Maybe NoTollsCT is Right Afterall

Maybe the NoTollsCT folks (and the recent Hearst editorial) are right:  the current toll proposal should be scrapped.

Mind you, I’m still pro-tolls and have been for years.  But the Governor’s latest plan is so insipid and compromised as to be a waste of time.  It raises too little money, doesn’t toll millions of out-of-state cars and most importantly… it seems that most people don’t want it. Nor do they trust it will be limited to trucks.

I once described NoTollsCT founder Patrick Sasser as a “bully” because he threatened to oust any legislator that voted for tolls.  Remember “Vote for Tolls, Lose at the Polls”?

I was wrong.  Sasser is mostly an activist and advocate.  And he has done an amazing job at organizing opposition to tolling on a shoestring budget of about $10,000 in small donations.  Compare that to the million dollars spent in tolls lobbying by the construction industry to little result.

Did you see the January 31^st public hearing held at the Capitol on the Governor’s latest tolls bill? The Transportation Committee heard almost ten hours of testimony, most of it in opposition to the plan.  I watched it all (thanks to CT-N).

In his testimony Sasser cited his group’s 40 anti-toll rallies, 110,000 petition signatures and 29 towns (representing one million residents) which passed resolutions against tolls and asked lawmakers “what more will it take” to stop tolls.

Sasser isn’t a political professional, just a Stamford firefighter with a side job in construction.  But what he has built is amazing.  Some say he should run for the legislature.

I’m jealous of what he’s done and wish someone, anyone, had similarly galvanized those who support tolls.  In December when a handful of pro-tolls folks showed up at the State Capitol a Senate Democrat staffer greeted them with “Where have you been?”  Nice.

I fundamentally disagree with Sasser that there’s enough waste in CDOT spending to finance repairs of all that’s wrong with our roads and rails.  And it’s disingenuous of him to tap into the “no more taxes on anything” sentiment abroad in the land.   

For weeks we’ve been promised that a tolls vote was imminent in the legislature.  And for weeks that vote has been postponed.  Why?  Not because of alleged “scheduling issues” but because the Governor clearly doesn’t have the votes he needs to pass his plan.

Remember in May of 2019 when naïve Ned took the media with him into a House Democratic caucus seeking lawmakers’ support on tolls?  Lamont admitted to his party members that he’d put them “into a pickle” but promised if they’d support him on tolls he’d help them raise money for their re-election fights.

Now he’s delivering on that promise, adding an extra $300 million to the state’s bonding package to entice needed votes.  So much for his “debt diet”.  At least lawmakers who vote yes on tolls can tell constituents they “brought home the bacon”.

To many that’s just good ol’ politics.  But it’s unbecoming of a Governor who promised us better.  The end does not justify the means. 

It’s time to scrap the Governor’s anemic tolling bill and find an effective way to raise the money we need for transportation… like raising the gas or sales tax.  Let’s see how popular that will be.

Posted with permission of Hearst CT Media

Avoiding Air Turbulence

“Buckle up folks.  There’s some bumpy air ahead”, said the pilot on a recent flight.  No need to remind me; my seatbelt is always fastened as “bumpy air”… a euphemism for air turbulence… is my worst fear in flying. It’s the whole “fear of death” thing.

Intellectually I know that modern aircraft can survive all manner of stress from changing or violent winds, but can I?  I’ve been on flights where our aircraft plummeted hundreds of feet without notice, sending passengers, their drinks and laptops flying.  There’s not much you can do in a situation like that except, hang on,  breathe deeply and pray.

Thanks to climate change there are dire predictions that in-flight turbulence is getting worse, increasing by several hundred percent in some areas.  Even today severe air turbulence is thought to cost airlines $200 million a year and is the single biggest cause of passenger injuries.

According to the FAA there were 27 passengers and crew injured by turbulence in 2015.  In 2016 that number was 42.  And with more and more people flying those numbers will climb.

