The Business Council of Fairfield County Board Resolution

Link to Governor Rell's Budget

The Business Council's Transportation Plan

At its February 16, 2005 meeting, The Board of Directors of The Business Council of Fairfield County reaffirmed its long-standing support for raising the gas tax to provide the dedicated funds necessary to make vitally needed transportation infrastructure investments.  It also expressed its support for the leadership of Governor Rell on this issue by unanimously adopting the following resolution.

Resolved: 
The transportation priorities set by Governor Rell in her 2006 – 2007 proposed budget address one of our state’s most critical needs.  We applaud her judgment in setting these priorities and her leadership in placing transportation investment at the center of this year’s legislative debate.

The Business Council of Fairfield County’s Transportation Plan for the I-95 Corridor

The I-95 coastal corridor contains four major east west routes:  I-95, Merritt Parkway, Route 1, and the Metro North rail line.  All four operate as a system, with the performance of each affecting the performance of the rest.  Taking one out of service briefly (tractor trailer accident on I-95) or permanently (reduction of the number of rail cars in service) creates system-wide consequences.  Therefore, solutions to congestion in the corridor will require improvements to the highway, rail, bus, and water transportation systems.  Longer term, we need changes in land use, economic development policies, and the delivery of public services. 

The Connecticut Transportation Strategy Board has offered a long term vision and plan for the state’s transportation needs.  Specific, prioritized investments have been identified for each of the state’s five “transportation investment areas.”  Many more focused, region-specific options have been developed by a variety of transportation planners and advocates.  “Vision 2020”, for example, is a major study released in 2003 by the South West Regional Planning Agency.  It offers an excellent analysis of our challenges and a visionary set of integrated, multi-modal strategies for the corridor.  Unfortunately, implementation of its recommendations is blocked – as have been other studies conducted over the past 15 years – by the central fact of transportation in our state:  a lack of money.  In the 1990’s, the State reduced its primary transportation funding source, the gas tax, without providing an alternate mechanism.  As a result, substantial investments in maintenance were stretched out, equipment purchases were deferred and new initiatives were severely constrained.

Years of disinvestment are impacting system reliability.  Our highway system is so fragile that a minor accident can result in hours of delay.  Aged rail cars are in a constant state of "repair". Connecticut has benefited from Fairfield County’s proximity to New York City and its access to the global market place.  However, the failure to invest in internal mobility and external connectivity puts the entire state at risk.  If we continue to fail, we will indeed become the economic “cul de sac" that the Connecticut Regional Institute’s “Gallis Report” warned of five years ago.  We must do more with what we have through reorganizing and modernizing the DOT bureaucracy and contracting processes.  Yet, even with these improvements, we need more money.  Our state can no longer accept the premise of a flat transportation budget. The Governor and the General Assembly must act now to produce revenues sufficient to make meaningful progress.

The Transportation Strategy Board has suggested three, broad-based, funding options.  Each one, or a combination of the three, could provide enough money to improve road safety and performance through an aggressive program of bottleneck elimination (including exit-entrance lane improvements) and rail service preservation and expansion.  These options are:

1. Improve incident management (roadside assistance/hook & haul, anti-rubbernecking education programs, etc.) 
    

2. Order 300 new rail cars to replace the aging fleet, taking delivery and making payment over a five-year period projected to begin in 2008.

3. Accelerate the implementation of the updated “bottleneck study,” first completed in the late 1980’s, to seize immediate opportunities for safety improvements and congestion reduction.  Phases One and Two should be combined. (The one completed I-95 project identified in the original study, “new exit 8,” is estimated to reduce the rush hour trip to midtown Stamford by 5-7 minutes.  Examples of high value eastbound projects are entrances 7&8 and exits 14 & 15.)

4. Divert rush hour users to other modes and times.  
   a.   Expand incentives for ridesharing, van pooling, telecommuting, flexible schedules.  
   b.   Increase safety enforcement for all vehicles to reduce incidents – and delays.

5. Improve real time customer information systems. (website info/SmartTrans, low power radio, electronic signage, cell phone service in Westport, etc.)