Trains and boats and planes. Pickups and SUVs. But also buses, vans, bikes and feet.

Almost two decades into the 21st century, Connecticut still struggles with how it will update transportation options and how it will pay for them. The public appetite for faster, affordable, more convenient, cleaner and greener transportation choices is stronger than ever, as young people rethink prevailing assumptions about where to live and older ones move in from car-dependent suburbs to denser neighborhoods.

The state has much catching up to do. Financing new infrastructure is the billion-dollar question. That light glimmering at the end of the road and rail tunnels may be answers.

The first step is to be able to describe the demand and the technology of the next 50 years. They are not the same as those that spurred the massive highway system of the mid-20th century. While there's no escaping the need to repair aging infrastructure that still carries the load, that load must be shared in ways that make better economic and environmental sense. For a long time it has been clear that the conversation is not just about how to fix Interstate 95.

Enthusiasm was high for restoring commercial flights to Groton-New London Airport at a transportation forum sponsored July 24 by the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut. Though there are obstacles, planners have identified the need: mid-range interstate air access to other cities without a 50- or 100-mile trip to the airport. When you know what's needed, you can go after it.

Defining the future local need for ground transportation is in an earlier stage. The Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments and the state Office of Military Affairs have taken the lead on a Department of Defense-funded Joint Land Use Study, due in early fall. Consultants have been told to focus on how sailors, Electric Boat shipyard workers and engineers and designers will get to their jobs in Groton and New London, and where they will be commuting from as the Navy orders construction of more submarines at a faster clip.  

The forecast is for 300,000 people to be living in the region in 2040, compared to about 269,000 now. Workers opting for the suburban and rural lifestyles so beloved in eastern Connecticut will need a place to park their pickups and SUVs, but perhaps not in urban lots. Car- and van-pools or buses could fill up with people on the same shifts and head in. Sidewalks and bike lanes will be in greater demand for the last leg of the route.

This is where New London County must consider its specific transit options, which may differ from new solutions in the western and central parts of the state. The deputy commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development told The Connecticut Mirror that the single most important measure for revitalization of the state's cities is transit-oriented development — such as the blossoming success stories of New Britain, Stamford, Windsor and other urban centers. Development of long-vacant downtown buildings into living places is bringing those cities back from the near-dead. The stimulus has been the CT Fastrak project of the Malloy administration — heavily doubted at its start — to create speedy bus and rail commutes into Hartford, where the jobs are.

While the exact formulas may not match eastern Connecticut, transit-oriented development should not be off the table. It serves as a model for solving multiple economic problems with a coordinated system. Windsor commuters are getting to Hartford by rail; what's to say workers could not come to New London from New Haven or from points east and take a brief bus ride — or a cross-river ferry — to an EB campus?

How to pay for new transportation systems has been the hangup all along, and with the stalemate on the governor's preferred method of highway tolls, it may seem no closer. There are other options, such as public-private partnerships that must be explored. But whatever the combination of funding sources – and we predict there will be tolls later, if not now – the goal should be systems that eventually give back more to the economy than they take out. Get people to their jobs and they will pay the rent, patronize local business, shore up municipal and state tax revenues and give Connecticut back healthy cities.  

The Day editorial board meets with political, business and community leaders to formulate editorial viewpoints. It is composed of President and Publisher Timothy Dwyer, Executive Editor Izaskun E. Larraneta, Owen Poole, copy editor, and Lisa McGinley, retired deputy managing editor. The board operates independently from The Day newsroom.