The state inked a 35-year contract that will change the operation and look of its 23 service stations along Interstate 95, the Merritt and Wilbur Cross Parkways, and I-395, Gov. M. Jodi Rell announced Thursday.

A Subway restaurant franchiser and a private equity firm have teamed up to renovate the 23 service stations and give travelers and tourists a greater number of food choices.

Connecticut Public Interest Research Group members, lawmakers, and transit advocates gathered Tuesday at Union Station in Hartford to highlight the need for increased investment in public transportation.

Their voices echoed across the mostly empty train station as they urged both Congress and state lawmakers to focus on funding things such as commuter rail and bus service.

Rep. David McCluskey, D-West Hartford, pointed out that the train station should be filled with people traveling to Boston and New York, but it is not.

Both the Department of Transportation and Metro-North Railroad officials said they weren't too concerned that one of the new M-8 rail cars, due to arrive later this year, failed its first stress test.

During a stress test conducted by Kawasaki, one of the new cars buckled "slightly" when squeezed with 800,000 pounds of force.

"Kawasaki conducted this test on M-8 car shells and it resulted in the metal skin on the side of the car deforming slightly," Marjorie Anders of Metro-North Railroad said in an emailed statement late last week. "Even though the effect was slight, we, nonetheless, consider the test a failure."

Gov. M. Jodi Rell says she opposes tax increases to close the state's yawning budget hole. Brandi Evans said Rell is raising taxes, on bus riders like her.

Democratic politicians picked up that theme a news conference Wednesday afternoon on the corner of Church and Chapel streets, on the lower Green, in view of where CT Transit buses trundle by. A group of high school girls, including Brandi Evans, listened in as they waited for their buses.

Click here to continue reading Melinda's report.

Connecticut drivers won't have to worry about those open alcohol containers in their motor vehicles because the debate on a bill to ban those containers failed to come to a vote in the House Tuesday afternoon.

An estimated 40 states prohibit open alcohol containers in vehicles, but in Connecticut it's still legal as long as the driver is not drinking from it.

The Senate unanimously passed the bill last week, but at least one proponent of the bill believes it's unlikely the bill will be called again in the House during the waning hours of the legislative session.

Sen. Edith Prague, D-Columbia, told the legislature's Transportation Committee Monday that she's a longtime proponent of putting tolls back on Connecticut's highways.

She said it's one source of revenue the state needs to be looking at to balance the budget and promote mass transit options, such as rail.

The draft report by the Massachusetts company hired by the Transportation Strategy Board to study the issue of tolls has estimated tolling and congestion pricing could mean billions of dollars in new revenue for the state.

Transportation experts tried to answer this question and many others Friday afternoon at the University of Connecticut Law School in Hartford.

Inviting a rail system into the state would save on energy costs, pollution, and would revive the cities, said Tom Condon, moderator for the event and columnist for The Hartford Courant. Condon has written extensively about planning and transit issues.

"We live in a completely auto dominated society, and it is deteriorating our cities," Condon said.

As the state lawmakers prepare to deal with the estimated $1.2 billion it will cost to upgrade the New Haven rail facility in order to make room for the new M8 cars, a report by the Connecticut Rail Commuter Council shows overcrowding remains a problem for its 55.000 daily commuters.

The Council's annual report shows that rider complaints have risen and that riders fear a fare increase may be imminent given the current economic conditions coupled with the lax ticket collection by conductors.

Following a state audit, Gov. M. Jodi Rell has called for New Haven's $1.2 billion rail yard construction project to be scaled down and phased in. The project concerns an upgrade of the rail yard by Union Station.

Rell called for the audit after the project's budget ballooned from $300 million to $1.2 billion. The screw-up drew an apology from the state's budget chief and prompted one state legislator to dub it "the Next Big Dig" (Click here and here for related stories.)

The original 15-year plan would add a storage yard, upgrade support utilities and add new tracks to accommodate more trains and more riders. In an audit, Hill International, Inc. suggested deferring or eliminating parts of the project, and moving ahead with a first phase that would cost $849.3 million.

Click here to continue reading Melissa's report.

The Transportation Strategy Board will move forward this week with a study that analyzes the impacts and benefits of putting tolls back on Connecticut's highways.

Tolls were removed from Connecticut's highways following the fatal 1983 crash at a Stratford toll booth plaza. Since then, reinstating tolls has remained a topic of debate in the state. Over the years that debate has grown louder as traffic congestion increases and federal transportation funds decrease.