Chamber applauds transit prospect
Reviving passenger service to Groton-New London Airport met with overt enthusiasm
— Official support for New London the bid to restore commercial passenger service to Groton-New London Airport went over big Wednesday morning during a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut.
Kevin Dillon, executive director of the Connecticut Airport Authority, said he was “intent” on achieving the goal, eliciting an outburst of applause from chamber members gathered at the Holiday Inn on Governor Winthrop Boulevard.
Billed as a transportation update, the meeting, “By Land, By Sea, By Air,” also included remarks by Joseph Giulietti, commissioner of the state Department of Transportation and a member of the boards of the airport authority and the Connecticut Port Authority, and Bonnie Reemsnyder, the port authority board chairwoman who resigned later in the day.
Dillon said an ongoing survey of businesses within a 30-minute drive of Groton-New London Airport, which is in Groton, found considerable interest in service to Florida airports and to the Washington, D.C., area. While the relative shortness of Groton-New London’s longest,
5,000-foot runway would preclude direct flights to Florida, he said nonstop service to a D.C.-area hub providing connecting service to other cities is a strong possibility.
Following the meeting, Tony Sheridan, president and chief executive officer of the chamber and chairman of the airport authority’s board, said the survey, devised by the chamber and the airport authority, is collecting “hard numbers” required by air carriers and airports seeking to extend service. The survey is available at bit.ly/GNLAsurvey.
“Florida is not going to happen, but LaGuardia (in New York City), Philadelphia, D.C., and Logan (Boston) are all in the running,” Sheridan said. “D.C.’s kind of a natural with all the (government) business Electric Boat does, and the Navy ...”
Groton-New London, which hasn’t seen commercial passenger traffic in more than a decade, still generates considerable economic activity and provides many jobs related to the general aviation businesses that operate there, Dillon said.
One audience member described the apparent activity at Groton-New London as virtually nil.
Another audience member from Stonington said it’s easier to get to T.F. Green Airport in Providence than to Bradley International in Windsor Locks. Dillon said some thought is being given to providing free bus service from Groton-New London to Bradley.
He also said a new ground transportation center being developed at Bradley will allow for the consolidation of rental-car fleets and regional bus service connecting to Hartford’s rail line. Buses will provide service to the Windsor Locks train station, and the train station and the airport eventually could be linked by rail service, he said.
Wednesday’s discussion frequently touched on the state’s need to focus on connecting modes of transportation, an approach Sheridan said has long been lacking.
“The question is how to connect trains with ports and airports,” said Giulietti, the former Metro-North chairman Lamont summoned back to the state. “The first thing we were hit with was a ‘debt diet’ and a fight over tolls . ... Think of inheriting a business where 40 percent of the budget is debt repayment. We’ve gone from $200 million a year to $800 million a year in bonding with no new revenue stream.”
Lamont’s bid to reintroduce highway tolls to fund transportation improvements has so far failed to win sufficient support in the legislature.
Reemsnyder, the Old Lyme first selectwoman recently appointed to head the quasi-public port authority’s board, described the agency’s role in promoting investment in the state’s three deepwater ports — Bridgeport, New Haven and New London — as well as small harbors and waterways.
Amid questions about certain actions she took as chairwoman, Lamont called Wednesday afternoon for Reemsnyder to resign, which she did.