After Tolls Fail, What's "Plan B" ?

It seems pretty clear that Governor Lamont’s tolling idea is dead.  The Republicans say “no way, ever” and his own Democrats can’t muster the guts to take an up or down vote because they’re so afraid of public reaction.

Oh, everyone in Hartford is still doing the usual square dance, posturing and politicking, but I doubt a special session to vote on tolls will ever happen:  tolls are dead.

But ‘lest the anti-toll forces should start to rejoice, they may have won this battle but the war is far from over.  Because when tolls go down to defeat, there are still plenty of “Plan B” options, none of which you (or they) will like.

Our bridges are still corroding, our highways are still potholed and our trains are running slower than ever.  Transportation is grinding to a halt, and with it our state’s economy.  Something must be done. The money must be found.

As one senior Lamont staffer told me, “The Governor refuses to preside over another Mianus River bridge collapse.  We cannot put politics ahead of peoples’ safety.”

It is clear that the Special Transportation Fund (STF) is headed into the red unless additional funding can be found.  And if the STF is going to be insolvent, the state won’t be able to borrow anything on Wall Street for anything, transportation or otherwise.  Our bond ratings will rival a third-world nation.

So, if not tolls, where do we find the money? 

STOP WASTING MONEY AT CDOT:    The Reason Foundation’s claim that Connecticut’s DOT ranks 46^th in the nation in spending efficiency is bogus and has been widely debunked. Even if we could save a few million by cutting CDOT waste, we still need billions to repair our roads and rails.

RAISE THE GAS TAX:      It hasn’t changed a penny since 1997, not even adjusting for inflation. Like tolling, the gas tax would be a “user fee”… though not paid by those driving electric cars nor by out-of-staters who don’t buy gasoline here.

RAISE THE SALES TAX:  Easily done but fairly regressive as it would hit everyone in the state, even those who never drive on our highways.  And again, out-of-staters get a free ride assuming they don’t stop to buy anything passing through.

RAISE THE INCOME TAX:    Another easy revenue source, but even less popular than tolling and just as politically dangerous.

RAISE FARES & CUT SERVICE: This is what I call the Doomsday Scenario… worsening train and bus service, driving more people back to their cars.  It’s a sure way to save money, but at the expense of those using mass transit and adding to traffic.

PARTIAL TOLLING:         Maybe go back to the trucks-only option, not everywhere but just on bridges most needing repairs?  Makes sense, but the toll cynics won’t believe it will be so limited.

VEHICLE MILES TAX:      It works in Oregon, California and progressive EU countries, but when the idea was floated years ago by Malloy’s Transportation Finance panel it was immediately rejected.  Democrats pushed through a law stopping CDOT from even studying the concept.  Paranoids fear “big brother” would be following where they drive, forgetting that their iPhones and Google (not to mention the NSA & FBI) can do so already.

Money for transportation will be found.  If you’re not a fan of users paying their share (via tolling), get ready for the ugly alternatives.

Posted with permission of Hearst CT Media

Airlines That Are No More

Rail fans call them “fallen flags”… railroads that are no more, like the original New Haven and New York Central Railroads.  But before I start getting all misty eyed, let’s also pay homage to airlines that have flown away into history.

Like PEOPLExpress, the domestic discount airline which flew out of Newark’s grungy old North Terminal starting in 1981.  Fares were dirt cheap, collected on-board during the flight and checked bags cost you $3.00.  You even had to pay for sodas and snacks.  The airline expanded too fast, even adding a 747 to its fleet for $99 flights to Brussels, and was eventually merged with Continental under its rapacious Chairman Frank Lorenzo, later banished from the industry by the Department of Transportation.

There were any number of smaller, regional airlines that merged or just folded their wings, including Mohawk, Northeast, Southeast, Midway, L’Express, Independence Air, Air California, PSA and a personal favorite, Midwest Express, started by the Kimberly Clark paper company to shuttle employees between its mills and headquarters in Milwaukee.

Midwest flew DC-9’s, usually fitted with coach seats in a 2-and-3 configuration, but equipped instead with business-class 2-and-2 leather seats.  Meals were free and included fresh baked chocolate chip cookies.

