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Transportation advocate weighs in on needed improvements in 2016

Transportation advocates are waiting with baited breath to hear what the Governor's Transportation Funding Task Force is going to recommend on how to pay for his 30 year improvement plan.  Commuter Action Group Founder Jim Cameron says the report was expected around Labor Day, but has been delayed.  He expects it to include tolls, higher gas and sales taxes and maybe some real estate taxes as well.

 

Cameron says there's no free lunch in this world, and someone has to pay for the $100 billion in proposed projects. 

 

The big question remains how to pay for the work.

 

Cameron says people who live in Danbury and other border towns are right in opposing what he called "the ridiculous idea of border tolls".  He thinks the Task Force will recommend tolling across the state.  He says tolls make a lot of sense as a user fee.  He thinks it will improve traffic conditions because they will discourage drivers that don't have to be on the highway from being there.

 

He notes that the actual construction will be inconveniencing drivers for a decade before it's done. 

 

Cameron says it's not just the people in the lower part of the state that will feel the pain of the improvements actually being done.  When it comes to Interstate 84, he says the projects in downtown Hartford and the Mix Master will take years.

 

Mass transit improvements are also being recommended.

 

Cameron says the Danbury and Waterbury branches have been struggling for years.  There are locomotive propelled trains running at slower speeds, on one track railroads with poor signaling.  He says Metro North overall will be able to start dragging itself out of the pit of safety issues its been fighting for the past few years in 2016. 

 

Ridership is up, but more cars have not been added since the order was placed 10 years ago.  He says that makes for crowded rides, even standing room only.

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Joe Pags

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