New Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner Friday at Union Station: Once-in-50-years chance to fulfill transit "dreams."
We’re not giving up on that one hour train ride to New York — but in the meantime, a 25-minute improvement has become increasingly realistic.
Rail officials offered that update Friday during a press conference at Union Station.
The governor, the state’s two U.S. senators, and the mayor attended the event to welcome Amtrak’s new CEO, Stephen Gardner, to the job. Gardner, previously the rail service’s president, became CEO this week.
He and the other officials said that the new bipartisan infrastructure law — which reserves $30 billion for improvements along the Northeast Corridor — provides a once-in-a-half-century opportunity to upgrade rail service. That would include repairing bridges and tracks along the New Haven-New Rochelle “choke point” that requires the Acela to slow down and keeps travel time above two hours from the Elm City to the Big Apple.
They said the money flowing from D.C. will support plans already underway by the Lamont administration to cut 10 minutes off the New Haven-to-New York Metro-North ride in the coming year, and 25 minutes by 2035. The infrastructure bill marks a new day after “50 years of underinvestment” in rail since Amtrak’s 1971 founding, Gardner said.
The new money can make “decades worth of dreams and ambitions happen,” he said.
Security by the perimeter of press conference at station's southwestern end.
The Amtrak chief said he envisions adding a third more Amtrak trains in the state, fixing 100-year-old bridges, and connecting more riders within the state, not just along the shoreline, in partnership with the state.
U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy said that two other factors will jumpstart that work: New flexibility under the infrastructure law for Amtrak not just to receive grant dollars but also borrow more for upgrades; and the completion of a state-federal Northeast Corridor Commission’s “CONNECT NEC 2035” plan and the Lamont administration’s “Time for CT” rail improvement plan, which lay out agreed-upon priorities for specific work.
In the short term, the state will speed up the New Haven-to-New York route by repairing drawbridges and eliminating some of the stops on some of the trains, according to state Department of Transportation Commissioner Joseph Giulietti.
State Rep. Lemar, Sen. Murphy huddling before Friday's presser.
Speakers predicted that faster trains will bring new businesses, new jobs, and cleaner air to the region.
“The New Haven Line is the most important piece of infrastructure we will invest in for the next generation,” said New Haven State Rep. Roland Lemar, who co-chairs the legislature’s Transportation Committee.
Click on the video to watch the full press conference.
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal: "There is no reason we cannot build a rail system that can bring more passengers from this station to New York with reliability and comfort and speed."
WTNH's Jodi Latina poses a question.