We all probably remember the fallen giants like TWA (acquired by American Airlines), Eastern Airlines (also gobbled up by Lorenzo), Braniff (which even flew a chartered Concorde at one point between Washington DC and Dallas TX) and Pan American (which was the US’s semi-official overseas airline for decades).

And let’s not forget more recent carriers like Continental, merged with United Airlines in 2012 or US Airways (previously known as Allegheny Airlines) which was taken over by American Airlines in 2015.  Or how about the old Northwest Orient which Delta took over in 2008?  I especially remember flying AmericaWest before its 2005 merger with USAir.

And then there were the name-change carriers, like ValueJet which rebranded as AirTran after a deadly crash in the Florida Everglades in 1996 following a series of maintenance and safety issues.  A 1982 crash of an Air Florida jet taking off in a Washington DC snowstorm quickly grounded that airline for financial reasons.

Anyone remember the Trump Shuttle, successor to Eastern Airlines’ Boston – LaGuardia – DC hourly service?  It only flew for three years but innovated such in-flight technology as GTE’s Airphone.  You could even rent laptops for use in-flight.

But did you know that the cruise ship line Carnival once had its own airline of the same name?  Its fleet of 25 jets funneled passengers to their ships in Fort Lauderdale until 1997 when Pan Am took it over, only to itself go belly-up months later.

Another quirky little airline was MGM Grand Air which flew JFK to LA in an all first-class, luxury configuration. There were swiveling lounge seats, private cabins, an onboard chef and even in-flight fax machines. Their 727 carried only 33 passengers and operated out of a private terminal at LAX, making it very popular with camera-shy celebrities. One way fares were $1400.

But did you know that there was also a Hooters Air, modeled after the restaurant chain of the same name? From 2003 to 2006 the seven plane fleet featured business class seating at low fares and in-flight meals served by, you guessed it, tight t-shirt clad Hooters Girls. The restaurant chain is still going, but the airline folded after $40 million in losses.

Posted with permission of Hearst CT Media

Should You Fly or Drive ?

Going on vacation this summer?  If so, the question is… how to travel: drive, take the train or fly? (I’m eliminating the bus option because, well, life is too short to endure that kind of misery.  I have no problems with commuting by bus, but a ten hour ride is not going to happen!).

In most cases the choice depends on how far you’re traveling and what your budget allows. For trips of 300 miles or less, the train is my first choice… assuming it goes where I want.  In the Northeast, Amtrak service is frequent, convenient and affordable.  But to other destinations, not so much.

But it also depends on how many are in your ‘party’ (and traveling with your family is always a party, right?), because traveling as a family of four can add up, especially when each member needs a ticket.  Even going into New York City can be cheaper by car (including tolls and parking) than on Metro-North when you have three or more people.

Flying is faster, but maybe not if you include all of the door-to-door time:  driving to the airport, arriving two or three hours before departure, checking your bags, going through security, then after arrival at your destination grabbing your bags, finding your rental car, driving to your destination.  In most cases by train you go from city-center to city-center.  And by car, well you get to determine where you’re going.

By train you get to see the country.  But so too with driving.  Train travel is pretty stress-free.  Not so with driving, and certainly not in flying.

In about eight hours you can drive 400+ miles, even with pit-stops.  If two drivers can share the behind-the-wheel duties, a full 12-hour day’s worth of driving can easily get you 700 miles.  That’s almost the distance to Chicago or maybe Atlanta.  But staying alert can really take its strain, so be sure to take frequent breaks and caffeinate.

Of course, having kids on board can complicate things… more stops, more whining.  “No, we’re not there yet!  Play with your Gameboy.”

If you’re confused about the fly-drive value calculations, there’s a great website that can help:  the Be Frugal Fly or Drive Calculator.  Plug in the information… origin, destination, make and model of car, driving hours… and voila!  The app will figure the cost for both alternatives, even including highway tolls and your car’s MPG.  Mind you, gas prices are heading up this summer, so factor that in too.

The final issue is safety.  You do want to arrive alive, right?

It used to be on airlines that after you landed the flight attendant would say something like “The safest part of your journey has just ended, so drive safely”.  Statistically, that’s true.

