Politicians converged on Union Station and endorsed Toni Harp’s one-hour-to-New York express train. A Metro-North spokeswoman dismissed the idea as “not possible.”
In a press event Wednesday at Union Station, U.S. Sen. Dick Blumenthal stood behind a proposal by Democratic mayoral candidate Harp calling on Metro-North Railroad to implement a one-hour express train from New Haven to New York.
Current trains to New York take between 104 and 129 minutes. Harp said the trip could be accomplished in one hour by simply skipping stops on the way to New York.
Melissa Bailey Photo
Harp, Looney & Blumenthal.
Harp discussed the topic during a transportation-themed press event Wednesday, in which she received the endorsement of Sen. Blumenthal for her mayoral campaign. Harp is running against petitioning candidate Justin Elicker in a Nov. 5 election. (Click on the video at the top of the story to watch Harp and Blumenthal’s remarks.)
Standing before a podium in the high-ceilinged train lobby, Harp renewed a call she made earlier this month for a one-hour train to New York. Such a train would boost economic development in New Haven, she said.
Since she floated the idea, “the response has been overwhelming,” she said. She noted that in a New Haven Independent True Vote survey, the vast majority of those who cast votes supported the idea.
“Eighty-three percent said yes,” she declared. “It’s a priority.”
After Harp’s speech, reporters questioned her over whether the idea would be feasible, given the state of the existing train tracks. She replied that it would not take a major financial investment.
“I think you can get to close to an hour if you don’t have as many stops.” If trains leaving New Haven stopped only in Bridgeport, Stamford and New York, she calculated, the trip could be done in less than an hour.
Blumenthal agreed. He said the trip could not be done, however, without fixing up aging cables and tracks whose deterioration recently caused a train to derail, injuring 70 people. He vowed to take steps at the federal level to make the investment happen.
State Sen. Martin Looney (pictured), the Senate majority leader, jumped on board as well. New Haven’s great boom took place between the civil war and the end of the 20th century, he said, because it was a transportation hub.
If commuters could get to New York in close to one hour, he said, it would have a “transformative” effect on the city’s ability to grow and create jobs.
Amid further questions about the plausibility of such a plan, Matt Nemerson (pictured) stepped in. Nemerson chairs the parking authority board, which runs Union Station. He’s also a former mayoral candidate, and an economic adviser to Harp’s campaign.
Nemerson backed up Harp’s plan with the following math: The distance to New York is 72 miles. Metro-North trains can go up to 80 miles per hour. All you would need to get to New York in one hour would be to travel 80 miles per hour. He said that could be done on just four tracks.
“It’s a question of passing trains,” he said. Metro-North has four tracks, but in some places one track is closed for repairs, said Nemerson. He said he researched the issue when he was president of the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce.
“It’s just a question of money,” Nemerson said. “If this were China, it would be done.”
Asked about the idea after the press conference, Metro-North spokeswoman Marjorie Anders said it can’t be done without laying new, straighter tracks.
“We don’t have a high-speed rail. It winds along the coast. It was built a hundred years ago,” she said. She said speed limits differ for different parts of the New Haven line, but the tracks can’t sustain trains going 80 miles per hour.
“It’s not physically possible,” she said.
She said eliminating a single stop would save only two minutes. According to that math, eliminating stops could save significant time: For example, the 4:10 peak train from New Haven gets to New York after an hour and 45 minutes. Slimming the stops down to just Bridgeport and Stamford would eliminate nine stops, saving 18 minutes.
She said the idea of an express train has been proposed “constantly.”
“It would require billions of dollars,” to lay new tracks that are straight enough to sustain such high speeds, she said.
“We’ll take money from anybody,” she said. “You can’t build railroads without a lot of money. Do they want to give me some?”