Greenwich Time: DeStefano touts rail, traffic plan

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Greenwich Time: DeStefano touts rail, traffic plan

The Greenwich Time July 11, 2006

By Keach Hagey

New Haven Mayor and Democratic gubernatorial hopeful John DeStefano could not have scripted a better entrance if he had tried.

Minutes before he was scheduled to arrive at Greenwich's train station yesterday to talk to commuters about his transportation platform - which includes improvements to the Metro-North Railroad - a mechanized female voice announced that the train bringing him down from his last whistle stop in Stamford would be five minutes late.

The delay served to illustrate what DeStefano called the "neglected" state of Connecticut's railroads, highways and ports.

"You can't have job growth and you can't have a decent quality of life in this state without transportation improvements," he said. "Our failure to invest is going to cost us dollars."

DeStefano, who will face Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy in the Democratic primary next month, is making a sweeping set of transportation improvements the cornerstone of his campaign platform. They include creating a new state agency to manage the state's public transit system, building a commuter rail from New Haven to Springfield, creation of a bi-state Connecticut-Massachusetts Airport and Development Authority, forming a Connecticut Port Authority and increasing parking and safety measures at rail stations along the Metro-North commuter rail line.

Calling the public transportation service in southwestern Connecticut "the stepchild" of the state's transportation network, he criticized Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell and former governor John Rowland for allowing much of the state's transportation infrastructure to fall into disrepair.

DeStefano said the best way to fight the strangulation of traffic on Interstate 95 is by improving the state's freight transportation system, including building cargo railroads directly up to the state's main ports.

"You know what would take truck traffic off of I-95 in Greenwich?" he asked. "Putting in cargo rail into New London."

DeStefano estimated that the improvements would cost the state about $6 billion over 10 years, which could be raised through some combination of lobbying for federal transportation dollars, borrowing, and tolls and other usage fees.

Mercedes Nugent, a financial advisor who has been commuting from her Greenwich home to her midtown office for 20 years, said she didn't have many complaints about Metro-North service.

"I've been commuting for a lot of years, and it's better than it used to be," said Nugent, who described herself as a political independent. "I would like to get the new cars. That would be an improvement."

Roddy Boyd, a Greenwich resident who was waiting for the train to take him to his job as a financial investigative reporter at the New York Post, said that, while he wouldn't be voting in the Democratic primary, he would support the ideas behind DeStefano's plan.

"More trains and faster," he said. "I wish that the cars were more modern and cleaner. I'm 38, and these trains are older than I am."

Richard Harris, Rell's campaign spokesman, said DeStefano's criticisms of Rell's transportation leadership were "laughable," pointing to the $1.3-billion transportation package that Rell signed into law last year. That package included funding for 342 new rail cars for Metro-North, in addition to funding for improvements to every highway in the state and new transit buses.

Lisa-Joy Zgorski, press secretary for Malloy's campaign, called DeStefano's proposal a "so-called transportation plan" consisting of ideas that have been circulating around the state for some time, adding that "it lacks any cost analysis or funding mechanism."