Federal safety stats say that one person dies for every 100 million vehicle miles traveled.  (Interestingly, Connecticut’s statistics are lower than the national average). Still, there are a lot more highway crashes than air disasters. In 2018 there were no fatalities on US commercial flights and worldwide, only one fatal accident for every 300 million flights.

The National Safety Council says you have one chance in 114 of dying in an automobile crash, but only one chance in 9821 of dying on a flight.  You’re eight times likelier to die by drowning on vacation.

Thanks to the stronger US economy a lot more people will be taking a vacation this summer.  A little planning and you should be able to save time and money.  So bon voyage!

Posted with permission of Hearst CT Media

Why Nobody Trusts Hartford

Nobody trusts Hartford.  If cynicism is a disease, we’re in the midst of an epidemic.

Since last fall I’ve been touring the state speaking to groups large and small about Connecticut’s transportation crisis… about the $5 billion we need to just get Metro-North back in a state of good repair… about the hundreds of deficient bridges and potholed highways … and about the futility of depending mostly on the gasoline tax to fund long-needed repairs.

And when I got to the part in my talk pitching what I see as the necessity of tolls, safeguarded in the recently approved Special Transportation (STF) Lockbox, most audiences turned on me.  While there were a few true-believers who trust in the state’s role in keeping our transportation in a state of good repair, the vast majority in my audiences don’t believe that the STF is truly locked. 

“There’s no way that toll money won’t be misused.  It’s just another taxing mechanism. You’re nuts if you trust those idiots,” was the gist of their comments.  And maybe they’re right.

Governor Lamont flip-flopped on his campaign promise to only toll trucks.  Then he was brazen enough (in front of reporters!) to tell the Democrats’ caucus that he would help raise them campaign money if they’d support tolling.

He even tried to win over Greenwich Republican representatives by suggesting he wouldn’t toll the Merritt Parkway if they’d give him their votes for tolls… without really considering what that would do to Parkway traffic diverting off of I-95 to avoid tolls.

He also manufactured a funding crisis for the STF by halving earlier plans to place the car sales tax in that fund.

Meanwhile, the anti-toll forces filled the news vacuum winning wide popular support, gathering 100,000 petition signatures in opposition to tolling.  For that grassroots effort they deserve credit just as the policy amateurs in the Governor’s office deserve scorn.

Tolling will be debated in a special session of the legislature in the coming weeks but even the Democratic majority admits it only has a “50-50 chance” of passage. Still, in the race to adjournment June 6^th, lawmakers did somehow find time to pass some crazy bills.

Like the one approving a study of burying I-95 in a tunnel from Greenwich to Bridgeport.  Never mind that we don’t have money to fix our bridges. Now lawmakers want to waste money on an impossible, multi-billion dollar “big dig” along the Gold Coast?

They also had time to stuff the budget full of hard-to-find special-funding “rats”, like $60,000 for the New London Little League or $37,000 for a New Haven Scout troop. They couldn’t find time to vote on healthcare, online gaming or marijuana, but succeeded in stuffing pork in every crack and crevice of the sure-to-pass budget.

One issue that did survive was SB 876 which would invest $10 million in bonding to improve the state’s rail freight system… the eight small freight railroads left in our state operating on infrastructure up to 100 years old.  That bill should be passed.  But $10 million?  That’s chump-change, a rounding error in most CDOT projects.

The post-election glow of optimism about a new Governor with a vision for the future is gone, replaced by the reality of an inept, dysfunctional legislature that just doesn’t care. 

The skeptics are right and I too have succumbed to the epidemic of cynicism.​

Posted with permission of Hearst CT Media

Confessions of a Metro-North Engineer

“Bobby” has every kid’s dream job:  he’s an engineer for Metro-North.  But “Bobby” isn’t his real name because he’s asked for anonymity so he can speak candidly about his work.

“I used to love this job,” he says.  “But I still take pride in it.  Not just anybody can drive a train safely and smoothly.”

