HARTFORD — Building the New Haven-to-Springfield commuter rail line system will take about a year longer and $135 million more than expected, but state officials say they’ve secured a crucial commitment from Amtrak that will keep work on budget and schedule.
The railroad is promising that new tracks and signals will be ready for trains to run by January 2018 at a new cost of $570 million.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy wanted service to begin in December 2016, but a prolonged stalemate with Amtrak would have meant far longer delays, his administration said.
“The train is leaving the station. We’re going to get this thing built,” Malloy said Thursday night.
“Many people in Enfield will rejoice with this news,” Sen. John Kissel, R-Enfield, said Thursday evening. “This is a fantastic opportunity for the whole north central region.”
Amtrak, which owns the railbed, runs a half-dozen trains a day on a single track along the 62-mile route, and until recent years viewed it as only a minor feeder route to its popular Northeast regional service between Boston and Washington, D.C.
But along with the federal government and most New England states, Amtrak is now eager to see the line expanded and modernized as a foundation for the long-term plan to link New York, Boston, Washington and Montreal by higher-speed rail.
At the same time, communities along I-91 have been clamoring for Metro-North-style commuter rail, convinced that it will bring commercial and residential development to neighborhoods near train stations.
State transportation planners forecast as many as 750,000 passenger trips a year when the operation gets underway, and more than 1 million a year when the system is completed. It will start with 17 daily round-trips between New Haven and Hartford, and 12 continuing north to Springfield.
“We really believe transit-oriented development will revitalize Thompsonville and be a bulwark for the rest of the town and the region as a whole,” Kissel said. “I’ve been championing this for years. I’d say, ‘Thank you, Gov. Malloy.’ “
Kissel, generally a fiscal conservative, has been outspoken in supporting previous funding for the Hartford line, saying it will help retain more transit-friendly millennials in Connecticut. He has led a bipartisan delegation of lawmakers from Enfield, Windsor Locks and surrounding towns in pressing the General Assembly to support commuter rail along I-91.
Wallingford, North Haven, Meriden and other communities along the southern end of the line are also advocates.
The Federal Railroad Administration already put up $191 million to build a second set of tracks, add bridges, widen culverts and modernize signals along the route. Connecticut has kicked in $244 million, and until last winter expected that the total of $435 million would be enough.
But by May, Malloy was complaining to Amtrak that work was behind schedule and over budget — with no final cost figure in sight. That led to negotiations between Connecticut, Amtrak and the FRA; they concluded it will take an additional $135 million to finish the work.
“When we went out to do a complete inspection of every bridge and culvert, we found the line to be in very, very poor shape compared to what anybody expected,” state Transportation Commissioner James Redeker said Thursday. “Amtrak has been in tough shape for years — they had no money, and based on just six round trips a day this line didn’t warrant much money over the last 30 years.”
Much of the difficulty in managing the project is that even though Connecticut and the FRA are paying for the work, Amtrak is controlling it. Amtrak’s workers put down new track and a contractor handles culvert and signal work — but they answer to Amtrak, not the DOT or the FRA.
Redeker said Amtrak has put forward two essential promises: Construction won’t go over the new budget of $570 million, and the line will be ready to go in January 2018.
“It may take more money, but it will get done — and it will be built to appropriate standards,” Malloy said. “Everybody is acting in good faith.”
Malloy will ask the State Bond Commission to authorize $135 million for the construction. He’s requesting an additional $20 million for design and engineering on four new stations, construction of a new platform at the State Street station in New Haven, and a study of moving Hartford’s section of the tracks northward to accommodate a new ground-level I-84.
Connecticut has gotten interest from contractors that want to run the trains. It is extending its schedule for picking an operator until it is closer to developing a precise service plan for opening day, Redeker said.
