Shore Line East expansion to NL pushed back once again by state

New London - The announcement Wednesday that expanded commuter rail service will be delayed was not in itself a big surprise - Shore Line East's expansion into New London has been beset by delays time and again - nor was it particularly long as far as delays go: a month and a half to two months.

But the state Department of Transportation's stated reason for the latest postponement offered a new twist as the DOT pointed a finger at and laid the blame squarely on a boating advocacy group.

In a letter dated Wednesday and addressed to Grant Westerson, the executive director of the Connecticut Marine Trades Association, DOT said it had attempted to reach out to the marine group to no avail.

DOT's letter was in response to one the boating group had sent it earlier this month in which the association questioned the overall benefit and cost of expanded rail service and concluded by describing DOT's expansion plans as "too onerous, too aggressive, too impacting, too expensive and too damaging to an existing and viable recreational marine industry."

The marine trades group has said the expanded service will prove troublesome to its association because of the additional railroad bridge closures involved; the three bridges over the Niantic and Connecticut rivers plus one at Shaw's Cove in New London need to be in the "up" position to allow boats to cross into Long Island Sound.

James Redeker, chief of the DOT's Bureau of Public Transportation, wrote in Wednesday's letter to the association: "It is clear from the response that there is no commitment on the part of CMTA to support the incremental service expansion in any reasonable time frame."

Redeker wrote that the marine trades group has failed to provide DOT with specific details on what it would agree to and that its objection to expansion "is based on hypothetical, unsupported claims of potential impacts to recreational and commercial boaters and to marinas and boatyards."

DOT had pledged to bring expanded commuter service to New London by the end of the year, the latest in a series of pledges in the past several years to bring full Shore Line East service all the way into downtown's Union Station rather than ending it in Old Saybrook.

DOT spokesman Kevin Nursick said Wednesday the attempt and failure to reach a middle ground with the association "poses a little change in plans that will push off the end-of-year start-up time."

Nursick said the delay will be a month and a half to two months and noted that Gov. M. Jodi Rell is pushing hard for the expansion.

Westerson reiterated the association's position Wednesday that the boaters are more than a collection of yachtsmen who are simply inconvenienced by the bridge closures.

"I wish the layman would not miss the fact that every boat that's out there is commerce to our industry," Westerson said. "It's not (just) people on vacation … but commerce to our industry."

Westerson has said before that the marinas, restaurants, B&Bs and other businesses that operate upriver depend on the bridges opening on time and has questioned the rail industry's ability to deliver.

On Wednesday, Westerson pointed out that four independent services - Amtrak, Shore Line East, the freight lines and the high-speed Acela service, also run by Amtrak - hinder the ability of DOT and others to produce a reliable schedule of bridge opening and closures.

"You throw all that into the pot and stir it up, there isn't a schedule in the world that can be adhered to," he said.

In its letter to the DOT, the association also questioned the benefit to expanded commuter service.

"The value of rail expansion has never been disputed, but the magnitude of that value is what's of concern to our industry," the letter read. "If commuter service is instituted and meets the acceptable level to be considered successful, the relief that it will give to vehicle traffic on I-95 will be minimal at best and probably indeterminate."

Nursick replied Wednesday, "To put on a set of blinders and limit yourself to one mode of transportation is short-sighted and ill-advised. It is important that a region and travelers have (multiple) options, not just one method of transportation available to them."

Nursick added that there are "quantifiable, measurable improvements that can be attributed to mass transportation."

k.crompton@theday.com