Plan for Connecticut Light Rail (Cheap and Feasible)

I’ve come up with a plan for light rail in Connecticut, ala the RiverLINE in New Jersey. One of the problems in Connecticut is poor transit overall, but especially bad transit options traveling east-west. Route 2 and especially I-84 through Hartford are reliably jammed every weekday morning. Unlike the north-south direction, which at least has the Metro-North New Canaan, Danbury and the Waterbury branches and the potential New Haven-Hartford-Springfield rail (NHHS), I-84 through Hartford lacks a viable rail alternative.

As such, I propose a light rail service along the old railroad tracks between Waterbury and Vernon. All of the railroad ROW is in place and most of the track is still present, except for a few short sections that could be easily replaced, and I believe some of it (between New Britain and East Hartford anyway) is still active with freight traffic. This line is perfect for a light rail. It parallels a busy highway (I-84) and goes right through the downtown area of several CT towns: Waterbury, Bristol, New Britain, Newington, Hartford and East Hartford. The tracks also go right past Buckland Hills in Manchester, a busy shopping center, and the railroad ROW goes right through central Vernon (as a hiking trail, but that can be reclaimed for rail service). Stations could be put at ideal locations all along the line, starting at the Waterbury Metro-North station and going through Union Station in Hartford, and terminating at a Park and Ride lot in Vernon. All of these towns are populated and developed, hence the traffic mess on I-84.

RiverLINE-esque service would run throughout the day, guaranteed to have heavy ridership and take a lot of cars off I-84. The section from Hartford through New Britain has been proposed for the New Britain Busway, but I say screw the Busway and go for light rail, which has higher capacity and does not have the negative connotations in the minds of riders of a bus. Peak hours could run 4-6 tph and midday and weekend could run 3-4 tph, with room for service to expand as demand warrants. CT Transit bus service would be rerouted and rescheduled to feed the stations. Any freight traffic would be relegated to nights.

And the great part is that as most of the track is already in place, there would be minimal start-up cost as well as minimal disruption and hence minimal NIMBY resistance, except perhaps in Vernon. Most of the line could be single tracked with passing sidings, and two extra tracks would need to be put in between Newington through Hartford as not to interfere with NHHS service, but this is a wonderful way to bring transit central Connecticut that might also serve to warm up the public to transit in the rest of the state. The total cost should be (and I'm guestimating) no more than $5-$8 million for the track replacement, $10-15 for rolling stock of RiverLINE-like DMUs, and $10-15 million or so for new stations.

You are looking at about 60 miles of railroad by my guestimate. How much of that is up to modern light rail standards? Your $5-8M should perhaps be per mile.

Yeah I know, right... It's 47 miles, I measured it. I figured my cost per mile of track from the NHHS figures of cost per mile to add new double track to the Springfield line, which was cited at $800,000/mile. I don't know how costs would go up here because of the need for signaling and the many grade crossings that would need to be put in, reactivated, or upgraded.

Cool idea, you hit the nail on the head about how badly east-west traffic moves through Connecticut.

I think that dashed portion on the western stretch just south of Plymouth is the Terryville Tunnel which is single tracked and about 3,900 feet long. I'm wondering if you'd need to ventilate the tunnel if you're running diesel through it. I have no idea how many grade crossings would be required but expect resistance from NIMBYs who don't want to hear train horns.

They're looking at 30 min headways on the NHHS so it's probably wise to add at least one more track just for the new light rail line, even though the existing track is pretty dead other than the light Amtrak schedule. I wonder if you could run the new LR line plus NHHS plus Amtrak on just 2 tracks; it might be a nightmare at rush hour if there's reverse peak travel.

I agree that this would be better than the Busway and that stretch might be the place to start.

Thanks man,

You're right about the tunnel Fred, thanks. A small section of the part I have dotted is the tunnel (as seen by looking at Google Earth). The tunnel looks short and is fairly wide, so I'm guessing it may not need ventilation, but it looks like it will need to be refurbished a bit.

From looking at Google Earth, I see that more of the track is actually missing than I show, but the ROW is mostly intact so replacing the track shouldn't be too difficult. From what I see, most of the grade crossings will be through the downtowns in Bristol, New Britain, and Newington so there shouldn't be too many complaints from NIMBYs about horns ruining their quiet. Vernon is probably a different matter; I can hear the NIMBYs now.

Two new dedicated tracks will probably be necessary for the section through the Springfield line, as the FRA will not allow light rail to run at the same time as Class I rail, but this will be in the same place "the Busway" would have been. However, one problem is that at some point north of Hartford Union the light rail tracks would have to cross the Amtrak tracks to head east across the Connecticut River -- maybe we could sell the state on a flying junction....get the Busway people on that.

But it's definitely about time for this sort of project. I'm betting if it were advertised on the radio during the morning rush, it'd get a lot of support from frustrated drivers jammed on I-84....

Forgive me if I'm excessively cynical about the willingness of drivers to give up their cars, but ... if "it'd get a lot of support from frustrated drivers jammed on I-84" that would only be because they expect *other* people to use the trolley and get off the interstate and out of their own way.

The shared right of way would never happen under FRA rules so forget about that part.

DutchRailnut wrote:The shared right of way would never happen under FRA rules so forget about that part.

Would that also apply even if there are no shared tracks?

yes the FRA requires a totally separate right of way.

Maybe they could be persuaded to sell a portion of the ROW and then a LR ROW could run parallel with the NHHS ROW separated by fence like the Amtrak/MBTA Orange Line in Boston. Of course, if the NHHS ROW is too narrow then this idea is no good.

These days a fence no longer is enough, a 35 or so feet separation is needed for new projects.

Any thoughts about reaching U Conn? Good for lots of off-peak ridership.

If you want people to get out of their cars, get rid of that HOV lane on 84/384 east of Hartford and put down some tracks. You'll literally force people onto the trains.

DutchRailnut wrote:These days a fence no longer is enough, a 35 or so feet separation is needed for new projects.

Is this something new since 2004? NJTransit Riverline runs far less than 35 feet from Conrail's Pavonia Yard to 36th St, and that was diesel LRV at all hours with constant freight alongside since March 2004.
North of 36th St to the Delair bridge it's also less than 35 feet alongside Conrail's track, again freight runs on their track at the same time as passenger. The only difference was that north of Delair bridge freight and LRV shared track so that portion was time separated.
And no fence separation.

Was this the route that was called the "Highland" route of the NH? At least the portion between W'Bury and Hartford. Aren't the planning a busway/BRT there? There's been quite a bit of news about the glacial pace of NHHS rail and the busway (CDOT needs to study it for 20 years or so.....), many CT legislators are getting pretty fed-up with CDOT. In any case, having ridden 84 in that area quite a bit 15 years ago, I can tell you how crowded the highway was THEN. I can't imagine now.

Note: One More Post to my Millenium Post (post 999)