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Outside the Box Thinking Needed to Address New Haven Line Transit Crisis

The transit crisis facing the New Haven Line is now in its sixth day, and ConnDOT and the MTA have been doing what they can to ensure some semblance of rail service is running. Diesel trains are running between Stamford and Grand Central Terminal, and New Haven Line tickets are being cross-honored on the Harlem Line. Metro-North is now providing service that can accommodate half its typical ridership.

Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy also suspended minor road work along highways to prevent further congestion, and express bus service is being provided to some riders affected by the outage, which could reportedly take Con Edison an additional week or two to repair. Governor Malloy has also taken to lambasting the Metropolitan Transportation Authority despite the fact that the outage was caused by something beyond the MTA’s control.

One outside the box idea that neither the Governor nor ConnDOT has proposed is to dedicate a bus lane along I-95 or Route 1. Doing so will provide real, but temporary, transit options for disrupted train commuters while also discouraging trips in single occupancy vehicles.

This has proven to be successful elsewhere in the region in times of crisis. When the New York City subways were down in the aftermath of Super Storm Sandy, NYCDOT provided bus bridges and dedicated bus lanes to get people back to work. The stop-gap measure was so successful it has been incorporated into future disaster mitigation response strategies.

We understand Governor Malloy’s frustration with train infrastructure that has seen two outages this year. Beyond the current snafu, the New Haven Line’s repeated issues demand a reordering of the state’s priorities. Through 2015, Connecticut plans to spend $780 million on the New Haven Line and its branches, according to Tri-State’s analysis of Connecticut’s 2012-15 State Transportation Improvement Program. That represents a substantial level of investment, but Connecticut has the ability to focus even more on its transit system. Out of roughly $2 billion the state plans to spend on road projects in the same time period, $625 million will go to expansion projects like the widening of I-84 for three miles in Waterbury.

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Rob
Rob
10 years ago

Bravo! From a Streetsblog conversation a few days ago:

The MetroNorth New Haven line outage is a disaster, and points to the lack of redundancy in the northeast corridor.

But what happened to the post-Sandy plans to run Express Buses along disabled corridors? Some suggestions:

1) Create a dedicated bus-only lane on I-95 for Express Buses all the way into Manhattan, and have it enforced by CT and NY State Troopers;
2) Grant MegaBus, Bolt, and Greyhound permission to put a fleet of buses into service on this route, and lower their fees;
2) Raise the prices for I-95 tolls during this crisis at peak times, which should bring about some carpooling just to handle the tolls. Could also be a precedent for congestion pricing.

Anyone have any other suggestions? Looks like this could go on for a while.

daviid lloyd klepper
daviid lloyd klepper
10 years ago

I suggest MNRR charter a boat from Bridgeport’s docks to the piers near Wall Street. Anyone of the around-Manhattan cruise ships could be rented to make a Bridgeport – Manhattan trip in the mornning and a returnn in the evening.

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[…] meltdown — There were a few unfortunate events on the Metro-North New Haven Line in 2013:  a derailment in Bridgeport, a power failure, and the death of a worker led to a crisis […]

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