Free parking isn’t free

Written by Jim Cameron
Wednesday, 09 March 2011 00:00

Our obsession with automobiles is not only creating gridlock and ruining the quality of our air, but it’s eating up our real estate and sending land costs upward. Because, once we drive our cars off the crowded highways, we assume it’s our constitutional right to find “free parking.”

Trust me: Whether at rail stations or stores, parking comes at a price paid in more than just dollars.

For decades, city planners and zoning regulations have shared with Detroit in a conspiracy to deliver on that dream. Consider the following:

According to the industry standard-setting Institute of Transportation Engineers, there are 266 kinds of businesses which should be zoned to require a minimum amount of parking. Quoting from the ITE “bible,” religious convents must have one parking space for every 10 nuns in residence. Hello? The residents aren’t going anywhere! Why do they need parking? Couldn’t the convents find better use for their land?

CDOT thinks we’re stupid

Written by Jim Cameron
Tuesday, 22 February 2011 00:00

The CT Rail Commuter Council’s “Winter Crisis — Commuter Summit” last week was a big success. Dozens of commuters turned out to share their horror stories about trying to ride Metro-North this winter — no heat, no information, no seats, and in many cases, no trains.

Metro-North and the CT Dept. of Transportation made the usual excuses and apologies, which placated few: “We’re doing the best we can” ... ‘it’s not our fault the trains are so old” ... and the classic, “be patient, the new M8 cars are coming.”

All of these are true. But, it was in trying to explain the many delays in the delivery and testing of the new M8 cars, that things got heated.

Metro-North meltdown

Written by Jim Cameron
Wednesday, 09 February 2011 00:00

Commuting on Metro-North has never been fun. But remember the good ol’ days when “Train time was your own time?” This winter, train time is no time. Metro-North’s New Haven division is in full meltdown.

Within the past week we have had two derailments, hundreds of late or canceled trains and one frightening incident (caught on video) of an open door on a moving train. Half of our fleet of cars is out of service, frozen solid.

Trains have broken down, without power for hours, while passengers were given no information. And as I wrote last time, we are no closer to seeing the long-delayed new M8 cars in service.

Where are the new M8 cars?

Written by Jim Cameron
Tuesday, 25 January 2011 23:00

Almost daily, on train platforms and in town, a commuter stops me to ask, “So, where are the new M8 rail cars?” I wish I knew!

It has been six years since then-Gov. Jodi Rell announced that the state would finally be replacing its broken-down rail fleet ... six years! It’s taken that long for their design, bidding, construction and delivery. The first car arrived Christmas Eve 2009, already a year late due to builder Kawasaki’s construction problems.

For 13 months those cars have undergone testing. But today we seem no closer to riding the M8s despite promises that they would be in service by now, and the testing process has been cloaked in mystery. (Ironically, there are dozens of videos of the M8s undergoing testing on YouTube, but that’s the closest I’ve been to seeing them running).

How to complain about the trains

Written by Jim Cameron
Tuesday, 11 January 2011 23:00

All that is necessary for the success of evil is that good men do nothing.

Now, this is no way to imply that the folks who run Metro-North are in any way evil. For the most part, I think they do an admirable job running our trains, given the decrepit equipment allocated them by the state. But when things do go wrong, if human error is at fault, it’s important that you complain. Otherwise, bad service is perpetuated.

Report card for the Department of Transportation

Written by Jim Cameron
Tuesday, 28 December 2010 14:13

You probably missed it in the run-up to Christmas, but a new legislative report has again given poor grades to the CDOT. This report from the General Assembly’s chief investigative panel was released, strangely, on Dec. 23, a date that all but guaranteed it would get no news coverage. Do you think this was by chance? Hardly.

But, credit should go to the excellent online newspaper CT Mirror, which broke the story, and to a few print dailies across the state, which picked it up.

In summary, the report said the CDOT is late in finishing its work, especially its most expensive undertakings. On average, the agency took 5.3 years to finish big projects, with only 37% of work finished on time (think I-95). That compares with other states’ 57% on-time completions.

Not only were the projects late, 74% of them were over budget with an average added cost of 23%. Over the decade of work studied, that added up to an additional half-billion of your tax dollars.

To Florida by train

Written by Jim Cameron
Tuesday, 14 December 2010 23:00

Any regular reader of this column knows my long-held disdain of flying. The recently added insult of irradiation or proctological examination by the TSA made it a no-brainer when I had to travel this week to Miami on business: Amtrak all the way.

The Silver Star departs NYC’s Penn Station each day at 11 a.m. It’s sister train, The Silver Meteor, leaves at 3:15 p.m. Both trains end up in Miami within minutes of each other, but take different routes south of Richmond. I’m on The Star, which actually goes to Tampa, then on to Miami.

Secure in my roomy bedroom compartment (complete with sink, shower and bathroom), I fire up my radio scanner to hear the conductor call an on-time departure from New York.

Even though our 10-car train (engine, baggage car, two sleepers, dining car, lounge and four coaches) has a mixture of old “heritage fleet” and newer Amfleet equipment, my Blackberry GPS says we’re doing more than 105 m.p.h. as we careen through central New Jersey.

Saving your transit benefits ... and your trains

Written by Jim Cameron
Tuesday, 30 November 2010 22:30

Don’t look now, but Congress is about to give motoring commuters a big tax break and take one away from riders of mass transit.

Under current federal law, commuters can deduct up to $230 a month from their pre-tax paychecks to pay for the trips to and from work. That deduction can cover bus/rail tickets via programs like TransitChek or pay their parking expenses.

But, unless Congress acts by the end of the year, the mass transit commuter’s benefit will be cut to $120 per month, while the motoring commuter keeps the full benefit. Huh?

Thank you, Gov. Rell

Written by Jim Cameron
Tuesday, 16 November 2010 22:30

Anyone who follows this column knows I’m bipartisan in my criticism. Whoever is in power, Democrat or Republican, I’ve got “suggestions” on how they could improve our transportation mess.

Since she came to office in the midst of a scandal, no other politician has been the target of my commentary more often than Gov. M. Jodi Rell. Today, however, I want to give her the credit she’s due for all she’s done on the transportation front.

Watching the governor ride the first of the new M8 rail cars this week, I was struck by how she had come full circle in only six years. The irony is it took her entire tenure in office to order, design, build, test, and finally deliver these new cars.

Trolleys: Riding back in time

Written by Jim Cameron
Tuesday, 02 November 2010 22:30

What was commuting like back in the “good old days?” Well, cheaper, slower and with fewer options. Still, we have nostalgia for our grandparents’ travel methods long before families owned cars. Back then, it was all about trolleys!

It’s been 200 years since trolleys first plied city streets. Initially pulled by horses, they were eventually electrified, adding speed and dependability. While we think of streetcars mostly for in-city service, trolleys criss-crossed our state, supplementing the railroads for longer distance travel. It is true that you could travel all the way from New York to Boston by connecting trolley lines, a nickel a ride.