from a press release:

Road Closures on Rowayton Avenue at Metro-North RR Bridge To Begin On or About Monday, June 14, 2010

Norwalk, Connecticut – Connecticut Department of Transportation officials have announced that there will be nightly road closures on Rowayton Avenue in Norwalk, under the Metro-North Railroad Bridge, between Devils Garden Road and Hunt Street for demolition of a portion of the existing railroad bridge.

• Beginning Monday night, June 14 through Thursday night, June 17

The roadway will be closed from 10:00PM to 6:00AM each night that the work is scheduled, in order to remove the existing bridge steel for Track 4.  Commuters will need to follow the posted detour signs during this time.  Please allow for extra time to reach the train station and board your train.  The Connecticut Department of Transportation understands the inconvenience of these closures and will complete this work as quickly as possible.  Your patience and cooperation are greatly appreciated.

During this time, local traffic will be permitted to access the railroad facilities and residences, but no traffic will be allowed to pass below the bridge.  Traffic control personnel will be on site directing motorists and pedestrians during the construction operations.  Pedestrian traffic below the bridge will be maintained at all times.

The Rowayton Station parking lots will be accessible during the road closure period.  Access to the New York bound, north side parking lot, will be from Rowayton Avenue north of the bridge.  Access to the New Haven bound, south side parking lot, will be from Rowayton Avenue south of the bridge.

This work is part of an ongoing project to replace bridges and catenary on the

Metro-North New Haven Line between South Norwalk and Stamford.

The Connecticut Department of Transportation appreciates your patience as improvements and upgrades occur on the New Haven Rail Line.  These projects support the State’s continued effort to meet future needs on your public transportation system.

from a press release:

ROUTEFRIEND’S NEW IPHONE APP HELPS TRAVELERS PLAN TRIPS ON BUSES AND TRAINS

NORWALK, CT, May 18, 2010 – Routefriend, the online technology platform that helps travelers plan, schedule and book train and bus trips across America, announced today that it is available as an iPhone app.

iPhone users can download the application from the App Store at http://j.mp/rf-app or try it out on the Routefriend website at http://routefriend.com.

Each year, Americans make half a billion train journeys and city-to-city bus trips. Routefriend automatically figures out the different ways to make a trip then checks operator websites for schedules and fares. Routefriend can find connections between different providers and use the iPhone’s GPS to guide a traveler from their current location.

“It should be as easy to book a bus or a train trip as it is to book a flight”, said Routefriend founder and CEO, David Marcus. “The problem is, there are too many different services out there and they don’t work together. Routefriend fixes that.”

The Connecticut-based travel technology company provides a one-stop-shop for planning trips on buses and trains, bringing together major systems like Amtrak and Greyhound, smaller operators like BoltBus, Megabus and Fung Wah, and commuter rail services.

“We have 20 providers in our network so far and we’re adding more all the time,” said Marcus. “Right now, we can get people from almost anywhere in the country to anywhere else. We’re excited that as we keep adding more providers, we’re going to give people even more travel options. Hopefully more travelers will see the convenience, comfort and savings of traveling on eco-friendly buses and trains.”

Senator Boucher Joins Effort To Move Mass Transit Improvements Forward

Senator Toni Boucher (R-26) met with Governor M. Jodi Rell, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, state Transportation Commissioner Joseph Marie, and members of Connecticut’s congressional delegation to discuss high speed rail in the northeast and promote proposed improvements to commuter rail service New Haven, Hartford and Springfield, Massachusetts, along with other state rail and bus projects.

“A regional approach to our mass transit needs will help keep Connecticut at the top of the federal priorities list as our state’s rail infrastructure is widely utilized but outmoded,” said Senator Boucher.

Senator Boucher commended Governor Rell and DOT Commissioner Marie for their support and leadership regarding mass transit improvement.

“Connecticut is fortunate to have the right person for the right job at the right time. DOT Commissioner Joseph Marie, along with Governor Rell, has a clear mass transit vision for Connecticut. No question, our transportation infrastructure helps drive economic growth. Finally, our state has all parties on board to advance these important regional mass transit intermodal projects. If successful in gaining federal support, Connecticut residents can look forward to a day when residents will be able to take a train from Fairfield County to New Haven, Bradley Airport and Springfield, Massachusetts,” said Senator Boucher.

NEW HAVEN — At�a meeting of the Connecticut Rail Commuter Council Wednesday night it was announced the first pair of new M-8 rail cars for Metro-North Railroad’s�New Haven Line are expected to arrive in Baltimore Dec. 2. The cars are aboard a cargo ship that departed from Kobe, Japan.

Speaking to council members in a Connecticut Department of Transportation�conference room�in New Haven’s Union Station, Eugene Colonese, rail administrator for�ConnDOT, said that after the cars�are unloaded in Baltimore it�will probably require�two weeks to prepare them�before they can�be towed to New Haven.

A total of 300�M-8 cars are on order from�Kawasaki Heavy Industries under a $750 million contract. The first 38 cars will be built in Japan with the remainder in Kawasaki’s factory in Nebraska.

