscal year, according to the state treasurer’s office. Lamont’s budget staff projected in November, though, that transportation bond sales would drop to $1.2 billion next fiscal year, $1.1 billion in 2027-28 and remain there through 2030.

Don Shubert, president of the Connecticut Construction Industry Association, said this approach to transportation funding “is going to have a very fast, negative impact,” warning businesses would curtail plans to add workers and invest in new equipment.

“When the industry sees the program slow down, they pull back — right away,” he said.

The association has been insisting state borrowing must exceed $1.5 billion per year if Connecticut is to cover both basic maintenance and make the infrastructure changes necessary to improve transportation efficiency.

John covers energy and the environment for CT Mirror, a beat that has taken him from wind farms off the coast of Block Island to foraging for mushrooms in the Litchfield Hills and many places in between. Prior to joining CT Mirror, he was a statewide reporter for the Hearst Connecticut Media Group and before that, he covered politics for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock. A native of Norwalk, John earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science from Temple University.

Keith has spent most of his four decades as a reporter specializing in state government finances, analyzing such topics as income tax equity, waste in government and the complex funding systems behind Connecticut’s transportation and social services networks. He has been the state finances reporter at CT Mirror since it launched in 2010. Prior to joining CT Mirror Keith was State Capitol bureau chief for The Journal Inquirer of Manchester, a reporter for the Day of New London, and a former contributing writer to The New York Times. Keith is a graduate of and a former journalism instructor at the University of Connecticut.