Posted on 04/23/2010 8:57:54 AM PDT by Willie Green
HARTFORD — The effort to block the proposed busway between Hartford and New Britain picked up the backing of two top Republican candidates Thursday.
“The future is rail — and high-speed rail at that,” said 1st District congressional hopeful Mark Zydanowicz.
Jason Welch, who is angling to snatch the 31st District state Senate seat, said the busway “is not a bad idea. It’s just not the best idea.”
Welch, a Bristol lawyer, is taking on 18-year incumbent Democrat Tom Colapietro.
Welch said that a commuter rail line from Waterbury to Hartford, which would hook into rail lines running to New York City and Boston, is the “common-sense solution” to increasingly congested highways in Central Connecticut.
Larson said he also favors more rail, but doesn’t want to sidetrack the busway because it will help and is nearing the end of a long planning process. Its construction is just around the corner, he said recently.
Colapietro said he remains “very mixed” about the busway project. He said it appears to him that the rail option, which hasn’t been studied yet, “would definitely be more expensive.”
Colapietro said if transportation officials who have talked with him can be believed the busway is less costly. DOT officials estimated Thursday the total cost at $545 million. Other estimates, depending on construction costs and other factors, reach to $575 million or more.
“I haven’t made a decision yet. I’m just trying to make an honest decision,” the senator said.
Zydanowicz said the busway’s cost is “almost inconceivable” for such a short route. It would run a little more than nine miles on a dedicated road between Hartford and New Britain that would use, in part, an old rail right of way that may be crucial to commuter rail’s success.
He said the region already has a bus system in place.
Welch said he would make sure his votes backed commuter rail instead of undermining it. He pointed to a committee vote on a bridge that state Rep. Frank Nicastro, a Bristol Democrat, opposed because it might limit rail options. Colapietro voted the other way.
“Commuter rail will make the district more attractive to new residents, boost home values, help keep critical businesses such as ESPN in the area and provide opportunities for entrepreneurs to start and locate businesses here,” Welch said. “All of this means more jobs in greater Bristol.”
Translation: We can do socialism better than you.
Do we have to send bottled water to our Washington GOP? ‘Cuz what they’re drinking over there is turning them into weirdos!
“The future is rail — and high-speed rail at that,”
With pubs like this, who needs Dems?
What is it with politicians and choo choos?
“With pubs like this, who needs Dems?”
I keep repeating and will continue to do so: the premises of the GOP and Democrat Party are pretty much the same. Both are elitist, statist, welfarist, careerist, globalist and utopian.
They don’t really disagree on where we should be heading. They disagree as to the route taken and the speed driven.
The GOP and Democrat are rivals within the same franchise, when what is needed is an entirely different game:
Liberty.
Next he’ll be talking about flying cars.
The future of WHAT is rail?
Connecticut is actually a good location for HSR - but it would require condemnation of more than a trillion dollars of real estate for a straight and level ROW, especially in CT-4 and CT-5, which will never happen.
And, oh, RINO Mark - There's no chance that an HSR project will include Hartford and Springfield, the drugs get there fast enough already.
Enumerated powers and Tenth Amendment megadittoes!
I say bring back canals for travel. Why screw around with regressing one century when we can regress two or three?
I like the way you think serf! An extra helping of gruel for you tonight.
We are a good location, but as you state, there is no way they can afford to get the real estate needed to make it affordable.
About the only solution I could see is running an elevated rail above medians on I-95, I-91, I-84, I-384, rt9, rt2, rt 15, etc. But talk about expensive infrastructure.
“What is it with politicians and choo choos?”
They must have had a toy train set when they were little.
Trains are nice, but buses make more economic sense for mass transportation.
Sunshine Travel offers a $15 bus fare from New York City to Boston:
http://www.sunshineboston.com/nyc.html
Amtrak service between New York City and Boston costs $64.
Way more than that. My gf takes the train to Boston (Because it’s cheaper than parking a car there once you get there) but it’s over $120 .
I refuse to do it. I’ll park in Framingham and take the T in if I have to. Amtrak is a ridiculous form of transportation. The seating is like the plastic seats provided while waiting for your McDonald’s cheezburger, only it’s a 6 hour wait.
I quoted one-way fares. Yours is likely round-trip
“They don’t really disagree on where we should be heading. They disagree as to the route taken and the speed driven.”
I could not agree with you more!
I hate to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but I sometimes wonder if the Democrat obsession with mass transit is that then they can control where you go and when you go there.
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