The Connecticut Department of Transportation, in collaboration with the Massachusetts and Vermont Departments of Transportation, will be holding informational meetings in the coming weeks on the three states’ “2030 Vision for High Speed, Intercity and Regional Rail” service.

The meetings will focus primarily on the development of the New Haven-Hartford-Springfield segment of the regional rail corridor which runs from New York City to Montreal, Canada.

These meetings are a welcome sign of continued progress for a long-delayed project that recently received $40 million in High Speed Rail funding and $26 million in State bonding to double track a portion of the corridor. The project will create commuter service between New Haven and Springfield, Mass. (“startup service” is planned for every 30 minutes during peak hours  and eventually every 15 minutes) and is critical to orienting development around transit in central Connecticut.

According to ConnDOT, in the past two weeks, agency representatives have met with towns along the New Haven-Springfield corridor to update them on the progress being made towards final design and implementation.  Presumably, the renewed outreach is a precursor to a stronger regional push for additional federal grant opportunities (including the Federal Transit Administration’s TIGGER and USDOT’s “TIGER II“) expected to be awarded later this year.

A total of four hearings will be held in the three states, and will kick off tomorrow in Massachusetts.  Connecticut will host two of the four hearings, June 3rd in Hartford and June 9th in New Haven. (Details are available on TSTC’s calendar page.)