Only a few years ago United Airlines offered passengers an in-flight audio channel where they could listen to air traffic control handling their and other flights.  That was my favorite channel as I heard our flight being cleared to higher altitudes, warned about other aircraft and being guided across the country. It was reassuring to hear the professionalism of the flight crew and ATC.  But the channel was only available at the pilot’s discretion. And when it was turned off mid-flight I always knew something nasty was coming our way.

Pilots regularly ask ATC for “ride reports” from other aircraft at the same altitude and flight path, always seeking the smoothest flight.  But sometimes the turbulence is unexpected, the so-called “clear air turbulence”.  You can be cruising along at 35,000 feet when, without notice, you get slammed. 

On a Turkish Airlines flight to JFK last March the 777 jetliner encountered clear air turbulence over Maine that sent everything flying.  The terror lasted about ten minutes and when the plane finally landed, 30 passengers were taken to the hospital.

That’s why you should always keep your seatbelt fastened so if the plane drops, you don’t crash into the ceiling.

Now there’s new technology that may help us all have a smoother flight.

The IATA, the International Air Transport Association, is testing an automatic tracking and reporting system to warn flights of “bumpy air”.  So far 15 major airlines are sharing data in the test phase of the program.

Their planes are equipped with a black box measuring changes in the flight’s speed and tilt eight times each second.  That data is transmitted to the ground and within 30 seconds flights in the area can be warned of trouble ahead.

So far the participating airlines are generating 115,000 reports a day to the IATA Turbulence Aware system.  The system will be most valuable on long, overseas routes where there are fewer aircraft flying the same corridor.

The Turbulence Aware system should be fully operational this year when airlines will have installed the gear on most of their planes.  American Airlines alone hopes to have 800 airliners gathering and reporting data in the coming months.

Meantime… buckle up, friends!  There’s bumpy air ahead.

Posted with permission of Hearst CT Media

TRAIN HORN NOISE

Trains make noise, especially when they blow their horns entering stations and at grade crossings.  But for folks who live near the railroad branch lines, which have dozens of such crossings, the noise is too much.

Those neighbors crammed a Stamford meeting this week seeking solutions.  What they got was an education… and maybe some hope.

The New Canaan Branch has seven grade crossings in a two-mile stretch, each requiring (under Federal Railroad Administration safety regulations) ten seconds of horn blasts at 110 decibels.  That’s louder than a jet taking off and almost as loud as a clap of thunder. The horn must be hit 20 seconds before going through the crossing, so the faster the train the sooner it must start and the farther away from the crossing.

Do some engineers blow longer than required?  That’s now easily tracked using on-train black boxes and TV cameras watching the crew and the track ahead.  If engineers hit the horn for too short a time they risk losing their license.

Even on the main line of Metro-North where there are no grade crossings, the horns must be used entering each station to warn distracted riders to stand back. But between 9 pm and 6 am those blasts are optional.

Full disclosure:  I live about a half mile from the mainline and I can hear the trains, day and night.  I’m also about two miles from the New Canaan branch, and I can hear those trains’ horns as well.  But I hear planes and traffic on I-95 too.  It’s part of living in suburbia.

For more immediate neighbors on the branch this noise is a real problem.  It wakes up their kids and stresses their lives.  They want a solution.

Some said the horns on the M8s are louder than before.  They’re not.  They’ve been tested.  And the older the horn, the less the volume.  Some asked why we even need night time trains… at the same time as others complained about a lack of train service.

Remember folks:  the railroad came first and residential investment followed.  You chose to live there and you can’t have it both ways:  enjoying close proximity to the trains and then complaining about the noise.  Or can you?

One solution may be “Wayside Horns”, putting the horns at the crossings instead of on the trains.  They still have to blow as long and as loud, but where that’s been tried complaints actually went up from nearby neighbors.

The better solution may be creating an FRA-designated Quiet Zone.  That would require the towns to petition the feds and probably install “quad gates” stopping all traffic in both directions at a crossing at a cost of $2 million per set… and paid for by the towns, not CDOT or Metro-North.

