CT Rail - Where can you go with it?

This is the second in a series of articles on rail transit in Connecticut.

A look at Connecticut's rail map — and everything it's missing

After the trips I described in my last article, I was excited. Trains were cheaper, less stressful, and surprisingly practical for getting to New York, D.C., and Boston. So, I did what anyone does when they're excited about something—I started looking to see how far I could go with it. What about commuting in state or out of state? Or for leisure and fun events? With those destinations in mind, I pulled up the CT Rail and Amtrak maps for Connecticut, expecting to find a network that connects people like DC Metro. Instead, I found two main lines.

As you can see, the CT Rail map paints a bleak picture for many of the state's residents. The spine runs east to west along the shoreline—the New Haven Line (Yellow) and Shore Line East (Pinkish Red). The other main line runs north-south from New Haven up through Hartford to Springfield- the Hartford Line (Red Line that opened relatively recently in 2018). There are three branch spurs off the New Haven Line to New Canaan, Danbury and Waterbury but they dead-end at those cities. They don't go farther north, and nothing connects them to each other or to the middle of the state. If you don't live near one of those two corridors, rail doesn't really exist for you.

With this in mind I looked at commuting. If you work in Stamford or New Haven and live along the shoreline in the "Gold Coast", you're covered. Metro-North moves over 30 million riders a year on the New Haven Line. If you commute between New Haven, Hartford and Springfield, the Hartford Line works. But what about everyone else? If you work in the Hartford area, there are few practical east west routes to get there. In fact, the entire I-84 corridor, from Danbury out to Storrs (Home of the state's flagship university), the most densely populated non-shoreline band in the state has zero east-west rail service. CTfastrak band-aids travel from New Britain to Hartford, but it's a bus which is a separate but relevant issue. Bristol, Torrington, Middletown, Norwich? No trains and the rest of the state—the northwest and northeast regions—have no rail access at all. Thus, commuting by rail is nonexistent for a large part of the state.

What about frequent flyers? Bradley International is Connecticut's primary airport, handling over 7million passengers a year. Even if you're near a station, the airport connection is rough. The closest train station is Windsor Locks. From there, bus connections do exist—CT Transit Route 24 takes 10 minutes but it's a shack and sets the travel amenities bar very low. Alternatively, the Bradley Flyer (Bus 30) travels from Hartford Union Station but that's a 33-minute bus ride. Both are cheap but have limited departure times in the early mornings and early evenings, and service between weekdays and weekends varies—Route 24 has no weekend service at all. The schedule math doesn't support any flight departing before 8 AM or arriving after 8 PM. For a state airport that operates around the clock, that's a problem. There is Tweed Airport in New Haven, but the CT 206 bus doesn't even stop there. You have to special request it.

OK so commuting's out but what about the trips that aren't work—the ones people take on evenings and weekends. A concert at the People's Bank Arena. A show at the Meadows Music Theater. A Hartford Yard Goats game or Hartford Athletic match. A night at Mohegan Sun or Foxwoods. A day at the beach. These are the places Connecticut residents actually go regularly. Some are on or near the two existing rail lines—but most aren't. And even where a station is close, weekend and evening service is thin. The Hartford Line's earliest weekend train from Berlin doesn't leave until 8:42 AM. Evening service ends early. If you're trying to catch a 7 PM event and take the train home after, the math often doesn't work.

Here's what got me: Connecticut once had over a thousand miles of railroad track, reaching into every corner of the state. There were lines running from Hartford to Danbury or Providence. From New Haven to Middletown to Willimantic. Those routes didn't disappear because they stopped being useful. They disappeared because the state and special interests made decisions that atrophied the rail lines and dissected our cities. Interstates—I-95, I-91 and I-84—were built on top of or alongside many of those same corridors. And in some cases, the old rail rights-of-way still exist, sitting unused or carrying freight.

The end result is a map that tells a clear story of lopsided historic spending. In reality, the CT rail system today wasn't designed to move residents within the state. It was designed to move them through the state to New York, Boston and beyond. People on the shore benefit from this as a side effect, but for everyone else, getting to the airport, to work, or to places for fun were left out. I'll be honest—what I found changed my earlier excitement to disappointment. I had hoped for more. In the next few articles, I'm going to dig into the specifics—starting with the airport, because that's one resident use often and has the potential to have the biggest impact.

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