New London - A $690,000 study that examines the future of the city as a transportation hub could be tossed aside without a push for a specific action plan, business leaders said this week.

Tony Sheridan, president of the Eastern Connecticut Chamber of Commerce, said an action plan "seems to be missing entirely" from the draft report.

A roundtable discussion of the report will be held for the public at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday in New London Public Library.

Participants will have a chance to discuss a recently completed draft of the 71-page Regional Intermodal Transportation Center Master Plan and Efficiency Study, conducted by Kansas City-based TranSystems and funded by a grant from the state Department of Transportation.

Sheridan said he is hoping people come out to help identify two or three transportation priorities so consultants can develop an action plan for the final report.

Frank McLaughlin, the Chamber of Commerce's downtown New London investment development coordinator, said he hopes the people who show up for Tuesday's discussion - which will be attended by TranSystems personnel but will not include a presentation by them - come with an understanding of the draft report, available online at www.theday.com.

"There's a lot of information, a lot of options," he said.

TranSystems had presented the study in late June but gave local people only two weeks to respond.

"I think part of the problem is that TranSystems made a presentation but there wasn't a real dialog," McLaughlin said. "We need to fine-tune what they're doing."

After businesses complained that they didn't have enough time to think about the various transportation alternatives, the Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments, which oversaw the study, agreed to extend the deadline, McLaughlin said.

McLaughlin said he expects the deadline will be extended at least one week beyond Tuesday's roundtable.

"We don't just need a study, we need a design; we need a proposal," he said.

Among the priorities Sheridan would like addressed include how to get ferry and train passengers across the tracks in a more rational and efficient manner than exists now.

A footbridge to the railroad from the Water Street parking garage would be one option, Sheridan said, though it would have to be smaller than the one proposed a few years ago that impinged on the architectural integrity of the Henry Hobson Richardson-designed Union Railroad Station. Another option, he said, would be a tunnel.

But neither of these possibilities was addressed in any detail in the report, Sheridan said. Instead, he said, the consultants wasted their time looking into moving the train station to Fort Trumbull.

"How much money and time did they actually spend looking at that as an option?" he asked.

Still, he said the impetus for change and potential state funding that could come out of the study would make it all worthwhile.

"This is a phenomenal opportunity for New London," he said. "It will go a long way to remaking downtown if we spend money and do it properly."

The last thing the city needs, Sheridan said, is yet another expensive study that ends up on a shelf with nothing to show for it. Local people don't need to be told what the problems are; they need to be given recommendations from experts about how to solve the problems, he added.

"It seems like we've been handed all the options, and now we have to figure it out," said McLaughlin. "I'm afraid we have a study (that without an action plan) ... will be on the shelf within the week."

l.howard@theday.com