Transportation & Infrastructure

Connecticut’s chief economic strength is our proximity to the economic power centers of New York and Boston.  But this strength is winnowing as our transportation arteries in the northeast get more and more clogged.  At top priority for me as Connecticut’s U.S. Senator will be to pass a new transportation financing plan that preserves our advantage in receiving federal dollars for roads (Connecticut receives $1.6 in road dollars for over $1 we pay the federal government in gas taxes), and dramatically increases the amount of federal support for mass transit.

Put simply, high-speed rail is essential to bringing our nation’s aging infrastructure into the 21st Century. We need $4 billion in investment over the next ten years to simply keep up a state of good repairs along the Metro North line, but I am committed to doing more than simply upholding the status quo.  Speeding up the travel time by 15 minutes from Bridgeport to Manhattan will open up immeasurable economic development opportunities for that city.  Finishing the New Haven–Springfield commuter rail line, for which I helped secure an initial landmark award of $191 million in federal funds, would better link the interior of our state with the rail lines along Connecticut’s shoreline and open up development opportunities in Enfield, Hartford, Meriden, and New Haven, to name a few cities. And it’s time to understand the importance of rebuilding the branch lines connecting Norwalk to Danbury, and Bridgeport to Waterbury, and making a commitment to build a new rail line through the north-south spine of Eastern Connecticut.  This will all take money, but there is no wiser investment.

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