Fare increases, reduced train service, less highway snow plowing, postponed construction. All of these and more are on the horizon, say Gov. Dannel Malloy and the Connecticut DOT because our Special Transportation Fund (STF) is running dry. I hate to say I told you so, but…
Transportation
Posted inHealth
New transportation contractor for Medicaid patients off to rocky start
Since Jan. 1, when a San Diego-based company called Veyo took over a program to drive Medicaid recipients to medical appointments, many patients have had to wait hours on hold when calling for rides; have missed or been late for critical medical appointments like dialysis, or were stranded at medical facilities when return rides didn’t arrive. The company is scrambling to fix the problems, its president said.
Posted inMoney, Transportation
Malloy ready to stall hundreds of transportation projects
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy continued to set the stage Wednesday for a landmark 2018 transportation finance debate, outlining nearly 400 capital projects worth $4.3 billion that would be suspended over the next five years because of inadequate funding.
Posted inCT Viewpoints, Talking Transportation
How will the Real ID Act affect you?
Something like 1.73 million Americans board airplanes ever day. And each of them must go through a very necessary screening by the TSA, the Transportation Security Administration. But beginning late this month, a lot of passengers will be denied boarding because they don’t have the right kind of ID. You can thank (or blame) the Real ID Act passed by Congress in 2005 after 9/11 to make sure people really are who they claim to be. As any teen can tell you, it’s too easy to obtain a fake ID. And if teens can do it, terrorists can also.
Posted inMoney, Transportation
Malloy tight-lipped on whether he will propose tolls
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy told a business audience Wednesday that saving the Special Transportation Fund from insolvency is an urgent issue for the General Assembly, but he was coy about whether he intends to propose tolls, a gas tax increase or any other solution in the final budget he’ll propose in February.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Some analysis, please, on tolls versus higher gasoline tax
We need a serious comparison of the costs and benefits of tolls vs. higher gas taxes. Some obvious issues are…
Costs: It should cost next to nothing to raise gas taxes, while tolls might involve significant capital and operating costs.
Equity: It would seem fair that all drivers pay a share of maintaining and improving roads, not just ones using particular highways.
Contribution from drivers from out-of-state: How would the two options compare?
Congestion pricing: Would a toll system really be put at locations that enable effective congestion pricing? Border tolls would not do so. Could congestion pricing really be fair and effective in a state with limited alternative transportation options and limited number of lanes on highways?
Posted inCT Viewpoints, Talking Transportation
Feeling sorry for Dannel Malloy; more sorry for us
Six words I never thought I’d write: “I feel sorry for Dannel Malloy.”
Sure, we’ve had our differences. And yeah, the governor does have the personality of a porcupine and the disposition of a bully, sometimes. But the man is not evil and he doesn’t deserve what’s happening to him now. Nor do we. Our governor is a lame duck. Because he’s announced he’s not running for re-election, he has the political clout of a used teabag. And even though he’s our state’s leader for another 11 months, nobody cares about him or his ideas any longer.
Posted inPolitics, Transportation
GOP candidates light on ideas at transportation forum
SOUTHINGTON — Republican candidates for governor drove away from a transportation forum Friday without saying how they would stabilize Connecticut’s depleted transportation fund, disappointing an audience of union members and contractors whose livelihoods rely on the state’s ability to maintain and improve its aging infrastructure.
Posted inMoney, Politics, Transportation
Malloy says CT must reverse a culture of postponing hard choices
The future of Connecticut’s finances, transportation network and general well-being hinges largely on government — and the legislature in particular — reversing a long-standing culture of postponing hard choices, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy told Hartford area business leaders Friday.
Posted inCT Viewpoints, Talking Transportation
Updates on the billion dollar bridge and high-speed rail
A few updates on some recent items: HYPERLOOP: In July I wrote about tech entrepreneur Elon Musk’s idea to build a 700-plus mph tube system to whisk passengers from Washington D.C. to New York City in 29 minutes using a combination of a near-vacuum and linear induction motors. I noted that Musk has yet to build a working full-scale prototype, and called him “the PT Barnum of technology” offering “more hype than hope.”
At the time, Musk had just gone public after a meeting at the White House saying he’d been given “approval” to start boring giant tunnels for his project. I scoffed at the notion, but have been proven wrong.
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 inCities & Towns, Money, Politics, Transportation
CT transportation system at risk of dramatic contraction
Connecticut’s cash-starved transportation program would need to scrap some rail services, drive up fares, suspend 40 percent of planned capital projects and defer major highway rebuilds like the Hartford Viaduct, to remain solvent over the next five years, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration has warned Wall Street.
Posted inCT Viewpoints, Talking Transportation
There’s more to road paving than you and your automobile know
Tired of driving on potholed roads? Who isn’t? We may not (yet) have tolls, but the terrible condition of our highways takes its toll on our vehicles with bent rims, alignments and other repairs. There are more than 10,000 lane-miles of state highways in Connecticut, of which only 300 are repaved each year. But that work involves more than just slapping a new layer of asphalt on those roads.
Posted inCT Viewpoints, Talking Transportation
Why don’t we (you name it)? Because we don’t have the money.
“Why don’t they build a monorail down the middle of I-95?”
So began the latest in a series of well-intended emails I regularly receive from readers, anxious to offer what seem like smart solutions to our transportation crisis in Connecticut.
Why no monorail? Because we don’t have the money.
So let me ask — and answer — a few questions:
Posted inMoney, Politics
Car tax repeal hits a snag, tentative CT budget still unbalanced
Updated at 6:40 p.m.
Senate Democratic leaders hinted Monday that plans to eliminate property taxes on motor vehicles next year as part of a new state budget would be scaled back or scrapped altogether — just two business days after legislative leaders announced the initiative.