Boats and trains

A message to the 300-member Connecticut Marine Trades Association: Public transportation is a higher priority than recreational boating.

The Essex-based trade group representing recreational boating and related marine industries disagrees, however, based on its attack of a state Department of Transportation plan to increase passenger rail service between New Haven and New London.

In a recent letter to the DOT, the CMTA outlined its opposition to more trains, using baseless arguments that undermine the validity of some substantive concerns.

Increased train traffic will require additional closures of moveable bridges over the Connecticut and Niantic rivers and at Shaw's Cove in New London. That's a legitimate concern for boaters. But in making their anti-train case the CMTA hurt its own credibility by maligning the value of state and federal transportation subsidies and exaggerating the significance of recreational boating.

Boating is good for southeastern Connecticut, but trains are better. Trains run year-round and carry more passengers. Recreational boating is a boon to tourism, but it is a seasonal activity. Convenient, daily train travel between New London and New Haven benefits more people, and will encourage commerce and possibly lure new residents to New London.

The boaters' missive to the DOT was an arrogant, self-centered rant that temporarily side-tracked the extended Shore Line East service that Gov. M. Jodi Rell promised New London by year's end, but the governor said it will not stop it.

"I can't be more emphatic on the governor's desire that the DOT needs to get this done ASAP, and we are absolutely intent on doing that," DOT spokesman Kevin Nursick said Thursday.

Local leaders need to speak up, loudly, in favor of extended service, even at the risk of alienating some boaters.

The CMTA erred by picking this fight with the state's DOT, which was trying to accommodate all interests. Boaters may be captains of their own ships, but they're not masters of the state's transportation interests.