Description
In summer 2012, the Amtrak 2040 New York City to Boston high speed rail plan was revised to include a connection to Providence R.I..
However, the route still bypasses Stamford, Bridgeport, and New Haven in favor of a route through Danbury.
For the latest reports, please see
http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?c=Page&pagename=am%2FLayout&p=1237608345018&cid=1241245669222
Amtrak's high speed rail system from New York City to Boston should not bypass Connecticut's most economically vibrant cities. Additionally, adding a high speed route through Upstate New York and Danbury, instead of through an area that already has a large amount of existing urban infrastructure, would create more development pressure in environmentally sensitive areas.
We should be focusing our nation's infrastructure investments into our most sustainable, economically competitive urban centers, not into "green fields."
By point of comparison, the planned high speed rail route from Washington DC to NYC passes through the urban centers of Baltimore, Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Newark -- not through rural and semi-rural areas.
8 Comments
Mark
Amtrak is holding a public event about this project on Tuesday, August 14 at the Shubert Theater. The public meeting starts at 4:30PM, with an FRA presentation at 5:30PM. The meeting continues to 7:30PM. If you agree with this issue please come out to make your voice heard.
Mark
This is an image showing some of the high-speed rail alignments that were considered, prior to the current scheme that connects from NYC through Danbury, Hartford, and Providence to Boston.
Ben (Admin)
If there is one thing that would catapult CT and NHV into the future this is it and it has to go through New Haven to make the State interesting and appealing to outsiders.
SomeGuy (Guest)
It should head north from New Haven to Middletown
CT Livable Streets Campaign
According to one recent analysis, there is also growing interest in a "Long Island" high speed rail alignment, crossing at Westerly, R.I., which would serve Brooklyn and Queens better but which would bypass Connecticut entirely. The analyst points out that Connecticut is a collection of 169 towns that never work together, and that urban development initiatives (such as Downtown Crossing) are limited by the fact that ConnDOT always "resorts to scare tactics about the effects of limiting highway access in road redesign work," even in cities.
don't worry about it (Guest)
I wouldn't worry about it. This thing will never be built.
Skeptical (Guest)
New Haven can't even build a streetcar system; the city's entire planning process is predicated on individuals driving alone in cars to get to destinations that are .025 kilometers distant. The current train station is surrounded by parking garages, rather than destinations for people using the existing rail system. Amtrak would be smart to just run trains through CT at 220mph, without stopping, or skip the state entirely. Can you imagine what a train station designed by the CT DOT would look like? A high-rise parking garage, with a strip mall across a ten lane road, with two foot wide sidewalks, which would never be maintained, and a park bench facing a blank wall, lots of signage about which lane goes where, fantasy speed limits and a non-functioning pedestrian cross walk button leading from a dead end curb cut, to a shelter-less bus stop surrounded by garbage, broken glass and weeds, with no lighting. Welcome to CT!
abgoode
Some may be interested in attending a public hearing next Tuesday on federal rail planning for the Northeast corridor -- http://environmentalheadlines.com/ct/event/weigh-in-on-federal-northeast-corridor-plan-430-730-p-m-new-haven/