Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont has announced his revised $21 billion 10-year transportation infrastructure plan. The money would be spent on improvements to Metro-North Railroad and highways. The goal is to help reduce commute times into New York City and within the state.
Lamont says his CT2030 plan would reduce travel time from New Haven to Manhattan by 10 to 15 minutes.
“The problem really is we have some severe choke points that were built into the design of these highways many years ago. And if we fix those choke points, we can dramatically improve commuting times,” Lamont said. "In rail, we are going to have over $5 billion. That’s going to not get us to 30-30-30 – 30 minutes Hartford to New Haven, 30 minutes down to Stamford, but we can take a good 10 to 15 minutes off the commute.”
Funding is to come from a number of sources including low-interest federal loans and tolls on highway bridges at 14 locations.
Republicans had opposed Lamont’s initial proposal because it included highway tolls. Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano says the new plan is an improvement.
“We’ve gone from 80 tolls to 50 tolls to 14 tolls. So I think we’ve had a tremendous impact on this.”
House Minority Leader Themis Klarides says her caucus won’t support the new plan.
“We don’t support the revenue stream being tolls, and we don’t think $21 billion is affordable.”
The GOP leaders say they are willing to negotiate a bipartisan compromise plan with Lamont.
