[JayCT]

Originally Posted by jaydez

Hartford to Penn Station via Amtrak is about 3 hours. You could drive there in less than 2. Hartford to Boston in 3 hours is okay for a train. To drive its an about 2 hours from Hartford to Boston if there is light traffic.

Hartford to Boston can be driven in under 2 hours unless you hit bad traffic. Jay

[DonCarlodiCalatrava]

@jaydez: I see your point. But simply to list the travel time differences is to omit a lot of important issues:

1) Driving into NYC can be terrifying for many older drivers.
2) The cost of parking in NYC is astronomical.
3) Even if you park in a NYC parking garage, there is a real likelihood that the WORKERS at the parking garage will cannibalize your car for parts that they can resell at a profit.
4) Even when you park in NYC (already expensive), you are not necessarily going to be near that particular garage during your entire stay. So you end up either taking taxis (it gets expensive) or buses (for which you can only use change, not bills; and often you have to transfer from north-south buses to east-west crosstown buses). So with buses, what you save in taxi fares you waste in time spent.

The cost from Springfield to New York (or to New Haven) via Amtrak is prohibitive for a large number of people. This is why Metroline from New Haven to Grand Central is so attractive--- it's about $22 round trip.

But Amtrak from Hartford to Penn Station may be more affordable, which may make the tradeoffs more evenly balanced between driving or railroad from Hartford to NYC .

[BPt111]

State In Search For Contractor To Run Trains From New Haven To Springfield - Hartford Courant

[BPt111]

The other day on news trains leaving between New Haven and Hartford every 30 mins

[JayCT]

Yes this is the project the state has been working on for the past several years. Service is scheduled to begin as soon as next year. Once operating Hartford will have modern mass-transit serving points north, south and west (CTfastraak) of the city. When CTfastrak service is expanded east of the Connecticut River, it will have it in all four directions. Jay

[BPt111]

Originally Posted by JayCT

Yes this is the project the state has been working on for the past several years. Service is scheduled to begin as soon as next year. Once operating Hartford will have modern mass-transit serving points north, south and west (CTfastraak) of the city. When CTfastrak service is expanded east of the Connecticut River, it will have it in all four directions. Jay

Hartford got 20 million to fix up North of I-84