OT: - High Speed Rail Through Storrs? | Page 3 | The Boneyard

OT: High Speed Rail Through Storrs?

Excalibur said:
That opposition was from RI, who didn’t want it going through the lakes/reservoirs just across the border. When it became clear that the route would not happen, what is now 384 was hastily terminated at Bolton Notch.

It is incredible to me that there is no highway from Hartford to Providence.
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It's Route 6 or 44.
 
Dream Jobbed 2.0 said:
We took the 44 Rt from Storrs to visit a friend who was at Bryant. It was the longest drive of my life.
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When I worked on I-84 in Willimantic, the Office Manager was from Providence (so was the GC - Campanella Corp) and rather than drive to the project every day from Providence, he rented the building at the top of Jerimoth Hill (the highest point in RI at 812' above MSL). It was originally a radio broadcasting station that connected to the broadcasting tower that was there. I would normally stay there after a day trip for meetings at the main office. Those were some crazy times! And, the drive to/from Providence took over an hour on Rte 6.....
 
aburks41 said:
I feel like I may not be alone in thinking this, but I rarely ever go to NYC because it's a 45 minute drive to New Haven and then a 1.5 hour train ride. If you tell me all I need to do now is drive 15 minutes to Hartford and sit on a train for 50 minutes, I would probably be there once a month even if it was just for a quick evening dinner.

50 minutes from NYC or Boston for Hartford county people is huge, there would be a lot more customers than you think
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New York should help pay for it! 😂😂😂
 
ClifSpliffy said:
hows aboot we finish rt 11? it's only been close to 3/4's of a century... it's the red line on the map:
CT-11_map.png


'The Route 11 extension has been a political football for politicians and town officials alike since its inception in 1953. Since then, millions in taxpayer dollars have been spent on numerous studies, preliminary engineering and contractual/Department of Transportation (DOT) activities, trying to complete the vision of G. Albert Hill, Connecticut’s State Highway Commissioner in 1953'
Connecticut’s Road to Nowhere: A History of Route 11 | Yankee Institute for Public Policy
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Great article that illustrates in detail what can happen to a worthy project when faced with cost escalations/issues and "environmental concerns". Thanks for sharing.

It is interesting that the High Speed Rail article pegs the cost of the line (including the tunnel under LIS) to be $105 Billion over 20 years! I cannot begin to predict what the final cost would be given inflation over that lengthy period of time! Also, given the legal difficulties in obtaining ROW and Environmental studies, filings, reviews and court cases, it is certainly doubtful this project would ever get off the ground.
 
HuskyHawk said:
I think you mean I-384. Which was a drag strip (and we used it as one) highway to nowhere when I was growing up in Manchester. Ran from one end of the town to the other. Hadn’t been connected to 84 yet. It was supposed to follow most of what is now RT 6 from the Bolton/ Manchester line through Willimantic to Providence. It would have helped both cities, and certainly Willimantic.
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No, he is right the original plan was for I 84 to go to Providence. When they gave that idea up they turned it into I 384. I 86 was the highway from Hartford to the Mass pike which they turned into I 84.
 
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ucp990411 said:
No, he is right the original plan was for I 84 to go to Providence. When they gave that idea up they turned it into I 384. I 86 was the highway from Hartford to the Mass pike which they turned into I 84.
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No. What is 84 was 84. They did propose the road to Providence, and renamed that stretch of 84 to 86, then years later when the project was dead, renamed it back to 84 again.
 
HuskyHawk said:
No. What is 84 was 84. They did propose the road to Providence, and renamed that stretch of 84 to 86, then years later when the project was dead, renamed it back to 84 again.
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Sounds like we are saying the same thing. The stretch from Manchester to the Mass Pike was Rte 15 until the mid 60's. Renamed it I 84 for a short while then I 86 until they gave up the highway to Providence which was going to be I 84. At that time they went back to I 84 for the Manchester - Mass Pike section. The Providence proposal died because of environmental concerns in both CT and RI
 
Exit 4 post for the most insightful win, but someone else's reference to a Long Island Sound tunnel was humorous.
 
This thread is interesting. Really illustrates some of the issues with CTs transportation infrastructure. Obviously getting from Hartford to Providence is horrible.

It's as bad getting from the northwest corner into Hartford. I grew up in Barkhamsted. Lots of people in the NW corner work in Hartford. Maybe most. They all crawl along route 44 and a few other routes. Stop and go most of the way. I couldn't imagine that being my life for 30 years. Getting up at 6am to be at work at 8am. Finishing work at 5p. Getting home at 6-6:30p. Horrible.

