Several Newington residents had questions Monday evening for Michael Sanders, CTfastrak transit administrator, during the first of seven public hearings on the Busway plan.

The DOT has scheduled two meetings in early March to hear from commuters, shoppers, college students and other prospective riders about the sort of service they want. For more on this story, visit: State Seeks Ideas For Busway Service, Schedule – Courant.com.

It might not sway detractors, but at least the Connecticut “Fastrak” busway connecting Hartford and New Britain is on time and on budget so far.

When Amtrak trains started running the extended Downeaster route in Maine on Nov. 1, Connecticut transportation planners should have recognized the message, Michael Nicastro said. “This was the project we said they should have done instead of the busway for a lot less money, and nobody listened,” said Nicastro, president of the Bristol-based Central Connecticut

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Despite heavy criticism, the controversial $567 million plan to build a 9.4-mile New Britain to Hartford busway project, CT Fastrak, is moving ahead at full speed. State officials promise the busway will transform the way thousands of Hartford-area residents and students commute to work and school, including Central Connecticut State University. However, the NBC Connecticut

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In the past few years, however, Cleveland’s Euclid Avenue, which was decimated by the social unrest and acute disinvestment of the 1960s, has experienced an improbable rebirth thanks to its new bus rapid transit system.

The City of Hartford’s efforts, which benefited from a federal TIGER grant awarded last month, offer a good model. The grant will fund complete street improvements, including bus lanes, bike lanes, and pedestrian safety improvements on streets near Hartford’s Union Station, where both new services will stop. Mobilizing the Region reports.

Proponents herald the project as a job-creator that will decrease traffic congestion. Opponents say it’s a waste of money that won’t be used. CTNewsJunkie, CTMirror and others report.

Rep. Whit Betts: ‘The Voters Don’t Want This, And Today The Voters Were Overruled’

Sen. Andrew Maynard, proponent of a bill to put tolls on Route 11, said he felt like he was trapped on the bus from the movie “Speed” after discussion of his bill was hijacked by a debate on the New Britain-to-Hartford busway project.

Three Republican state legislators are proposing a bill to stop the New-Britain-to-Hartford busway, and a Democratic lawmaker is sponsoring a measure to cap its budget at its current estimated cost, $567 million.

An out-of-state contractor will secure the largest contract for the Hartford-New Britain Busway, a $567-million project launched, in part, to create Connecticut jobs.

Apparently 13 is a lucky number for Central Connecticut transit riders and businesses. That’s because after 13 years, Connecticut and the Federal Transit Administration have finally signed off on a Full Funding Grant Agreement for the Hartford-New Britain Bus Rapid Transit, scheduled to begin operations in 2014.

The New Britain to Hartford bus way is expected to begin operating in 2014. On Monday morning, a federal grant agreement was signed at a ceremony at Central Connecticut State University.

Bids well below previous estimates were received this week by the Connecticut Department of Transportation (DOT) for the first major construction contract for the New Britain-Hartford Busway.

Estimates for the work ranged as high as $35 million, but the lowest bid came in at $26.7 million from Manafort Brothers Inc., of Plainville, Connecticut. Manafort’s bid will be reviewed over the next 60 days before the contract is awarded and the work will begin in 2012.

A transit project that took too long to materialize and is no longer valid is now a jobs bill. There are alternatives. Maybe we should just build some pyramids. The result would be the same and we would save $22 million a year. How’s that for fiduciary duty?

Federal approval of $275 million for the New-Britain-to-Hartford busway appears to be imminent, but opponents aren’t giving up and have gone to Washington to press Republicans and anti-tax groups to intervene.

As the battle over the proposed busway to Hartford moves to the final rounds, the lines between opponents and supporters are becoming more predictably partisan. Click on this headline to read more of this story.

Sen. Joseph Markley, R-Southington, questioned the environmental soundness of a $569 million, 9.4 mile rapid transit bus route project from New Britain to Hartford Wednesday night at a public hearing he requested regarding the plan’s inland wetlands permit. Click on this environmental headline to read more.

An opponent of a proposed $573 million bus-only corridor between Hartford and New Britain said Monday he is optimistic that the project will be killed because full funding has yet to be approved.