Last Minute Objections Fail to Stymie Busway
by Hugh McQuaid | Nov 21, 2011 2:26pm
(11) Comments | Commenting has expired
Posted to: Congress, Transportation, Hartford, New Britain
NEW BRITAIN—The state’s New Britain to Hartford rapid bus route project took a step towards becoming a reality Monday morning, when a Federal Transit administrator formally announced that the agency had approved a $275 million full funding grant agreement.
At Central Connecticut State University, Federal Transit Administrator Peter M. Rogoff said the funding for the 9.4 mile bus route would be transferred to the state Department of Transportation later that day.
The busway’s total cost is estimated at $575 million, 80 percent of which will come from federal funding. The state is contributing $112 million and has already bonded $89 million for the project.
The dedicated bus route will be built on an abandoned rail right-of-way and will have 11 stations between the two cities.
Rogoff credited Gov. Dannel P. Malloy with making the decision early in his administration to go through with the project which has been in the works for over 12 years.
“Quite frankly there are women who worked on this project that went on maternity leave that are now sending those kids to middle school,” he said.
Rogoff said the project will improve the quality of life for commuters in the Hartford area by reducing traffic. People who chose to use the bus system after it is completed in 2014 will shave significant time off their daily commutes, freeing them up to do other things, he said.
Malloy said the project will create around 4,000 construction jobs, 100 permanent jobs, and will act as an economic multiplier in the communities it passes through.
However, opponents of the project say it is a waste of taxpayer dollars. State Sen. Joseph Markley, R- Southington, issued a statement Monday calling the press conference a “charade” to convince opponents that “resistance is futile.”
“Busway advocates have been determined all along to make the people of Connecticut think that this project is inevitable. They don’t want public examination of the proposal because they know it just doesn’t make sense,” he said. “The taxpayers can see that we don’t need it and—at a thousand dollars an inch—we can’t afford it.”
Markley even went down to Washington D.C. earlier this year and tried to convince Republicans now in charge of the House to defund the project to no avail. The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection is still considering an inland wetlands permit for the project, which is currently Markley’s last chance to kill the project before construction begins. Markley said the hearing officer has not yet begun her deliberations on that permit.
Michael Dudko, an adjunct physics professor at CCSU, agreed with Markley. Dudko showed up at the announcement holding a sign calling the project “a terrible waste of money.” Dudko said he rides the bus from his home in Bristol to New Britain and does not believe anyone will actually use the new bus route.
“This is a lot of money being spent on something I don’t think a lot of people will use,” he said, adding there are plenty of other investments the state could make in infrastructure.
But Malloy defended the project and other infrastructure investments as appropriate, even in a tough economic climate.
“If you want to bank on failure, do nothing. If you want to bring about success, do everything in your power on as many fronts as you can, all at once, to get your state, your community moving ahead,” he said.
U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman said the project was the result of studies that indicated the bus route was the most cost effective way to get people to use mass transit and reduce congestion on the state’s highways.
Lieberman said that history shows the investments like the bus route have a positive impact on the economies of the surrounding areas.
He said there is some chance that funding for the project will be impacted by Congress’s deficit reduction supercommittee’s failure to produce an agreement. Lieberman called the lack of a debt reduction program “infuriating” but said the project will continue to be funded for the time being.
However, if automatic cuts are triggered it could slow the funding process, he said. Lieberman said those triggered cuts would be draconian and would decimate government. But he said he thought senators would take one of the bipartisan debt reduction plans to a vote in December.
“That’s the way to avoid the terrible cuts that will affect everybody here in America,” he said.
Tags: busway, malloy, new britain, hartford, Lieberman, Hugh McQuaid
(11) Comments
posted by: NOW What? | November 21, 2011 4:45pm
“Michael Dudko, an adjunct physics professor at CCSU,” is certainly no expert on mass transit issues or planning. On this issue, I’m afraid Lieberman is unfortunately correct. And I say “unfortunately” because in the *longer* run rail actually becomes more cost effective (provided trains and rail cars are “sized” correctly) - the cost of oil and natural gas will only continue to rise over the years, while over the same period of time the cost of electricity will be able to become more controllable.
posted by: Disgruntled | November 21, 2011 6:43pm
If he is an expert about anything,Dan has mastered the art of pissing away public money,federal,state and local.
This project sure sounds like the STAMFORD URBAN TRANSITWAY that,when complete,will be a whopping 2.25 miles long and has already consumed $131 MILLION dollars and was the usual FFCounty horror show of corruption.This project is about the same but one really wonders how many warm bodies will benefit when it all said and done. At least in Stamford,the gillion dollar shortcut makes my trips to the dump easier,diamond lane and all.
posted by: Careful | November 21, 2011 9:34pm
NOW What: Don’t sell Michael Dudko short. His educated, unbiased opinion has more creditability then than that of “big spender” Gov. Dannel Malloy—who started by “taxing us to death,” and is keeping us as the highest, per-capita indebtedness state in the country—with a questionable and citizen opposed busway project.