Bobby has worked for the railroad for over 20 years.  Engineers start at $32 an hour, climbing to $46 after eight years. He says Metro-North receives thousands of applications each month for a handful of job openings.  After randomizing applicants’ resumes the railroad puts candidates through extensive background checks and, if finally hired, they enter a 15 to 18 month training program.

The “rule book” for being an engineer is daunting, requiring them to know every aspect of the railroad’s locomotives and rail cars’ systems to memorizing hundreds of miles of tracks and signals on all three lines.

Right now the railroad has something like 500 engineers (the folks who run the trains) and 900 conductors and assistant-conductors (trainmen).  Before every run the crew meets for a safety briefing and review of train order bulletins:  where the speed restrictions are, which stations operate with bridge plates, etc.

In a typical day the engineer and conductor work as a team all day with assistant-conductors rotating through.  They’re all paid by the hour and can do maybe 4 or 5 runs a day if their assignment is New Haven to Grand Central.  If they have a layover between runs they get three-quarters pay.  Anything over 8 hours is time-and-a-half overtime.  So are worked holidays.

Twice a year, when the timetables change, all the assignments are rearranged based on seniority.  First pick goes to the engineer with the most seniority (33 years on the job) which means the last-hired pick up the crumbs… nights and weekends.

If he volunteers to be on the “Extra-Board” Bobby can be called in on as little as two hours’ notice to work, challenging his family life.

“The benefits are excellent,” he says, including medical and dental coverage, 12 paid holidays, a dozen sick days and up to five weeks paid vacation per year.  Spouses also get a free railroad pass, but not employees’ kids.

Safety is always Bobby’s top priority but he does feel pressure to keep running on-time.  Even when he’s ordered to run slower for safety reasons, he risks being called into the office on arrival at Grand Central if he’s really late.  And he’s also not a fan of the new TV cameras in his cab monitoring his every move.

“But I get it.  As engineer I’m responsible for up to a thousand passengers, entrusted by the railroad with millions of dollars of equipment,” he says.

When an eight-car train is taken out of service and he has to run a six-car replacement, he knows conditions will be standing-room-only and passengers will be upset.  “We’re just told (by our bosses) to do the best we can.”  But he doesn’t enjoy seeing the angry gestures (and one finger salutes) from passengers on the platform when he pulls into a station 15 minutes late.

“I just wish that the passengers knew how much is involved in running a railroad,” instead of taking out their anger on the crew.

Posted with permission of Hearst CT Media

The Shaming of Bus Commuters

Why do many people have such scorn for those who take the bus?

Forty-one million trips are taken on 12,000 public buses each year in Connecticut in communities across the state (not counting school buses).  Yet, those riders are regarded as losers, not by the transit operators, but by those who drive by car.

When Southington was recently considering restoring bus service for the first time since 1969, a local resident wrote a letter to the local paper declaring “Towns that have bus service are towns that frankly have a lesser quality of people.”

Really?  “Lesser quality”, how?   Because they can’t afford to own a car?  Or because they are minorities?  That comment is either racist or classist or both.

As I wrote recently, the Greater Bridgeport Transit bus system carries 18,000 passengers every day (5.2 million a year), 90% of them either going to school or work.  Something like 26% of all Bridgeport train riders got to or from the station by bus.

Sure, some are non-white or non-English speaking.  But why begrudge them transportation?  You’d rather they not have a job or an education?

And yes, their fares are kept low with state subsidies.  But their incomes are also low and for them even a $1.75 bus fare is expensive.  Remember… Metro-North trips (26.5 million per year), though also expensive (the highest in the US), are also subsidized.

But the biggest target of transit scorn is CTfastrak, the four year old, 9.4 mile long dedicated BRT (bus rapid transit) system running between Hartford and New Britain. Transit planners from across the country come to study CTfastrak. The Feds are looking to spend $665 million on similar systems across the US.

Yet Connecticut Republicans were trying to close it before it even began. 

When it first opened in 2014 the CDOT projected 16,000 daily riders.  To date the ridership is closer to 11,400.  Fares are cheap ($1.75 round-trip) and service is frequent with buses departing every few minutes. From New Britain to downtown Hartford it’s only 20 minutes, even at rush hour.  That’s about half the time you’d spend on I-84 stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

From the dedicated bus-only right-of-way, buses can also transfer to local roads into downtown Hartford and communities ranging from New Britain and Bristol to Cheshire and Waterbury.  The stations are clean and modern and the buses even offer free Wi-Fi… something we still don’t (and probably never will) have on Metro-North.

