Enfield officials asked state lawmakers Wednesday to build a high-speed rail station in the Thompsonville section of their town. The local officials who testified at the legislature’s transportation committee public hearing say they want Enfield to be a stop on the proposed high-speed railway between New Haven and Springfield. Putting a station in Thompsonville would

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Connecticut’s Department of Transportation has released an environmental impact report for the proposed high speed rail line between New Haven and Springfield Massachusetts. The DOT will hold public hearings on the report next month in North Haven, New Britain and Enfield. Click on this environmental headline for more on this story and a link to the dates of the public hearings.

Public hearings, planned for June, will provide a forum for public comments on the EA/EIE. Comments can also be submitted directly on the program website or by mail. CTDOT will respond to all EA/EIE comments in the final document to be submitted to the FRA by the end of June for consideration and approval by the FRA.

Gubernatorial aide Kip Bergstrom is ready to tell other states, “We will steal your scientists”—but he wants high-speed trains to help him do it. The New Haven Independent reports.

A representative of the Connecticut Department of Transportation will provide details on the New Haven-Springfield line development at tonight’s town council meeting.

Following Florida’s rejection of $2.4 billion in federal high-speed rail funds, Connecticut officials formally submitted an application Monday to use $227 million of the money to improve a rail link from Springfield, Mass., to New Haven.

The governor expressed this sentiment to Deputy Transportation Secretary John Porcari in a phone call earlier yesterday evening, as well as in a bipartisan letter to President Barack Obama sent today, stating that “Connecticut stands ready to move on high-speed rail.”

The Hartford Courant’s Tom Condon thinks a 20-year, $98 billion investment in high-speed rail in our region would make sense. He asks us to consider a bold proposal developed this year by a graduate seminar at the University of Pennsylvania.

Matthew Stevenson argues that it’s little wonder everyone drives.

The biggest problem with American public transportation, he writes in NewGeography.com, is that it lacks a critical mass.

The infrequent service is more of a problem than the slow speeds, which could be padded over with comfortable seats, wifi, and better coffee. Amtrak has only one train a day north of Springfield, which in turn has one train to Boston and spotty bus service.

The Tri-State Transportation Campaign applauds Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell for her strong support of the New Haven-Hartford-Springfield Line, as shown by the State Bond Commission’s decision to release $260 million for the project today. Her support of this project puts Connecticut in the best possible position to receive funding from the second round of

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Why do Connecticut officials keep calling their toy train linking Springfield and New Haven “high-speed rail”? Gov. M. Jodi Rell will ask the Bond Commission to borrow $260 million to match $220 million (also borrowed) from the feds, to get the “high-speed-rail” project on wheels. They keep tossing out that term, but “high-speed rail” has

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Gov. M. Jodi Rell has announced that her colleagues from Massachusetts and Vermont – Governors Deval Patrick and Jim Douglas, respectively – have joined her in strongly supporting Connecticut’s application to the Federal Rail Administration (FRA) for a $220 million grant for construction work on the long-planned New Haven-Hartford-Springfield, Massachusetts high-speed commuter rail line.

NEW BRITAIN — The probable favorable decision on a $260 million bond appropriation for the long-planned New Haven-Hartford-Springfield, Mass., high-speed commuter rail line has state Sen. Donald DeFronzo both elated and concerned about the impact on central Connecticut area. via Rail bonds to have big impact – The New Britain Herald.

Application Jointly Supported by Governors and Members of Congress from Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont Gov. M. Jodi Rell today announced Connecticut has formally submitted its application to the Federal Rail Administration for a $220 million grant for construction work on the long-planned New Haven-Hartford-Springfield, Massachusetts high-speed commuter rail line – the capstone project in the governor’s

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Gov. M. Jodi Rell today announced that more than $226 million to purchase an additional 80 commuter rail cars for Metro-North’s New Haven Line is expected to gain approval when the state Bond Commission meets August 11. Three hundred of the M-8 rail cars are already on order and the first of the cars are

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Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell today announced that $260 million in state funding for a dramatic upgrade of the New Haven-Hartford-Springfield rail corridor is expected to gain approval when the state Bond Commission meets Aug. 11 in Hartford. The ultimate goal is high-speed intercity rail service on the 62-mile line within five years. The $260

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Hartford – Transportation officials are working to keep plans on track for high-speed trains running through Connecticut, western Massachusetts and Vermont. The three states have received a total of $160 million in federal economic stimulus money for track improvements to link high-speed trains from New York City to New Haven, and north to Hartford, Springfield,

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By Alex Marshall If trains zipped between Boston, Hartford, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington at average speeds of 160 mph-plus, with local service to smaller cities as well, this would give the Northeast a leg up on Chicago, Seattle or Los Angeles and help it keep pace with London, Shanghai and other world cities

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With plans to pursue federal money to get high-speed rail on track in the state, Gov. M. Jodi Rell said she would ask the State Bond Commission to authorize $260 million in borrowing to pay for double-tracking a rail line between New Haven and Springfield, Mass. via Gov. M. Jodi Rell seeks state OK to

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Gov. M. Jodi Rell is set to call today for one of the state’s biggest bond issues in recent memory when she proposes selling $260 million in bonds to make improvements to the New Haven-to-Springfield rail line. The money is intended to attract an additional $220 million in federal aid to begin building a high-speed

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