In Quiet Zones there would be no train horns.  But would it compromise safety?

The one thing not really discussed at the noise-stressed neighbors meeting was why horns are needed at all:  because idiots ignore the gates and cause accidents getting themselves and / or passengers injured or killed.

One cynic in the crowd called that “natural selection”, taking such ignorant and self-centered motorists out of the gene pool.  Another lady said she missed the good old days of crossing accidents and being able to ogle the wreckage.

That’s just cold and misses the point: there are no easy solutions and even the difficult ones are really expensive.

Posted with permission of Hearst CT Media

The Waterbury Branch

​Remember Rodney Dangerfield, the comedian always complaining that he “gets no respect”?  That’s how Waterbury line commuters (and local officials) feel.  Their little branch line gets no respect.

In fact, the Waterbury branch of Metro-North is the longest of three branch lines:  27 miles from the mainline (at Devon) to Waterbury.  It carries about 1000 passengers a day… the same as a single ten-car train on the mainline.

The service on the branch is abysmal:  only two rush hour trains in the morning and three at night.  If you miss the 6:03 pm train from Bridgeport you have to wait 2 ½ hours for the next train.  The diesel locomotives are old and hard to maintain, breaking down often so riders must take buses.

And the on-time performance has been as low as an underwhelming 75% in recent months.  The stations lack any amenities, are old, decrepit and hardly attractive.  And they’ve been that way for years, despite local mayors’, developers and activists’ cries for improvement.

That’s why I wanted to attend a recent “Rail Conference” in Naugatuck, bringing together everyone interested in improving the trains to face off with local State Rep’s and Senators who can make it happen.  It was a real eye-opener.

The venue was an old UniRoyal building on Rubber Ave, a sad looking structure next to a potholed parking lot.  My GPS said I was in the right place, but there was no signage aside from the women’s clothing sale going on in the first floor.  Heading upstairs I found the meeting room… complete with a bar.

Inside the pols were gathering, the mayors on one side of the table, the state elected officials on the other.  Across the state these meetings happen before the legislature comes into session, giving the lawmakers their marching orders.

Two years ago, the same meeting was held and the same cries were heard to “fix our trains”.  But little has happened.

Rail sidings are being built and a signal system installed, but ‘til then only one train can operate on the line, in either direction, at one time.

The mayors speechified that the Naugatuck Valley was ripe for development.  In Ansonia alone there are 40 empty acres in downtown… never mind that much of the entire valley land is polluted from factories of the past, scaring off developers.

Still, people are flocking to the Valley for the affordable homes and good schools, but they can’t get to work because train service is so poor.  Why no progress on new cars and better service?  The mayors blame the legislature while the state elected officials blame the Governor.

With limited funding the CDOT prioritizes the mainline, Shore Line East and the new Hartford Line for investment.

One veteran observed that in the good old days, the Democrats and Republicans in Hartford would work together on common issues like transportation.  But today, not even House minority leader Themis Klarides, representing Derby, can get her fellow lawmakers to achieve consensus.

“She seems more interested in fighting over tolls and taxes than delivering for her district,” said one observer to me on the sidelines.

The potential for the Valley is huge, both for commuters and freight.  But the legislators keep making excuses instead of making deals.  Will things be any different this year?  Stay tuned.

​Posted with permission of Hearst CT Media

VW's Dieselgate Helps Fund Electric Buses in CT

The new year will bring some big changes at Greater Bridgeport Transit (GBT):  the introduction of two new, all-electric buses to the fleet.

GBT current runs 57 buses, 35 of them diesel-powered and 22 of them hybrids.  The diesels get 3.2 mpg and the hybrids just 4.5 mpg, which means the busy transit agency must buy over a half-million gallons of diesel fuel a year.

It’s a very busy transit agency carrying over 5 million passengers a year (about 17,000 a day).  Fares have been steady since 2010:  $1.75 for 90 minutes on any route, $4 a day or $70 for a monthly pass.  And ten percent of their riders are students, many of whom wouldn’t be able to go to school if it weren’t for their bus passes.