In previous announcements, ConnDOT�said testing the cars will take several months,�possibly allowing some to begin carrying passengers in revenue service toward� the end of 2010.

The new cars will be replacing ones in service for 30 or more years.�ConnDOT has said they�will result in an 18-to-20 percent increase in seating capacity on the New Haven Line.

WILTON — An eight-person coalition of opponents to constructing a new Route 7 expressway from Norwalk to Danbury spoke in Wilton Tuesday morning about why this “dead road,” as one described it, should never be built.

Led by state Sen. Toni Boucher, R-26th Dist., each took a turn in Wilton Town Hall presenting reasons why they thought the state should not go forward with its construction, which ranged from damaging wetlands and increasing air pollution to awaiting the results of widening the existing Route 7 and exploiting opportunities to increase service on the Danbury branch of the Metro-North Railroad.

Identifying it as a “dead road,” Boucher said that after a 50-year discussion, every proposal for the expressway has been scrapped after encountering “oftentimes bitter opposition.” And besides repeated rejection by residents in the towns through which it would run, Boucher said current environmental regulations and road design requirements would prohibit its construction along its proposed path.

“The difficult and dangerous topography of the area and new federal guidelines for highway grades have rendered any proposal for a superhighway in this location so costly as to render it untenable,” Boucher said.

Portions of the southern end of the project were completed in Norwalk between 1969 and 1992, resulting in 3.9 miles of four-land highway connecting Interstate-95 to the Merritt Parkway and continuing to Grist Mill Rd. On the northern end, 9.9 miles of multi-lane highway were constructed from Danbury to Brookfield between 1961 and 1992.

The proposed extension of the Route 7 expressway, also�known as “Super 7,”�would run for about 15.5 miles through Wilton, Weston, Ridgefield and Redding. Of those four towns, only Weston’s First Selectman Woody Bliss has supported building the road.

The opponents at Tuesday’s presentation expressed exasperation that despite numerous town meetings, state studies and a decades-long court fight, efforts to build the road have arisen again.

Currently, the road’s leading proponent has been state Sen. Bob Duff, D-25th Dist., who earlier this month released the results of a survey conducted by the University of Connecticut — Stamford Campus that indicated a majority of support for the proposed�expressway by residents�of the towns through which it would traverse, as well as surrounding municipalities.

But Gail Lavielle, commissioner of the Connecticut Public Transportation Commission and, according to Boucher, an authority in polling methodology, described the survey touted by Duff as being inadequate to its purpose and, “far more disturbing, misleading to the public and worried and frightened people who had been reassured that the threat of having their lives disrupted by an expressway had disappeared.”

Gail Lavielle, Commissioner of the Connecticut Public Transportation Commission

After pointing to weaknesses she saw in the survey’s sampling methodology, Lavielle said, “claiming that a survey like this shows overwhelming support for Super 7 is not only misleading, it’s just wrong.”

Identifying an impediment to building the Route 7 expressway that has not drawn much attention before, John Chew, executive director of the Brookfield-based Housatonic Valley Council of Elected Officials, said the current widening of existing Route 7 in Danbury is using the right-of-way for the proposed expressway.

John Chew, Executive Director of the Housatonic Valley Council of Elected Officials

With the current project costing $80 million, Chew said no government agency would agree to rip up Route 7 in Danbury after it’s been widened, so, “You can’t reach Danbury with Super 7 � because where you’re getting into Danbury is taken. It’s a valley; there’s no place else to go.”

Robert Nerney, Wilton’s director of planning and land use management, said that, if constructed, the Route 7 expressway “would have an enormous adverse impact on not only Wilton, but I think fair to say, on lower Fairfield County in general.”

Nerney said the ecological impact arising from a project of its magnitude would “significantly compromise” the waterside aquifers and air quality along the Norwalk River.

Robert Nerney, Wilton's Director of Planning and Land Use

Patricia Sesto, Wilton’s director of environmental affairs, said the proposed Route 7 expressway’s right-of-way is largely placed within the Norwalk River valley, which is already “consumed” by the railroad’s Danbury Branch and existing Route 7. The Super 7 expressway, she said, would have little choice but to traverse the outlying hillside of the river valley, which is characterized, in part, by very steep slopes.

Sesto presented a list of hazards to the Norwalk River she saw occurring if the expressway were constructed, and said that in the era when the road was originally proposed, “our knowledge regarding wetlands, habitat and river protection was far narrower than it is today.”

“Given these environmental considerations,” Sesto said, “it is unclear if the highway is still worth the environmental price, or if the path that was proposed four decades ago is even still the best path.”

Arguing that both the federal government and Connecticut are deeply in debt, the first selectman of Wilton, William F. Brennan, said any available funds should be used to improve Interstate-95, “the most overloaded interstate road in Connecticut.” Brennan said the Route 7 expressway would worsen conditions on I-95 by feeding thousands of additional cars onto it.

