(rshsdepot) State Street, Hartford, CT

[Bernie Wagenblast <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

New State Street Station targets I-95 commuters

Randall Beach, New Haven Register Staff June 07, 2002


NEW HAVEN - City and state officials proudly unveiled the new State Street
Railroad Station Thursday, calling it an incentive to get people out of
their cars and onto the rails.

Speaking over the bells and engines of trains passing underneath the
station's glassed-in pedestrian walkway, Gov. John G. Rowland said the
station will provide "a great alternative" to sitting in traffic on clogged
highways.

"Ten thousand single-occupant vehicles come into New Haven every morning,"
Rowland said. "We're trying to change everybody's behavior."

The blue-and-turquoise station between Court and Chapel streets will give
Shore Line East commuters a new stop between Branford and New Haven's Union
Station. The location, only two blocks from the New Haven Green, is intended
to encourage car commuters to try the train.

Beginning today, all Shore Line East trains will stop at State Street
Station.

In addition, beginning June 24, some Metro-North morning eastbound trains
will terminate at State Street and some evenings westbound trains will
originate from there.

Rowland called the new station "the first step in a comprehensive plan to
make rail transportation an attractive alternative for I-95 motorists during
the upcoming Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge construction project."

Transportation officials accompanying Rowland said construction of the new
10-lane bridge won't begin until 2005. But they said in July workers will
start adding a lane and shoulder on each side of I-95 between Exit 54 in
Branford and the Lake Saltonstall Bridge.

Acting Transportation Commissioner James F. Byrnes said construction will
begin this summer on new train stations in Branford, Guilford, Madison and
Clinton.

He said a new station is also being planned for Westbrook.

Rowland said the State Street Station will help New Haven become even more
"pedestrian-friendly."

"God, I wish we had that in Hartford," Rowland said. "You have no idea how
lucky you are."

He said encouraging mass transit has been "our command focus" for the past
seven years.

Rowland, who earlier in his administration advocated terminating the Shore
Line East train because he said it wasn't worth the money, is now firmly "on
board."

When asked about his change in thinking after the ceremony, Rowland said,
"They weren't using it.

There were 550 riders being subsidized by the state. Use it or lose it."

Rowland said the number of riders has increased through the years and he
expects even more to climb aboard with the opening of the State Street
Station.

Mayor John DeStefano Jr. said during the dedication that the goal of such
projects is "a 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week downtown."

While thanking Rowland for the funds to build the station, DeStefano joked,
"Governor, I wish every year were election year!"

Rowland fired back during his own remarks, "The mayor said it's an election
year, but I've been here so many times over the last seven years" for
state-backed projects such as the Ninth Square.

There was at least one dissenter at the dedication. Lee Carlson, president
of the Shore Line East Riders Association, charged the state will eliminate
a 2:10 p.m. Friday train from New Haven and has already discontinued a 9:47
p.m. train out of New Haven.

But Byrnes said the state has decided not to eliminate the 2:10 p.m. train.
He said the 9:47 p.m. run usually carried only several passengers.

Carlson did say he was heartened by the new station, as it will enable him
to leave his house in Madison a half-hour later every weekday.

Robert Underwood, 64, of New Haven, attended the ceremony wearing a railroad
engineer's hat. He said he will ride a Shore Line East train today from
State Street to Old Saybrook, "for my enjoyment."

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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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