In November, Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch issued an eye-opening review of the state’s huge transportation funding challenge. As a call to action, Ravitch repeatedly cited the need to fix aging bridges like the Kosciusko and Tappan Zee. His report described the Tappan Zee as costing “between $6 and $10 billion.” But the bridge is [...]
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This morning, Gov. Cuomo announced he would nominate Joan McDonald to run NYSDOT. McDonald is currently Commissioner of CT’s Dept. of Economic and Community Development. She has previous transportation experience at the NYC Economic Development Corporation, NYCDOT, and Metro-North. McDonald. In response, TSTC released the following statement: The Tri-State Transportation Campaign welcomes the [...]  While a candidate, Governor Cuomo released an environmental plan — “Cleaner, Greener New York” — that embraced smart growth but was short on implementation specifics. Now that the election is over, green groups have come together to present 12 Green Memos to the Governor and State Legislature that help to fill in the specifics [...] One of the first actions by the new Republican-led House last week was to pass a set of procedural rules that take transportation funding out of the realm of long-term planning and subject it to the whims of yearly budget negotiations, reversing a policy in place since 1998. The new Congress may mean [...]  Budget. Budget. Budget. Reading the papers, one might think the budget is the only thing on Albany’s plate this year — and TSTC will be in the ring to fight for the funding needed for MTA projects beyond 2011 (which are unfunded) and keep NY’s transportation infrastructure in a state of good repair. But [...] Late last year, TSTC sent a letter to then Governor-elect Dannel Malloy outlining transportation priorities in Connecticut for 2011 and beyond. Much of the letter reiterated the issues that he himself supported in our 2010 gubernatorial survey, namely an emphasis on ‘fix-it-first,’ cycling and walking investments, and support for smart growth and transit-oriented development. Now that Gov. Malloy has taken office, we look forward to working with him to implement his vision.
 In November, then-Gov. Jodi Rell announced a package of biking and walking projects and policies. In 2010, Gov. Jodi Rell’s administration made good on earlier promises to emphasize transit in Connecticut, even as the state went through budget challenges similar to its neighbors. Both the Hartford-New Britain Busway and New Haven-Springfield Rail Line are close to construction, and they weren’t the only transit improvements the state realized in 2010. The state also made promising steps towards supporting biking and walking. In June, ConnDOT Commissioner Joseph Marie abruptly stepped down. But many of the priorities pushed by Marie continued through the rest of the year. Here are some of the themes from 2010: Transit Projects AdvanceThe Hartford-New Britain Busway got a huge boost in February, when the Federal Transit Administration recommended that the project receive a grant from the New Starts transit program. The FTA had been skeptical of ConnDOT’s commitment to the project in prior years, but the agency was able to turn around the project under Commissioner Marie. Despite some late opposition, the busway gained the support of multiple Chambers of Commerce, advocates, and House Speaker Chris Donovan. A “federal funding grant agreement” that will allow construction to proceed is expected later this year. The New Haven-Hartford-Springfield Rail Line benefited from ConnDOT’s repositioning of the project to qualify for high-speed rail funds (a path previously suggested by advocates). At the beginning of the year, the project was awarded $40 million in federal high-speed rail funds. The state stepped up for the project by bonding out $260 million in August, which was rewarded when the project won $121 million in high-speed rail money in October. The project is now on the cusp of a “near-term vision” to increase Amtrak service and introduce a new commuter rail system to Connecticut. Service to and from New London on the Shore Line East rail service was increased in May. Another long-time promise nearing fruition has been the delivery of new M8 rail cars to replace the ancient equipment on Metro-North’s New Haven Line. A last-minute glitch means the new cars will enter service in January, later than planned. Rail riders will surely appreciate the upgrade. For the most part, Connecticut transit agencies were able to avoid the giant fare hikes and service cuts of other states in the region. The Bridgeport Transit Authority raised fares in October, though this garnered little notice from politicians compared to the much larger outcry over relatively small fee increases on Metro-North. A Boost For Bikers and WalkersOne area that ConnDOT