Why electric buses?  “We want to reduce our use of fossil fuels and cut pollution,” says GBT General Manager Doug Holcomb. “It’s just the right thing to do.”  But finding the best electric bus hasn’t been easy.

The transit agency needed to do a lot of modeling looking at the length of their routes, the passenger loads and recharging times.  While GBT’s average bus drives about 250 miles in its 16 hour workday, there was no electric bus which could reach that range in local conditions.

Finally, they settled on a new 40 foot bus built by Proterra.  To be assembled in South Carolina and made with 75% US built parts, the first two buses should arrive by this spring, with three more coming later in the year. But they won’t be cheap.

Each electric bus, kitted out the way GBT wants them, will cost $970,000.  That compares to $630,000 for a hybrid bus and $460,000 for a traditional diesel.  The good news is that 80% of the cost will be paid by a Federal grant with the other 20% coming from the state.

Aside from being much quieter, these new electric buses will be an environmentalist’s delight.  Even factoring in the emissions from the additional utility generation of electricity to charge these buses, just two electric buses in the GBTA fleet will mean almost a half-million pounds less of CO2 in the environment.

The transit agency will also be buying less diesel fuel and expects to reduce its maintenance costs given the simplicity of the motors.  To handle the overnight charging the agency has had to make a significant upgrade in its Cross Street garage.  But that too is mostly being covered by Federal funds.

What will riders see in the new electric buses?  Comfy seats (but without padding to make cleaning them easier), a security surveillance system, USB charging ports at every seat and the all the ADA bells and whistles.

Even non-riders will benefit from the move to electric buses as diesel fumes have been linked to asthma and any reduction in that pollution is a positive.

CT Transit is also looking at electric buses for their New Haven and Stamford systems.  They have an RFP on the street now and with any luck will start approving bids for 12 buses by March.

Fittingly, the federal funds for these new CTtransit buses come from Connecticut's slice of the “Dieselgate” settlement with Volkswagen after the German carmaker was caught cheating on the emissions standards of its “clean diesel” cars." The state reportedly received $55.7 million and planned to spend $7.5 million on upgrading public services fleets.

Posted with permission of Hearst CT Media

Conversation with the Commissioner - Part Two

CDOT Commissioner Joseph Giulietti is about to finish his first year on the job and his plate is more than full.  It’s overflowing with controversy.

Last week, in part one of an exclusive, no-holds barred interview he spoke of his challenges in speeding up Metro-North, coping with the over-budget, behind-schedule Walk Bridge replacement and ordering new rail cars.

This week, in part two of our conversation he speaks of the biggest issue of all… getting the legislature to pass truck tolls to raise money to replenish the Special Transportation Fund which pays for transportation in our state.

I asked the Commissioner if Governor Lamont had “bungled” this initiative by his constant flip-flopping on what to toll and where.

Choosing his words very carefully he said “The Governor has admitted that there were some things he wished had been done differently.  If it was bungled it was because he was trying to come up with bipartisan support for a solution everyone could buy into.”

Giulietti said nobody expected the how pervasive and organized the opposition forces would be against tolling.

As for Mr. Sasser, leader of the #NoTollsCT movement, “I’ve never him. This is never a personal issue.” But when the initial tolling plan was unveiled he said the #NoTollsCT forces “ran with the paranoia”.  But if not tolls, “how do you want to pay for it (transportation)?  Connecticut drivers have been subsidizing out of state drivers for years. Tolls are the closest thing we have to a user fee.”

As for the claim that truck tolls will lead to car tolls and the money will be misspent, “The Federal government determines that and that those funds must be spent on the roads (where the tolls would be)”.  Trucks don’t buy gas in Connecticut so they’re getting a free ride.

On the claim that the CDOT wastes money: “We used to have 5000 people at the CDOT.  Now we have 2700.” Even snow plowing is done with one driver, guided by a computer on where to deploy brine and how to best clear the snow.  One truck can now even handle three lanes of pavement.

