LaHood in state to discuss rail line

New Haven - U.S. Secretary Ray LaHood departed Union Station here Monday morning, surrounded by Connecticut elected officials, for a high-stakes game of show and tell.

 The goal: show-off the rail route from New Haven up to Hartford and on to Springfield, Mass., where Connecticut leaders have for years hoped to initiate a new commuter rail service to stimulate economic growth and ease congestion on I-91.

 Alighting on the platform in Hartford, the home team, including Sen. Chris Dodd, Gov. M. Jodi Rell, and Reps. John Larson and Rosa DeLauro, proclaimed it “a good run,” and said they thought Connecticut would be well positioned to win even more than the $40 million it has already received from the federal government to prepare the tracks and initiate commuter service in the next five years.

 “We’ve got a schedule to meet and this is a terrific project,” Dodd said. “It’s more than just a 62-mile run. It really is the economic development and growth of the whole region.”

 LaHood has been traveling the country to view proposed transportation projects, and said Connecticut’s plan to win federal funding for the New Haven-Springfield line, as laid out by state Transportation Commissioner Joseph Marie during the ride up the Quinnipiac River valley to Hartford, was a good one.

 “What I say is when a state has its act together, they’re going to do well,” LaHood said. “Connecticut has its act together. The plan that was laid out for us this morning between the governor and Amtrak and others, Connecticut is on its way to really implementing high-speed inter-city rail, and that will benefit the people.”

 Rell and the Congressional delegation sat with LaHood in a modified dining car that serves as one of Amtrak’s rolling conference facilities. As Amtrak train 490 sat in the station in New Haven minutes before its 8:38 a.m. departure, the governor sat at the head of a table in the special car surrounded by federal officials and the lawmakers. Television crews trooped in one at a time to pan around the room, while press secretaries from the various official entities waited for DeLauro to arrive.

 A Northeast corridor Amtrak train bound for Boston pulled in across the platform, and a detail of police waved the flock of commuters changing trains for Hartford and Springfield down the platform, away from the car that held the VIPs.

 Moments later, the train pulled out, rolling slowly through the industrial zones that stretch north of New Haven up into Wallingford.

 All through the stretch up into Meriden and Berlin, Connecticut’s plans require significant infrastructure improvement, including adding new rails in the 10-mile long sections where the route is currently only single-tracked.

 The project will also, Rell noted, give the state government a chance to more aggressively pursue the transit-oriented development of commercial property and affordable housing, a longtime goal of many transit advocates in the state that has been embraced by officials in the Rell administration and the governor herself.

 The secretary’s presence, Dodd said, shows that the state has the president on board as well.

 “It’s a commitment on the part of the Obama administration to really be supportive of these efforts,” Dodd said. “... We’re optimistic that we can make a good case to the secretary on behalf of the state that this is a worthy project and deserving of support.”