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Do you think this will help Waterbury/Bristol area ?




BRISTOL — A state rail study is eyeing the possibility of using self-propelled diesel railroad cars for commuter service along the tracks that run between Berlin and Waterbury.

It is part of a $1 million Central Connecticut Rail Study looking into options for the 20-mile line that runs through Bristol and New Britain.

Also on the table is the possible extension of CTfastrak from New Britain to Waterbury, which would dramatically increase the reach of the busway slated to open next year.

In addition, the consultant hired by the state Department of Transportation is figuring out the infrastructure improvements needed to upgrade the existing PanAm freight line between Berlin and Waterbury even if passenger service is not added.
Officials said they are looking at the options and determining their cost so they can recommend the most viable alternative for the little-used freight line.

Though there has been nothing posted online or mentioned in public about the study for a year, a recent email to state Rep. Frank Nicastro said the consultant, URS Corp., began the next phase of the work in May.

The email said URS is supposed to coordinate peer reviw of the rail alternatives and costs so that it can “can confirm and reach consensus” on them. No time line is mentioned.

Nicastro he’s glad to see the study is moving ahead. He said it’s important for Bristol to see what the consultants find after looking into it all the possibilities for use of the rail line.

But the note to Nicastro is the first indication that a “diesel multiple unit” option is on the table that would allow for commuter rail without the need for engines to pull the cars.

Diesel multiple units are nothing new. The Boston & Maine Railroad, among others, used them half a century ago for short-hop train travel.

They apparently dropped from the transportation mix because they couldn’t meet stricter rail safety standards.

But The Boston Globe reported recently that manufacturers are now able to make DMU cars that do meet safety standards. Their big advantage, the paper said, is that each car costs about $4 million instead of the $10 million a locomotive costs.

Gov. Dannel Malloy agreed to do fund the rail study in part to placate Bristol officials who had unsuccessfully urged him to cancel the costly CTfastrak project that is creating a bus-only road between downtown New Britain and Hartford.

As part of the study, URS is required to evaluate options that may or may not turn out to be reasonable in terms of cost and likely use. A busway extension to Waterbury, for example, would appear to be prohibitively costly, officials have said.

The consultants have said it “is hard to say which alternative will ultimately prove to be most expensive because there are so many variations in vehicles and infrastructure that still need to be considered.”

It is possible the study may recommend the state do nothing at all with the rail line. But Bristol developers and officials hope it will urge commuter rail use that would include stations downtown and in Forestville.

The Bristol Press: Bristol, Conn., and surrounding areas (BristolPress.com)