Lamont’s budget hints at modernization of busy train station
STAMFORD — Another year, another conversation about sprucing up the Stamford Transportation Center.
The second busiest Metro-North Railroad station, behind only Grand Central, could see new improvements, according to Gov. Ned Lamont’s 20222023 budget. Despite promises of modernization for the problematic train station, details on the initiative remain sparse.
“We are in the beginning stages of preparing to rollout a comprehensive public engagement process to provide input in the development of a Master Plan, which will lay out a path forward for the modernization of the (Stamford Transportation Center),” said Kevin Nursick, spokesperson for the state Department of Transportation. “Once those plans are finalized we will release additional information.”
The department anticipates public outreach on this project to start in the spring or summer.
Lamont recommended a “highway use tax” in his newest budget to help fund a flurry of transit-related projects, including the transportation center. To help build out the state’s often-criticized roadways, bridges, and mass transit systems, the Lamont administration proposed charging operators an incremental rate, determined by the weight of the truck and how many miles it travels within Connecticut.
New York collects a similar tax, something that the state’s trucking association has criticized for being “administratively burdensome and easy to evade.”
If the legislature moves to implement, Lamont’s budget predicts that a highway use tax could collect $45 million in Fiscal Year 2023 and touted it as a way to boost the Special Transportation Fund. That statewide reservoir of cash is expected to run dry in 2024, a byproduct of rising debts and gas taxes collecting less money.
The budget predicts that a highway use tax could bring in $90 million in revenue annually.
For the city, transportation center modernization is a welcome conversation.
“The mayor has really been asking for a modernized plan since 2014, and rightfully so. The environment is dramatically changing,” said Michael Pollard, chief of staff to Mayor David Martin. Both Pollard and Nursick said that the mayor’s office has been engaged in frequent conversations with the state to understand what a newer transportation center could mean.
Changes are already afoot at the transportation center, like updates to its five elevators and 17 escalators and a public parking garage at South State Street. The construction process for the public parking facility caused an uproar from Stamford residents, as the community worried about traffic gridlock near the station and loss of spots during the construction.
Pollard said any modernization will likely piggyback off those two projects, which have already been funded by the state and federal government.
Jeffrey Maron, vice chair of the Connecticut Commuter Rail Council, is a fan of any further updates to portions of the state parking facility that remain open.
“Leverage the fact that the garage is pretty empty now to seal the surfaces of the floors and repair all the problems with the concrete,” Moran suggested. “This is the perfect time to do things.”
While parking may be the most prominent problem for the transportation center, Moran sees multiple ways the decades-old building could change. New signs, he said, are a prime example.
“All too often, people … take Amtrak to Stanford, or people come to visit family and they’ve taken Metro-North to Stanford, and they get lost literally in the station. When they try to park in the garage, and they get lost trying to get out to find the right exit,” he said. Little things like more accurate signs, or signs that indicate parking
capacity in garages, could make all the difference, he said.
Even though the state said the highway usage tax could fund up to $1 billion in transportation funds over five years, Moran is skeptical of the promise.
“Historically, the government has claimed that money was supposed to go into the transportation funds, and somehow either it never made its way in or never stayed there,” Moran said. “Too many years, money didn’t make it to a lockbox in the first place. Based on history and experience, I question how much is actually going to benefit commuters and others who leverage the train station.”