“We’ve always looked how we can be more efficient. That’s the type of department CDOT has become. We always want to be good stewards of the public’s money.”

“I don’t know of a better way (to pay for transportation) than tolls.  The Governor has always said ‘If you have a better idea, come to me with it.’, so if we’re not going to do tolling what’s the alternative… gas tax, income tax, sales tax?  But there don’t seem to be any alternate ideas on how to get this thing (funding) through.”

Giulietti says he has a good working relation with Governor Lamont. “I’m not a politician, I don’t run for office,” he said. “But I know of very honorable people who do the right thing (like voting in favor of tolls) despite the threats of being voted out of their jobs.”

“I’ve worked now for six or seven governors. Lamont is one of the most honest and decent people I’ve worked with… a genuine good guy who truly wants bipartisan support to try and get this thing through.  It makes it easy (for me) to face the criticism because I know he’s trying to do the right thing.”

To which I can only add… Amen!

Posted with permission of Hearst CT Media

Conversation with the Commissioner - Part 1

​Joseph Giulietti is finishing his first year as Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Transportation, CDOT.  He’s been busy and less visible in recent months, so imagine my surprise when he offered me a one-on-one, no holds barred interview. 

“You’ve always been fair, Jim.  You’ve hit me hard but you’ve always been fair,” said the Commissioner.  That’s music to my ears and I hope he feels the same way after reading this column.

Our conversation covered every aspect of CDOT’s operations from Metro-North to CT 2030 to tolls (which we will cover next week in Part Two).  Here are some highlights.

I reminded the Commissioner that before he joined CDOT he authored the infamous “30-30-30” report as a consultant to the Business Council of Fairfield County, arguing that it was possible to speed up trains to be able to go between GCT, Stamford, New Haven and Hartford in 30 minutes per leg.  Any regrets at such a promise?

Giulietti said such speeds are still possible… in a few years.  He wants to increase train speeds, re-do some bridges to avoid slowing down and save “five minutes here and 10 minutes there”.  He also held out hope for faster service on Metro-North trains to Penn Station (after the LIRR’s East Side Access project is finished going into GCT).

“We’ve got cell-phone data from the Feds showing that 40% of riders to Grand Central continue south to Wall Street but 20% go west toward Penn Station,” he added.

He also held out hope for limited, rush-hour non-stop express service from New Haven to GCT and Stamford to GCT.

As for new rail cars… the additional 66 M8 cars that were to be delivered this year “are running a bit late”, but he called the M8’s a tremendous success.  Those M8 cars were supposed to also run on Shore Line East, but even with 405 M8s CDOT doesn’t have enough of them even for the mainline given increased ridership.  The Commissioner said he’s still looking at diesel push-pull double-decker cars where a ten-car train could carry almost 2000 passengers.

But he says that electrification of the Danbury and Waterbury branch lines just isn’t in the cards due to the cost.

As for fares:  he couldn’t say if they’d go up because he doesn’t know what funding in the Special Transportation Fund will be like.  But he did pledge cost savings in his department calling possible rail service cuts “the worst of all worlds”.

While the Walk Bridge project in Norwalk is running late and over-budget he blamed litigation and said he has firm funding commitments from Amtrak on that bridge and the one over the Connecticut River.

But will CDOT have enough talented engineers after 2022 when 40% of the department’s most experienced staffers will be up for retirement?  The Commissioner said that succession planning is a huge priority for him.  He’s even grooming replacements for his own job.

But among the rank-and-file it’s hard to keep talent.  “I can’t hold onto someone with a CDL (Commercial Drivers License).  “Some of the towns are paying more (than CDOT).”

With a special session of the legislature coming up in January to consider tolls there’s a lot hanging in the balance.  What does Giulietti think of his boss (the Governor) and Mr Sasser’s “No Tolls CT” movement?

Those frank comments next week in part two of our conversation.

Posted with permission of Hearst CT Media