The increased capacity on Metro-North comes even as ridership numbers are struggling to recover to pre-pandemic levels.
Metro-North
Metro-North is a commuter train with service to New York City. Its New Haven line brings passengers from the Connecticut shoreline to Grand Central Station.
Posted inTransportation
More aboard! State rail ridership is coming back as pandemic wanes
Despite the continuing pandemic, riders are returning to Metro-North trains. The state is trying to get them a faster ride.
Posted inTransportation
Would Hartford gain from a Boston train? Advocates are all aboard
Train service from New Haven to Boston via Hartford, Springfield and Worcester could have a “transformative effect” on the economy.
Posted inTransportation
Congress is poised to make a major investment in rail. Is it enough for CT?
The coalition behind the bipartisan infrastructure bill is fragile, and the money it promises rail is both historic and inadequate.
Posted inTransportation
Lamont’s transit reboot: Faster trains next year — and 2035
Connecticut is promising billions in improvements to the New Haven Line, the busiest and pokiest commuter rail corridor in America.
Posted inPolitics
Rosa DeLauro on her new gig: ‘It’s every aspect of people’s lives.’
Rosa DeLauro is holding a hearing on the Hyde Amendment. But COVID relief is the only immediate spending priority.
Posted inEconomic Development, Money
Transportation infrastructure could be key to inclusive economic recovery, but investment has languished
Advocates say Connecticut must rebuild its aging transportation network and expand public transit to provide economic opportunity for all.
Posted inEconomic Development
Pandemic, tax issues give Connecticut a chance to reset economy, strengthen the region
With the coronavirus turning many commuters into at-home workers, Connecticut has a unique chance to reset its economy.
Posted inTransportation
Will the coronavirus kill the state’s transit comeback?
After decades of building gleaming new highways, which enabled great mobility but eventually induced serious congestion, sprawl and pollution, Connecticut rediscovered transit. The state added or upgraded bus and rail service, with innovations such as CTFastrak and the Hartford Line, and people hopped aboard. Ridership was breaking records almost every year in the last decade […]
Posted inTransportation
Cuomo is coming to talk about regionalism, pot and transportation
The governors of Connecticut and New York share an interest in regionalism.
Posted inTransportation
Northeast rail plan stymied by lack of funding, concerns in Fairfield County
WASHINGTON — An ambitious — and to some in Connecticut controversial — plan to overhaul the railroad in the Northeast Corridor has come to a full stop, a victim to lack of funding. There also has been pushback to the plan from Fairfield County residents who fear the impact of laying down new high-speed-ready tracks and other development near their neighborhoods.
Posted inPolitics, Transportation
CT senators blast Trump’s infrastructure plan, but hope for compromise
WASHINGTON — Connecticut’s senators on Monday joined a growing Democratic chorus of criticism for President-elect Donald Trump’s infrastructure plan, saying it is unrealistic and unworkable and would result in the building and repair of very few roads and bridges.
Posted inCT Viewpoints, Talking Transportation
It’s the CT transportation system’s turn to feel the pain
“If our trains and buses rely on the Special Transportation Fund as it exists and is funded today, we will be back for more hearings like this for years to come. What we need is systemic change in how we fund transit. Yet I know of nobody in Hartford with the guts to be honest with commuters and taxpayers about what is coming.”
Posted inCT Viewpoints, Talking Transportation
Bikes now allowed on Metro-North… sometimes
Days before the Connecticut Department of Transportation opens public hearings on a proposed 5 percent fare increase on Metro-North, Gov. Dannel Malloy held a media event to promote good news about “improved service” on our highest-fares-in-the-nation railroad. What? A return of the bar cars? More seats on crowded trains? No, nothing that monumental: just a new e-ticketing app and word that bike racks have been installed on our trains.
Posted inCT Viewpoints, Talking Transportation
Don’t blame Malloy for transit fare hikes
Sure, it was sleazy of Gov. Dannel Malloy and the Connecticut Department of Transportation to release news of a proposed 5 percent fare hike on Metro-North on a Friday afternoon in July, hoping nobody would notice. But the more I dig into the proposal, the more I realize the governor and CDOT are not to blame. It’s the Connecticut legislature that’s really responsible for this fare hike.