A proper highway into the NW corner and they all could be in Hartford in about 30-40 minutes.
 
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husky8273 said:
most everyone who commutes to NYC, Boston, DC or most metro centers have endured this or worse. The pandemic has shown this is unnecessary for so many.
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That’s the real takeaway. Spending significant amounts of time commuting is stupid.
 
NDakotaHusky said:
This thread is interesting. Really illustrates some of the issues with CTs transportation infrastructure. Obviously getting from Hartford to Providence is horrible.

It's as bad getting from the northwest corner into Hartford. I grew up in Barkhamsted. Lots of people in the NW corner work in Hartford. Maybe most. They all crawl along route 44 and a few other routes. Stop and go most of the way. I couldn't imagine that being my life for 30 years. Getting up at 6am to be at work at 8am. Finishing work at 5p. Getting home at 6-6:30p. Horrible.

A proper highway into the NW corner and they all could be in Hartford in about 30-40 minutes.
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A highway would certainly help the commuters but at what cost? Wouldn't that change the rural nature of the NW corner and why people moved there in the first place? I never lived in that region so I never had to get there fast but I have always enjoyed driving west on 44 and beyond.

I know of people in places like Riverside CA that get up at 4 to get to work on time. Not for me. I read once that you should never travel more than 30 minutes to get to work. I traveled from Coventry CT to Providence for a job since that was all I could get in 2010 after a few months out of work and telecommuting was not an option. That was about an hour and 15 minutes in good weather. Fortunately, I was able to get another job for more pay 6 weeks later and I was able to stop that madness.
 
HCCForever said:
A highway would certainly help the commuters but at what cost? Wouldn't that change the rural nature of the NW corner and why people moved there in the first place? I never lived in that region so I never had to get there fast but I have always enjoyed driving west on 44 and beyond.

I know of people in places like Riverside CA that get up at 4 to get to work on time. Not for me. I read once that you should never travel more than 30 minutes to get to work. I traveled from Coventry CT to Providence for a job since that was all I could get in 2010 after a few months out of work and telecommuting was not an option. That was about an hour and 15 minutes in good weather. Fortunately, I was able to get another job for more pay 6 weeks later and I was able to stop that madness.
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You can make 44 or 6 a better, more direct link to Providence without killing most of the small town charm and scenery. You get more than a mile away from that road in any direction and you won't notice any difference. You'd probably have one or two towns that end up with an extra gas station and fast food joint and that's about it.

Unfortunately in CT and RI this is enough to derail a project that would be of great benefit to the overall region.
 
HCCForever said:
A highway would certainly help the commuters but at what cost? Wouldn't that change the rural nature of the NW corner and why people moved there in the first place? I never lived in that region so I never had to get there fast but I have always enjoyed driving west on 44 and beyond.

I know of people in places like Riverside CA that get up at 4 to get to work on time. Not for me. I read once that you should never travel more than 30 minutes to get to work. I traveled from Coventry CT to Providence for a job since that was all I could get in 2010 after a few months out of work and telecommuting was not an option. That was about an hour and 15 minutes in good weather. Fortunately, I was able to get another job for more pay 6 weeks later and I was able to stop that madness.
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Sensible post. All true.

NW Connecticut isn't as high a priority as Hartford to Providence and probably Hartford to New London. All are major cities and there isn't a great travel option. NW Connecticut is just a smaller example of the same issue. Failure to build infrastructure for political reasons. Maybe legitimate political reasons.

Edit: as a young kid I had a part time job where I worked with a retiree. He was just trying to stay busy so he picked up some part time work as well. Good dude. He worked for Channel 3 for decades. He lived in Winchester and traveled 44 all the way into Hartford everyday. He knew exactly how many stop lights there were. I forget what the number was. 50ish I think. Ugg... not information I ever want to be able to rattle off by memory.
 
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and speaking of expensive and dopey planner wet dream modeled ideas, how they doin?
CTfastrak Ridership
turrible, and not coming back anytime soon. buy hey, those few 1000s who benefit can thank the rest of us stuck with paying the many 100s of million dollars tab. on the udder hand, the lawyers, bankers, supergenius planners, and mebbe some elected blowhards involved, made out quite nicely.
eminent domain? what was once a valuable and necessary tool for our government, has morphed into, well, kelo.
it's a front. stop frontin' y'all, it's costing us taxpayers a pantload for these put on's.


now, aboot that tolls nonsense here in Connecticut...
now, aboot that kali high speed train to nowhere...
now, aboot that worst ever grand plan called 'the model cities program' ...
 