has historically neglected has been biking and walking projects. Early in the year, the agency showcased this deficiency yet again with a “blame the victim” response to a Tri-State report on pedestrian fatalities. The State Legislature fell just short of passing a “vulnerable users” bill that would have enhanced penalties for careless drivers who injure or kill walkers, bikers, emergency personnel, and others. But the state’s complete streets law, passed in 2009, went into full effect this year. And Gov. Rell and ConnDOT Acting Commissioner Jeff Parker closed the year by announcing a package of bike and pedestrian projects and policy reforms that will close gaps in the state’s nonmotorized trail network and increase ConnDOT’s commitment to sidewalks and urban bike projects. A new report from U.S. PIRG dismantles the oft-repeated myth that roads pay for themselves with gas tax and other revenue. According to the report, “Do Roads Pay For Themselves? Setting the Record Straight on Transportation Funding,” gasoline taxes, vehicle registration fees, and tolls covered only 51 percent of the $193 billion spent on [...] 2010 proved to be a disastrous year for New Jersey transportation, with the state’s most pressing transportation challenge going unaddressed and with great leaps backward in policy. New Governor Chris Christie entered the year well aware that the state’s transportation system needed a long-term funding solution. The Transportation Trust Fund (which gets most of its revenue from the state gas tax and represents the state’s contribution to the NJDOT and NJ Transit capital programs) had been borrowed against for too long and would go bankrupt by July 2011.  NJ Transit riders packed a public hearing on planned fare hikes and service cuts in Newark in March. Gov. Christie didn’t address the issue during 2010. But the tough budget environment hit transit riders in other ways, leading to major fare hikes and service cuts and the cancellation of the Access to the Region’s Core project, a rail tunnel between NYC and New Jersey that was necessary to increase service on the state rail system. A Tough Year for Transit RidersTo say it was a tough year for transit riders in New Jersey would be an understatement. The new governor opened the year by cutting state support for NJ Transit by 11%. A proposal for a 25% fare increase and huge service cuts soon followed. Thousands of riders protested at public hearings and sent messages to state politicians, and NJ Transit eventually lowered the fare hike for local bus and light rail riders to 10% while keeping the 25% hike for commuter trains and buses. But the increase was still the largest in a generation. In May, NJDOT Commissioner Jim Simpson revealed that the Christie administration had backed away from a financial commitment to a planned bus rapid transit and PATCO rail extension project in South Jersey. But this was just a sneak preview of one of the largest stories of the year — the cancellation of the ARC Tunnel. As recently as April, the governor was calling the ARC Tunnel “critical for the transit riders of New Jersey” and standing squarely behind the project, which represented the culmination of 20 years of planning and was the largest transit project in the nation. But in September he suspended new work on the project for 30 days, supposedly to review project costs. Many observers, however, had an alternate theory: that killing the tunnel could be a means to shore up the Transportation Trust Fund. NJ Transit Executive Director Jim Weinstein admitted as such, telling state legislators that cancelling the project could be a way to do so. The governor was urged to reconsider this short-sighted decision by broad swathes of the state’s civic, labor, business, and environmental communities, and Christie delayed making a decision as thousands of New Jerseyans came out to support the project. USDOT Secretary Ray LaHood flew down and set up last-minute federal-state discussions to try and salvage the project. But after delaying a decision again, Gov. Christie rejected several offered financing options. On October 27, the governor made the decision official, effectively precluding any major improvements to the rail network for at least the next 20 years. Doing so also put the state on the hook to repay $271 million in federal funds that had been spent on the project. The federal government has since reduced that amount, and the state has hired a D.C. law firm to try and lower the bill further. Toll Road Widenings AdvanceEven as major transit projects languished, the Christie administration borrowed billions of dollars to advance major road widening projects. Both the Garden State Parkway widening (between mileposts 63 and 80) and NJ Turnpike widening (6-8A), which the Corzine administration broke ground on, advanced further under Gov. Christie. |
 
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