Decades in the making, officials from Connecticut and Masschusetts christened CTrail’s new Hartford Line on Friday, with separate trains that left from Springfield and New Haven meeting in Hartford for a kick-off celebration.
“Welcome to the new Hartford Line, probably the next renaissance for our state and our economy,” said Department of Transportation Commissioner James Redeker, before he rode the train from New Haven with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.
The train stopped at several of the line’s new stations along the way — including in Wallingford and Meriden — where Malloy got out on the platform to greet local leaders, some of whom climbed aboard for the trip to Hartford.
“New Haven will be as it should be — an easier to reach destination,” said New Haven Mayor Toni Harp, who joined Malloy and the others on the train.
On Saturday, trains will begin shuttling passengers from Springfield to New Haven, with stops in Hartford, Windsor, Windsor Locks, Berlin, Meriden and Wallingford. Service will be more frequent and fares less costly than the trains that have run through Hartford recently. Trips will be free all weekend.
When the trains arrived in Hartford, they tore through commemorative banners that were stretched across the tracks, and a crowd gathered on the station platform burst into applause.
“This is such a big deal for Hartford, the region and the entire state of Connecticut,” Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin said at Union Station in Hartford, where the two trains met. “This is about economic development. This is about the future of this region and the future of the state.”
Hundreds of people crowded in the historic station for a series of speeches. Tchotchkes were handed out, including wooden train whistles with “Hartford Line” emblazoned on the side.
The $768 million project would not have been possible without major federal funding, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said at the Union Station ceremony. He called Friday “the culmination of so much advocacy and planning and hard work and action.”
“Our federal government should take a lesson from Connecticut,” Blumenthal said. “Investment in rail makes sense. It makes sense not only because it makes jobs … but it’s also part of a culture — a culture of connectivity that is part of who we are as Americans.”
Blumenthal, who has made repeated pushes for stricter rail safety rules, said the Hartford Line “will not only be speedy, but it will be safe.”
“It will be among the first lines to have positive train control,” he said.
U.S. Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts said money for the train line came from the controversial stimulus bill that Congress passed in 2009 after the Great Recession.
“That was a brutal vote for me on the stimulus bill … but you’ve used it brilliantly here in Connecticut,” Neal said. “This was a wise expenditure of the public purse, and we who are elected need to defend it.”
Former U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd, who was in office at the time, said Friday: “Projects like this don’t always happen. You talk about them. You plan them, but things intervene and get you off the tracks. But this project did happen.”
“Over time, we turned our back on rail and it hurt us,” Malloy said. “This is the day we change that.”
When fares begin to be charged on Monday, a trip from Hartford to New Haven will cost $8 and a trip from Hartford to Springfield will be $6.
Though officials celebrated the opening on Friday, there is still some work that needs to be completed. Stations in Windsor and Windsor Locks are undergoing construction and are years away from the major overhauls seen in Berlin, Meriden and Wallingford. New stations are also planned in North Haven and West Hartford.
And half of the trains on the line — the new, CTrail ones — will be temporarily without bathrooms. The older coaches Connecticut is leasing from Massachusetts have bathrooms that are not compliant with the Americans for Disabilities Act. Until new bathrooms are installed, the non-compliant bathrooms will be locked and handicapped-accessible portable bathrooms will be placed at train stations.
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