An interesting article in today’s Courant:
Hartford is poised to become an economic powerhouse for New England by substantially expanding Bradley International Airport’s business, but it will need trains as much as planes, according to the veteran U.S. representative who is shaping federal transportation policy this year.
"Bradley could pull in a lot of those short-haul flights going to New York and Boston’s airports, but only if you have high-speed trains to get people to New York and Boston," Minnesota Rep. James Oberstar, chairman of the House transportation committee, said Friday morning after touring Bradley and Hartford’s Union Station
[...]
"I want you to think big," Oberstar told state transportation officials, who briefed him on what Amtrak, Connecticut and Massachusetts will need to establish commuter service on the 62-mile route.
Oberstar sees that as just part of a more ambitious project: creating European-quality high-speed rail between Boston, Hartford and New York. The result, he said, would be to transform the region, with potentially huge number of fliers — and freight shippers — using Bradley for speedy access to the bigger cities. Short-hop flights from places like Richmond, Philadelphia and Montreal could be routed to Bradley, freeing up crowded airspace above JFK, LaGuardia, Logan and Newark International, he said.
As a transit geek, as well as a plane spotter who lives very close to BDL, news like this is a little exciting. It would be nice to have better rail service to New York…and any rail service to Boston…from the area. And, it would be nice to see something other than the 737’s, A319’s, and regional jets that dominate Bradley’s airspace these days.
I’m not going to hold my breath…but it is exciting.
Maybe commuter rail service on the New Haven – Springfield line will get bumped up to actually happening sooner, rather than later, as Congress looks for ways to spend all that freshly-printed money burning in its pockets.
And I would be lying if I denied having daydreamed about BDL being a regional airport for both Boston and New York, facilitated by a fairly painless way to transfer to high speed rail to get to either metropolis.
Unfortunately, big ideas tend to drown when the challenges of working out the logistical details of implementation are laid out. And hopefully, the feds will realize sooner, rather than later, that they just can’t solve the country’s problems by printing more money.
But better rail service along the New Haven – Hartford – Springfield corridor, and better air service out of BDL… it’s nice to see political leaders having some similar dreams as I.
