May 26, 2009 7:47 am

Trains Or Buses? Upstate Debates While Fairfield County Suffers

I’ll repeat the only important fact that any legislator in Hartford should pay attention to. 48% of all income taxes for the State of Connecticut come from Fairfield County. So when the debate, as it’s portrayed in the Courant, centers on whether a commuter busway or commuter rail system should be built I say why bother? The economic engine of Connecticut is Fairfield County and it’s time our tax dollars stop subsidizing the sprawl of Hartford County.

The Courant article talks about the feud now simmering over New Britain’s plans for a busway and plans for a Waterbury to Hartford commuter rail. Both plans call for using state owned land in Bristol. The fight:

There doesn’t seem to be room to run trains and buses on the same route, and choosing between them is turning into an increasingly tense struggle dividing politicians and business owners from Hartford to Bristol.

“The busway is a cornerstone for our whole downtown [redevelopment] plan transit is part of what attracted our developer,” said New Britain Mayor Timothy Stewart, whose Republican administration is banking heavily on Arete Development’s proposal to revive downtown by building as many as 1,000 apartments.

“The busway was looking viable when it was proposed, but times have changed since then,” said Democratic Rep. Donald DeFronzo, a former New Britain mayor and now co-chairman of the General Assembly’s transportation committee. “We may have to reassess this now. This is an issue that has generational impact.”

DeFronzo and Stewart are longtime adversaries, but the busway-rail divide goes beyond politics.

More importantly is the cost, up to an estimated $569 million for the busway, and the number of commuters:

“We’ve been projecting 15,000 people a day using some part of the busway 11,000 existing riders and 4,000 new,” Sanders said. “Our new [projection] models are showing we’d actually be up a little over that.”

Will any of those 4,000 new riders be contributing more tax dollars to actually fund the busway? No. Those tax dollars come from Fairfield County where there’s more of a need to create mass transportation.

“We need to promote strong cities as the backbone of regional growth,” said Obama to the U.S. Conference of Mayors a few months before he was elected to office. Fairfield County has 4 strong cities, Stamford, Norwalk, Bridgeport and Danbury. They should be connected via mass transportation that works.

source: Courant, Commuter Transportation Battle Has Been Heating Up
By DON STACOM, May 26, 2009

http://www.bristoltoday.com Steve Collins

Last time I checked, Bristol was part of Connecticut, too. But I suppose it’s better to say to the old industrial cities of the state that they should just die and go away rather than doing something to help them become the dynamic engines of growth for the future.
I’m not sure why ESPN, which found Bristol a welcoming home, should be shut out as well in your haste to shovel cash at the richest section of the state.
I don’t know whether Bristol should have commuter rail or New Britain should have a busway. But I do know that saying to both towns — and the whole region — that it should close up shop and let Fairfield County have even more money is patently offensive.
By the way, iif you don’t like Hartford’s sprawl, then you ought to love the commuter rail proposal.
Adam Blank

Steve – I didn’t realize all the State money was flowing to Fairfield County. I think you have it backwards. Our money goes to fund the rest of the state. Even still, I probably wouldn’t complain if we were building a school in Bristol or a prison in New Britain or a job training center in Hartford. But we are talking mass transit and the state’s most pressing transit needs sure aren’t upstate.
isthisstevecollinsct.com?

Steve Collins,

You work for a newspaper? Desperate are the times

You’re an absolute @ss. I could say it in nicer words, but you really need a good b*tchslap. Make that 40. Not because it would knock some sense into your self-centered thick brain, but to shut you up.

No where in the original post does it say let the rest of the states’ cities die.

Your childish, illogical defense mechanism kicked in, probably because you resent people who worked hard for what they got, thinking they all cheated or inherited it. But you still think the tax base taking trains to NYC or sitting in stop and go traffic for an extra hour every day should pay for your central CT folks too
poor to won a car should have us pay to work at the WalMart two towns away.

Commuting on I-95 or 15 is a choke every business day. Mass transportation doesn’t work unless you’re lucky enough to get a job next to the railroad or are on a main-line in Stamford or Norwalk. Buses don’t connect the towns in between very well if at all, so that is not an option for a majority of commuters.

I hope you get laid off, as local newspapers are dying. Then 6 months after your unemployment runs out, you get an interview in Stamford, BUT YOU DON’T GET THE JOB BECAUSE YOU’RE OVER AN HOUR LATE FOR THE APPOINTMENT!
Just there

?
http://www.bristoltoday.com Steve Collins

I’m not saying that Fairfield County’s transportation needs should be ignored. There’s no doubt in any sane person’s head that the logjam there is hurting the economy of all of New England, including Central Connecticut.
But it’s ridiculous to make it seem that dealing with the needs of other regions somehow means that Fairfield County commuters are getting shortchanged.
Besides, if they’re really frustrated with long commutes, they can move to Bristol.