Critics complain about “empty buses” riding up and down the system.  Sure, the buses may not be jammed like Metro-North on a summertime Friday, but they do carry thousands every day.  Imagine if those bus riders were in cars.  How’d you like the traffic then?

Why the scorn for bus riders?  Beyond racism and class-warfare, I think there’s actually some jealousy.  Why do they get a fast, clean, cheap ride when I’m stuck in traffic?  Well, for some it’s a matter of necessity:  they don’t own or have access to a car.  For others, as with train riders, it’s a matter of choice:  they prefer the bus for speed and convenience.

So can we please stop shaming bus riders?  Like all of us, they have places to go, so let’s just allow them to ride in peace and harmony.

Posted with permission of Hearst CT Media

The Merritt Parkway Monorail

What is this fascination that people have with monorails?  I can’t tell you how often people suggest them as “the answer” to our state’s clogged roads and rails.

“Why don’t we build a monorail down the middle of The Merritt Parkway?,” asked an architect at a recent meeting.  To my astonishment, such an idea was once studied!

As lore has it, back in the mid-1980’s local tech giant Sikorsky was asked by CDOT if a monorail could be built and a plan was submitted.  Sure, such a system could be built, they concluded, but where would you put the stations and the necessary parking? 

The Merritt Parkway

Since hearing of this white-whale of a tale, shared by Merritt Parkway Conservancy Executive Director Wes Haynes, I have been on a relentless search for details of the proposal, but I’ve come up empty.  Sikorsky has no record of the plan.  CDOT said “Huh?”

Digging through the archives of the Stamford Advocate I found articles from 1985 discussing the idea:  a $700 million monorail down the median of the Merritt Parkway from Greenwich to Trumbull as an alternative to Bridgeport developer Francis D’Addario’s idea of widening the parkway to eight lanes… or double-decking I-95.

Motorists were surveyed and CDOT apparently spent $250,000 for a study.

The amazing research librarians at the State Library dug through their dusty files and came up with a CDOT report from 1987 pooh-poohing the idea, not only on grounds of impracticality but because it would compete with existing rail service.  Heavens no!

But again… why this obsession with monorails?  I think people have been spending too much time at Disneyworld.

In 1998 a monorail was once proposed for Hartford, connecting downtown to Rentschler Field in East Hartford.  It was to cost only $33 million and the cost was supposedly to be paid by the Feds.  It never happened.  The idea was revived again in 2006 when the Adriaen’s Landing convention complex was opened, but again, nothing.

A pseudo-monorail “People Mover” system was built at Hartford’s Bradley Airport in 1976 connecting the remote parking to the main terminal, all of seven-tenths of a mile away.  The fixed-guideway system, with cars designed by Ford Motor Company, cost $4 million but

Bradley Airport People Mover

never operated because the $250,000 annual operating was cost was deemed impractical.  In 1984 it was dismantled, though you can still see one of the original cars at the Connecticut Trolley Museum in East Windsor.

Whatever your fantasies are about space-age travel by monorail, let me dispel your dreams with some facts.

Monorails are not fast.  The Disneyworld monorail, built by a Japanese company, has a top speed of 55 mph but usually just averages 40 mph.  Even on a bad day Metro-North can better that.  The 3.9 mile long Las Vegas monorail does about 50 mph shuttling losers from casino to casino.

Monorails are expensive.  The Vegas system, opened in 2004, cost $654 million.  That’s why existing monorails like Disney’s have never been extended.

Monorails are not Maglevs.  Don’t confuse the single-track, rubber-tired monorails with the magnetic-levitation technology in use in Shanghai and being tested for passenger trains in Japan.  The Shanghai maglev can travel over 250 mph, the Japanese test trains have hit 374 mph.

No, monorails are not in Connecticut’s future and are not the answer to our woes.​

Posted with permission of Hearst CT Media