Government

Malloy: New M-8 Trains for Heavily Used New Canaan Line

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Gov. Dannel Malloy on Tuesday took a symbolic trip on Metro-North Railroad’s New Canaan branch line Tuesday by way of announcing that new M-8 cars are operating between Stamford and the Next Station to Heaven. During a press conference on the platform at Springdale station, Malloy said the first two of 25 single-car trains dedicated to the line are in place. Transportation officials estimate that travel on the New Canaan branch will increase 44 percent over the next 15 years, he said. “We are currently running 2,500 [commuters] Monday through Friday and we see that growing,” said Malloy, joined on the platform by State Rep. Tom O’Dea (R-125th), State Rep. William Tong (D-147th), Connecticut Department of Transportation Commissioner James Redeker and other officials, many of whom had valid reasons to be there. O’Dea said he was “ecstatic” about the announcement and joined the governor in “calling for upgrades to the New Canaan line.”

Tong, who represents parts of Darien and Stamford, called the New Canaan line “part of the lifeline for Connecticut’s economy to “maybe the most economically important economic center in the world, New York City.”

Asked how much the cars cost, Malloy said the single-riders are about $2 million.

Government

First Selectman on DOT’s Lack of Response on Talmadge Hill Train Station: ‘It’s Extremely Disappointing’

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The state still hasn’t acknowledged or responded to a letter sent this summer by New Canaan’s highest elected official—a call to install a ticket kiosk and canopy at the Talmadge Hill rail platform, a nearly two-decades-old effort. According to First Selectman Rob Mallozzi, the Connecticut Department of Transportation hasn’t indicated either way whether the state agency would “spend any time in review of what the necessities are for that platform.”

“It’s just disappointing,” Mallozzi said. “The fact is I was following up on something that this town has had an interest in since 1995,” the first selectman said. “And when the first selectman cannot get a response from an agency, it’s extremely disappointing. And I feel bad for our commuters, who seek my assistance in helping to get something done.

Around Town

Town Seeks to Improve Intersection at Locust and Main

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With an eye on safety and traffic flow, town officials are seeking state approval for a new configuration at the often-harrowing intersection of Main Street and Locust Avenue. Specifically, officials are seeking to “bump out” the sidewalk at the firehouse and thrift shop corners “to shorten down the walking distance” across the intersection and square up (or “90-up”) Locust as it comes into Main so the intersection is shaped like a T rather than a Y, said Tiger Mann, assistant director of the New Canaan Department of Public Works. The town also has asked the Connecticut Department of Transportation (Main Street at that stretch is a state road, part of Route 124) to install a pedestrian signal post for people seeking to cross Locust just there, Mann said. As a result of all that work, the overhead motor vehicle traffic signals’ positioning and timing will need to be adjusted, he said. “They [state officials] are working on their signal plans now,” Mann said.

Around Town

State: New Canaan’s Stretch of Merritt Parkway to Include Traffic-Squeezing Jersey Barriers for At Least Two More Years

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Motorists beware: Officials say the Jersey barriers now squeezing traffic along the New Canaan-Stamford stretch of the Merritt will remain in place until early 2016 as part of a major safety and drainage project, and that the next phase will include a New Canaan segment of the parkway toward Norwalk. The Connecticut Department of Transportation is doing most of the work at night (click on the ‘Active Construction’ in New Canaan icon here for details on times)—it includes updating original 1930s-era drainage systems as well as tree work in the medians and along the edges of the Merritt, Phillip J. Zoppi, a DOT transportation maintenance manager said Tuesday. “Unfortunately for you the pain will not end once New Canaan-Stamford is completed—which it should be competed some time in early 2016—because they still have to do” the New Canaan-Norwalk section, Zoppi said during “Pizza with the Chief,” a public event held in the training room at the New Canaan Police Department. Zoppi was one of about 20 attendees at the hour-long question-and-answer session. “The reason the traffic becomes a nightmare is the Jersey barrier squeezes it in,” Zoppi said.

Government

Mallozzi Presses DOT on Long-Promised Canopy at Talmadge Hill Station [VIDEO]

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First Selectman Rob Mallozzi at Talmadge Hill Station
Calling the Talmadge Hill train station inadequate in that it has no ticket kiosk or canopy that runs along the platform to provide shelter for rail riders, New Canaan’s highest elected official is calling for the state to address the problem. First Selectman Rob Mallozzi said he’s seen correspondence on the subject from the Connecticut Department of Transportation going back nearly 20 years. “As I understand it, Talmadge Hill station may be the only station on the branch line without a weather canopy,” Mallozzi said in a letter sent Aug. 14 to the DOT public transportation bureau’s rail administrator. “The station serves as the main departure and terminus for some 275 permit holders as well as 120 daily members of the commuting public.