“For almost40 years (the Route 7 expressway) has been discussed, but never constructed,” said Brennan, “(because) the people most impacted have strongly opposed it, they do not want it, and any efforts to resuscitate interest have been repeatedly defeated.”

At the conclusion of Tuesday’s presentations, Boucher handed out a notice requesting residents and elected officials speak against the expressway at the next meeting of the Municipal Planning Organization of the South Western Regional Planning Agency.

During its September meeting, the MPO reiterated its request that the state conduct a study of possible uses for the right-of-way of the proposed Route 7 expressway. The MPO next meets on Thursday, Oct. 22, at 8 a.m. in the Norwalk Transit District’s headquarters at 275 Wilton Ave. in Norwalk.

Despite a mandate from the General Assembly, a fare increase set to begin January 1st for the New Haven rail line in Connecticut can’t be put into effect because the increase hasn’t been presented for comment at public hearings, the head of the state’s Department of Transportation announced Wednesday night.

“It is unlikely we’ll be able to implement that in January 2010 because of the notification requirements,” said Commissioner Joseph F. Marie at a meeting in Stamford of the Connecticut Metro North-Shoreline East Rail Commuter Council.

Based on what is required statutorily and regulatorily in Connecticut, Marie said, the mandated fare increase of 1.25 percent “is likely to slide back some.”

For the same reason, he said, an implied requirement in the state’s recently passed budget to increase fares by 10 percent also is on hold. Without calling for a fare increase, the legislature said in the budget the state’s subsidy for operating the New Haven line would be reduced on October 1 by the equivalent of a 10 percent increase in fares.

“At this point we’re looking for guidance from the legislature in terms of the overall intent of that language,” Marie said.

Marie said his department attempted to hold public hearings on a fare increase months ago, but for a variety of reasons could not. He said unless the legislature changes the requirement for hearings, the earliest a fare increase could occur would be next March or April.

Marie said he would be submitting a letter to the legislature next week with Robert L. Genuario, Secretary of the Office of Policy and Management, presenting a realistic scenario of when a fare increase could be implemented.

The General Assembly will be in session next Wednesday and Thursday, and Marie said his department will be submitting a plan to legislators with a range of options and service modifications “that will allow us to achieve what the legislature has laid out for us in terms of cuts that are required.”

Marie said his department is in a very difficult situation covering the cost of operating the railroad, with the hard choice of cutting service or increasing fares. Either option is undesirable, he said, because, “We want to maximize the ridership on our rail transportation network. It’s a great asset.”

The Connecticut Department of Transportation announced on Tuesday construction will begin Sept. 27 on Hales Rd. in Westport for resurfacing and safety and bridge improvements.

The project includes�upgrading and widening the bridge over Metro-North Railroad’s tracks, which is currently closed because of deficient load-carrying capacity.

Construction is scheduled for completion November 25.

The project is being funded by the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 at a cost of nearly $2.4 million.,

Despite some challenges along the way in the now 36-month-old project, the first of the new M-8 passenger cars for Metro-North Railroad’s New Haven line are about to be constructed, according to Joseph F. Marie, commissioner of the state’s Department of Transportation.

Appearing in Norwalk on Thursday at a meeting of the South Western Region Metropolitan Planning Organization, Marie said the state has inspectors in Kobe, Japan, where the initial M-8 “pilot” cars will be built. He said a test team for the state is preparing to conduct the first of a series of static tests on the pilot cars to confirm the functionality of their equipment.

“We need to prove that what has been designed on paper will really work,” Marie said.

The first of the M-8 cars will be built in Kawasaki Heavy Industries’ factory in Kobe. Once the go-ahead for full production is received, the remainder of the $750 million, 300 car order will be constructed at Kawasaki’s rail plant in Nebraska.

Marie said Kawasaki “has a very solid track record of deliveries in the United States.”

Marie said the cars built in Japan will be sent by ship to Baltimore, and then delivered by rail to New Haven, where further “integrated acceptance and performance testing” will occur. He said extensive testing will be required because the new cars will be introducing 21st century technology to a rail system built with 20th century technology.

The testing here will take several months and will occur at night, Marie said, adding he hoped some M-8 cars could be put into revenue service in 2010.

Marie said Kawasaki is responsible for the fabrication of the cars’ bodies and wheel trucks, while components such as doors, propulsion systems, and brakes are coming from suppliers from throughout the U.S.

He said as production ramps up in Nebraska, ConnDOT hopes Kawasaki can eventually manufacture ten to 14 cars a month, which he said would represent an extremely aggressive production schedule.

Marie said when all of the new cars are in service, New Haven’s total number of cars will rise from today’s 385 to 520, which will result in an 18-to-20 percent increase in seating capacity.

Marie said the average age of the cars on the New Haven line is 29 1/2 years, which he said may be the oldest in the country. He said the ideal average age for rail cars is 15 to 17 years, with a useful life of 30 to 35 years.

Marie said he hoped the state would be able to take advantage of an option in its contract with Kawasaki to purchase an additional 80 M-8 cars, saying the price per car “is pretty darn good.”