NEWINGTON, Conn. — The Connecticut Department of Transportation has received more than 500 applications for an advisory panel to help design new cars for the state’s Hartford Line and Shore Line East commuter rail services.
Meetings are scheduled to begin in October and will be held over the next two years in anticipation of orders for new cars, WSHU Public Radio reports. New cars are at least five years away because of a backlog of orders for railcar manufacturers.
CTrail’s launch of its Hartford Line service in 2018 was dogged by issues with restrooms on its passenger cars, leased from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. The restrooms on the cars were initially locked because they are not compliant with Americans with Disabilities Act regulations, but eventually some were unlocked. [See “CTrail trains to open some restrooms after complaint,” Trains News Wire, Aug. 13, 2018.]
Public Transportation Bureau Chief Richard Andreski told the radio station that some of the current coaches “are as old as 40 years old and it’s time, well past due, that they be replaced. We’re interested in hearing the public’s input because this frankly is the place where our customers spend most of their time when commuting.”
They’ll have an oversized committee of punters all shouting “Listen to me! Listen to me! listen to me!” at the same time.
I can imagine myself on the committee. “Cars should be blue!” I’d shout, as blue is my favorite color and the gang color of Yale University. Then I’d dig out Scott Hartley’s excellent book on the New Haven Railroad and insist that the cars be a mishmash of the various New Haven liveries, at times red and at times green. Then I’d say have a shelf of reading material in the toilet rooms. And, oh yes, a sunroof like my Subaru. And electronic stability control as my Subaru has. And oh yes, make the cars in Connecticut, not in Indiana even though my Subaru was made in Indiana.
Then I’d recall my early Amtrak rides on Western railroad heritage chair cars. “Forty-four seats!” I’d cry out. “Or maybe forty-eight as this is a commuter railroad.”
Do they really have to tell us that rail commuters spend most of their commuting time in coaches?
Weren’t the new M8s suppised to run on Shore Line, freeing up those cats to work the Hartford line? I thought that’s what created the whole cluster to begin with
Let us hope we don’t get camel cars (a camel is a horse designed by a committee).
The above comments are generic in nature and do not form the basis for an attorney/client relationship. They do not constitute legal advice. I am not your attorney. Find your own damn lawyer.