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NDakotaHusky said:
Sensible post. All true.

NW Connecticut isn't as high a priority as Hartford to Providence and probably Hartford to New London. All are major cities and there isn't a great travel option. NW Connecticut is just a smaller example of the same issue. Failure to build infrastructure for political reasons. Maybe legitimate political reasons.

Edit: as a young kid I had a part time job where I worked with a retiree. He was just trying to stay busy so he picked up some part time work as well. Good dude. He worked for Channel 3 for decades. He lived in Winchester and traveled 44 all the way into Hartford everyday. He knew exactly how many stop lights there were. I forget what the number was. 50ish I think. Ugg... not information I ever want to be able to rattle off by memory.
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Not something that I would want to remember either. Speaking of long commutes, I worked part time at Cabela's in East Hartford when it first opened for some extra scratch. I was paid $9 an hour with good discounts back when box stores were still relevant. There was a dude there who lived in Bethlehem and also worked part time and had a big truck. He probably spent most of his money on gas but he got discounts on ammo .
 
Chin Diesel said:
You can make 44 or 6 a better, more direct link to Providence without killing most of the small town charm and scenery. You get more than a mile away from that road in any direction and you won't notice any difference. You'd probably have one or two towns that end up with an extra gas station and fast food joint and that's about it.

Unfortunately in CT and RI this is enough to derail a project that would be of great benefit to the overall region.
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And 395 already runs through NW Connecticut to New London. It hasn't suddenly become a metropolis.

Anybody who has been on highways in the west knows that they don't transform rural places into destinations. They do make it easier for rural folks to get to places like airports and hospitals.
 
Hey Adrien! said:
The gridlock this country is through to improve infrastructure options is insane. If this is pulled off, a 100% wonderful idea.
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Incredible idea. There are people who will never take it who hate it. No idea why.
 
HuskyHawk said:
And 395 already runs through NW Connecticut to New London. It hasn't suddenly become a metropolis.

Anybody who has been on highways in the west knows that they don't transform rural places into destinations. They do make it easier for rural folks to get to places like airports and hospitals.
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Point of order, isn't anything above New London on the 395 corridor considered NE CT??
 
HuskyHawk said:
And 395 already runs through NW Connecticut to New London. It hasn't suddenly become a metropolis.
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I knew a guy talking up New London 20 years ago. I still see potential. My out of the box idea is to finish RT-11 and pay for it by making the new stretch a toll road.
 
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Dream Jobbed 2.0 said:
We took the 44 Rt from Storrs to visit a friend who was at Bryant. It was the longest drive of my life.
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It’s an easy drive. The first time seems lengthy, after that it’s nothing. I went to Bryant for undergrad and headed to UConn often to visit friends. I also had season tickets. Easy trip at 60-65mph. Never got a speeding ticket.

However, one day I left Bryant to visit a friend in Newport for the day, got a ticket just outside the entrance to the Bryant campus. That night I left Newport and got a ticket on the Newport Bridge. Rough day.
 
Waquoit said:
I knew a guy talking up New London 20 years ago. I still see potential. My out of the box idea is to finish RT-11 and pay for it by making the new stretch a toll road.
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Good one. I think I read about that guy.
 
alphasigko said:
Good luck with that....many of you were not here when I-84 was proposed and designed to go from Hartford, thru Manchester and Willimantic to Providence in the mid-70s. I worked on the route thru Willimantic as the contractor's project engineer. The route was stopped cold in its tracks going east of Willimantic due to opposition from the farming communities to the east and because of "environmental" concerns. That was then when the environmental standards were less severe than they are today and I suspect that there would be similar opposition from the communities to the east as there was then. Getting thru the Environmental Impact Study phase will take years at a snail's pace.

Note that I support such an endeavor, but the obstacles will be monumental and so would the cost.
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I get it. But end of day that area of eastern CT and Rhode Island is left behind economically. The lack of infrastructure is a big part of it.

I have had enough with the lack of infrastructure in our state and region. There are no more farms, and, we can easily build highways and train tracks that are better on the environment. The 1970 was a half century ago. I think we can try again and do the right thing. The lack of rail access in this country is awful. And, it causes massive trucking to come to the northeast.

Edit: I think now we have a chance. Rural places are being left behind incredibly, and it is because of the lack of infrastructure.
 
The Fairfield train station opened in the 1890s. At that time, the time it took to get from Fairfield to Grand Central was about ten minutes LESS than it is 130 years later.

My point — I’ll believe you can get from New York to Boston by train in two hours when I see it. And I’m not going to lose sleep waiting for it.
 
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