Malloy Tours Busway, Says Developers Eager To Build Nearby

Cruising from one end of the CTfastrak busway to the other aboard bus 4401 Tuesday, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy predicted that central Connecticut commuters will embrace the new transit system after it opens March 28.

Malloy, who has a fair amount of his reputation riding on the busway’s success, said everything he saw on an hourlong tour confirmed his original belief that the high-frequency buses on the route will ease traffic jams on I-84, generate economic development and make commuters’ lives better.

The governor took political heat when he OK’d the project just months after he first took office, but said Tuesday there’s no reason to regret the decision.

“Here we are, just four years later, and it’s ready to open,” Malloy told reporters after stepping off the bus outside the state Capitol. “This would have been an easy thing for me to kill. As I got to understand it, I became firmly convinced that this would be a winner.”

The busway idea arose when John Rowland was governor, and his successor, fellow Republican M. Jodi Rell, advanced it for several years. But it was Malloy who gave the crucial go-ahead in early 2011, choosing to build the state’s first bus rapid transit system in the New Britain to Hartford corridor rather than a commuter rail line.

Since then, teams of contractors have turned 9.4 miles of long-unused freight rail line into a two-lane highway exclusively for buses. Once service starts, shuttle buses will link stations in New Britain, Newington and West Hartford with downtown Hartford. Hartford express coaches will use the busway for part of their trips to Southington, Cheshire, Waterbury and Bristol, and feeder routes will serve the UConn Health Center, Westfarms mall and other high-traffic locations.

“Realtors and developers are all excited about this,” Malloy said, noting that his administration is counting on new apartments, offices and retail development being built along the route.

Some transit advocates still wish Malloy had chosen to rebuild the train line, saying it could have used existing tracks to extend its range past New Britain all the way to Bristol, Waterbury, Bridgeport and ultimately New York City. But Malloy insisted on Tuesday that that wasn’t a realistic option because the state would have lost hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid that were available for the busway, but not for rail.

“It was this or nothing at that moment, otherwise the money goes back to Washington,” Malloy said. “I wasn’t going to give our money away.”

The governor stressed that the busway will provide a crucial link to Hartford when the state eventually must dismantle the aging I-84 viaduct in the city, a project that’s likely to snarl traffic for years. CTfastrak construction has also redesigned some problematic intersections and resolved bottlenecks, such as at Flatbush Avenue where a new bridge eliminated a potentially dangerous grade crossing and reduced traffic backups.

“We [otherwise] would have had to do it with our dollars,” Malloy said.

Michael Sanders, who oversees the project, said costs “are trending below budget,” but didn’t specify what transportation department analysts forecast as the final cost.

CTfastrak is budgeted at $567 million, most of that from federal grants specifically for the busway, although $100 million of the federal funding came out of annual aid that Connecticut would have gotten anyway. Operating subsidies are estimated at another $10 million annually. The state DOT anticipates providing 13,000 rides a day, rising to 15,000 by 2030. If ridership is significantly higher, the operating subsidies could be reduced.

The new station at Sigourney Street is only partly finished, and landscaping, painting and other detail work remains at spots along the route. But heavy construction is over, most of the 10 new stations look ready to use, new lime green-and-silver buses are being delivered, and CT Transit has begun training drivers.