100 Billion Transit Plan

[The Voice of Reason]

This is way more impressive than I had thought

 

http://touch.courant.com/#section/2224/article/p2p-82848586/

 

First off its a good idea.

 

but now that article leads off with all kinds of road info, and ya know we have more transit needs than roads... but it does get into rail later...

 

lets start with the Hartford area road projects in the 5 year ramp up period...

 

Straightening and reconfiguring I-84 in West Hartford. .

Fixing the I-91 interchange at the Charter Oak Bridge

Studying ways to improve Route 9 traffic flow in Middletown and possibly add another Connecticut River crossing nearby.

Improving the so-called "mixmaster'' at the busy interchange of I-84 and Route 8 in Waterbury.

Replacing the Hartford viaduct, the raised platform that takes I-84 through Hartford.

 

not sure about that first one because I just dont pay attention, but I do know its a windy road

 

The second is likely my biggest pet peve due to where i live and such.  It amazes me that I-91 has a 1 late interchange with I 84... its incredibly fixable too.

7 days a week there is a backup here

 

ill be curious what the Rt 9 study finds.  a new river crossing would be interesting too

 

mixmaster... obviously is an issue

 

and of course our big deal... the Hartford Viaduct.

 

 

the viaduct and the charter oak interchange have the capadility to seriously change the highway traffic through and round downtown!!!

 

 

 

but there is more...

 

 

 

 

[The Voice of Reason]

RAIL!!!!

 

Most of the money is the first 5 years... most of the new money anyways... is for rails

 

A new 1,000-car parking garage at the New Haven railroad station

New trains for Metro-North branch lines

Repairs to two of the oldest movable bridges along the New Haven Line

There would be a major modernization of Metro-North's decrepit Waterbury branch,

State-of-the-art trains and nearly complete double tracking for the new Hartford line.

 

thats great stuff because that will push capacity for the Hartford line and extend it up towards Springfield

 

 

 

The plan would also extend the busway from Hartford to Manchester, but at vastly less cost than the $567 million stretch from Hartford to New Britain

 

 

thats about it for now but I guess the big news is coming tomorrow or is that today  I dunno

[Bill Mocarsky]

The plan would also extend the busway from Hartford to Manchester, but at vastly less cost than the $567 million stretch from Hartford to New Britain

For a 100 billion dollar plan, this piece sounds underwhelming. Maybe it should be called ctfastrak lite. The buses would share the HOV lanes with other vehicles. Don't we already have something like that?

[Bill Mocarsky]

What do you think about the proposed CTfastrak extension to Manchester that would cost a fraction of the first phase?

 

If you have opinions, I hope you also voice it in other places than here.

 

I just wrote a letter to the Courant that questioned this proposal.

Busway 'Extension' Sounds Like Just A Bus

http://www.courant.com/opinion/letters/hc-ugc-article-fastrak-lite-2015-03-10-story.html

 

Lyle Wray of CRCG responded with his own letter defending the proposal.

East Of River Extension A Key Link In CTfastrak                     

http://www.courant.com/opinion/letters/hc-ugc-article-letter-to-editor-ctfastrak-east-2015-03-13-story.html

 

I think this piece hits the nail on the head.

http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/9600/brt-creep-makes-bus-rapid-transit-inferior-to-rail/

[The Voice of Reason]

Bill, good to see ya around here again.

 

Im OK with the busway extention they mention. and here is why...  I hate busway... its just plain stupid.

 

the only way it works is when it very closely resembles rail transit... so, just do rail transit abd be done...

 

 

so, in our case... we already have a stupid busway that was crazy expensive about to open... I therefore need to hope it succeeds.. and one way to help it succeed is to expand it to Manchester...  and cheeply

 

This brings the total project to be more significant in scope and it also enhances transit as a concept in the region...

 

 

 

Now, my dream here is that this resolves one of our biggest auto issues in the process.  to be an effective transit system it needs to get across the river while avoiding traffic.  this is an impossible thing without new lanes crossing the river...

 

So, with the talk above of fixing the 91-84 interchange from 91-N   I see opportunity to either add an additional lane or 2 here... or more realistically add a new crossing. which we both are advocates for.  A new crossing could be built to incorporate busway, or even rail crossing.  essentually a future proofed structure that resolves the highway interchange more elloquently

 

and well lastly Id hope that... the busway somehow proves to be crowded to the point where they decide to put trains back on those tracks, electrify them, double lane em and open and east west RLT system serving New Britain or West Hartford to Manchester..

 

also, they intend to put busway in the griffin line... another place that Should be rail

[JimSawhill]

Really a Bus way? What Connecticut needs is a west/east commuter rail, not a bus way. Here in Tampa, bus way is not what they thought it would do... (about a fifth of what they thought). We are thinking if expanding the trolley and we are thinking about commuter rail, not the high speed rail us voters voted down.

[The Voice of Reason]

we sall know busways are silly

 

but Im hoping that its popular and gets over capacity immediately

 

then they can activate the rail to handle demand

 

Adding that:   if they use small money to do the East busway, fine, do it...

but whenever they talk about the griffin line I hope to god they just realize its easier to take the several hundred million budget and spend it on rail

 

the rail line would serve downtown NB to Hartford and then to the Airport

easy peasey

future lines can cross the river   and the first line can be extended further and further West to Waterbury some day

 

[JimSawhill]

Voice: I thought the Griffin line is used as a freight railroad. How can they put a bus way there, or are you saying Griffin would be use as a commuter rail, too? CNEZ would have to let commuters have the best times. I guess only HD is the only customer on the line.

[The Voice of Reason]

It may be Jim,

 

I have see griffin line as a possible busway route on the regional planning map

 

so its clearly been discussed.

 

I was talking about rail though.  I think it needs to be double or triple railed and used as not a commuter rail but more of a metro rail kind of setup between the airport and New britain to start, but through Hartford