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Gov. Dannel P. Malloy came to Union Station Sunday to try to turn a potential election-year liability into an asset, as he announced a $10 million power supply upgrade for the beleaguered New Haven Line.
The upgrade begins Monday. Malloy announced it a press conference by the tracks Sunday afternoon.
A series of embarrassing, disruptive problems along the line have stranded travelers for hours in recent months. Malloy’s Department of Transportation manages the line along with Metro-North.
The recent problems have created a “negative perception of the railroad” along “the busiest single rail line in America,” responsible for taking 60,000 drivers off congested highways each day, said Malloy, who faces a tough reelection campaign this year.
“We’ve invested and will continue to invest billions” in improving commuter rail, Malloy said at the press conference.
As part of the $10 million project, Connecticut Light & Power “will install new transformers to replace four aging transformers at Cos Cob, in Greenwich, to ensure reliability and safe operation of the electric supply that powers New Haven Line trains. This will implement redundant power for this portion of the New Haven Line and increase the power supply by almost doubling the capacity of the two west transformers from 16 megawatts to 30 megawatts and matching the capacity of the two east transformers that have already been replaced,” according to a press release. The work will be done in stages, one transformer at a time.
Click here to read about the most recent glitch on the line; and here to read what some Independent readers think about how bus service has fared under Malloy.