Malloy is doing a number on our fiscal numbers—as a “one-term governor.”
“Who will be able to pick up the pieces as the next governor of Connecticut?”
Next time, let’s elect a housewife, who has to balance her household budget. Gov. Malloy—doesn’t have a clue!
posted by: johnnyb | November 21, 2011 10:34pm
The politicians who support this should all have to work as a busdrivers on this busway for 2 years after they leave office so they can see what morons they were in wasting taxpayer money on it. Better yet they should have their pensions go to support this if it doesn’t run at a profit when finished.
posted by: lkulmann | November 21, 2011 10:52pm
Governor Malloy is CT’s defibrillator. Let him do his job and pray that it works.
posted by: perturbed | November 22, 2011 3:28am
SteveHC wrote: “‘Michael Dudko, an adjunct physics professor at CCSU,’ is certainly no expert on mass transit issues or planning.”
Unfortunately, neither is SteveHC (or NOW What?, or Whatever name he’s hiding behind NOW).
What’s the average daily traffic on I-84 in Hartford, something like 150,000 vehicles per day?
How many of those trips are projected to be eliminated from the expressway by people riding the bus? A few thousand at the optimistic (ridiculous?) extreme?
It seems Malloy isn’t dwelling on little details like this when defending the project. Yet projected ridership is of central importance, and the media should report these numbers.
A highly supportive August 2011 fact sheet (sales pitch?) from the Capitol Region Council of Governments reports that 5,000 car trips will be eliminated by the busway. (I’d trust the projections of a 19-year bus rider like Rogoff far more than this one.) It also reports that roughly half of the $575M total cost will be stolen from the annual transportation funding in Connecticut that would otherwise be available for transportation improvements that are actually needed. Ouch!
Spending on capital improvement projects is one of the most efficient means of stimulating the economy and creating jobs. Yet with so much of our existing infrastructure in decay—like crumbling roads and bridges—it seems irresponsible to dedicate so much funding to benefit so few people, at the expense of deferring the maintenance of our existing infrastructure. How many good $10M to $25M projects that could provide significant improvements to our existing transportation network are being shelved indefinitely to pay for this huge white elephant?
—perturbed
posted by: ctperson13 | November 22, 2011 8:40am
“The politicians who support this should all have to work as a busdrivers on this busway for 2 years after they leave office so they can see what morons they were in wasting taxpayer money on it. Better yet they should have their pensions go to support this if it doesn’t run at a profit when finished.”
Johnnyb—excellent ideas! I like the idea of their pensions going to support this disaster-in-the-making best.
posted by: ... | November 22, 2011 9:55am
Glad to see this is finally getting through, though the funds are now likely to move in much slower as a result of the ‘super-committee’s’ failure to get anything productive done. But then again, Congress will find a way to repeal their own trigger and perhaps try again.
posted by: GoatBoyPHD | November 22, 2011 12:26pm
The 5,000 were strangely silent at the meetings and hearings.
There wasn’t a symbolic attempt to pre-sell tickets for the first year to the 5,000 or get them on a waiting list.
Even Howard Baldwin could produce 5,000 Whalers fans.
We don’t have an enthusiasic 5,000 on line signing a petititon and celebrating the signing.
The Monday signing seems to have gone forward with a collective groan among the present ridership who do turn out to testify against the expenditure from time to time.
The comparisons to Cleveland would apply if the Busline traveled the existing Hartford Star Shuttle Route, included the Bushnell and the ‘other’ side of Bushnell Park (and the Bushnell!), hit the 10 largest city employers, hit all the colleges, and Blue Back Square.
Also the small station/stops in Cleveland are first class enclosures as are the buses. They are luxury buses. It’s structured to cover the arts district, the employers, the college district, and the merchant district with first class digs the whole way and operate night to catch the late crowd.
I missed all that in the New Britain vision.
.
posted by: GoatBoyPHD | November 22, 2011 1:33pm
And in comparing against Cleveland, the Hartford run through the arts, business, college and merchant districts would have cross promotion. As in “What’s on the Bus Schedule tonight”? that ties in diverse promotions from the likes of Real Art Ways, the Civic Center, the Bushnell, college film series and recitals and concerts, Blue Black dining promotions and Adrien’s area promotions.
And yes, there is the mundane AM Work Express run and less than full late PM runs to get arts goers (or UConn fans) home again. And the dependency on Central Row transfers would end.
