Connecticut to spend $32M to build 5 train stations

ENFIELD — For the first time in more than 35 years, there are plans for trains to stop in Enfield, with construction of a new station to begin in less than two years.

Designs will be completed in the summer of 2023, with plans to go out to bid for the project that fall, Garrett Eucalitto, deputy commissioner of the Department of Transportation, said at an announcement of the project Thursday.

“Construction should start in early of 2024,” Eucalitto said. “ConnDOT’s been working on the design in the hope we will get the federal funds and be ready to go with construction starting in about a year and a half after that.”

The new train station in Enfield will cost $13.8 million. That money is part of nearly $32 million slated for five new train stations in the state, with the projects funded through a near-even split of state bonding and federal grants, DOT Commissioner Joe Giulietti said.

The state bonding will supply $15.86 million, according to a DOT statement. Through the federal Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements grant program, the project received $13.86 million.

Enfield will be the newest stop on CTrail Hartford Line, connecting riders from to Amtrak and Metro-North.

“We had to assure Amtrak everything we were doing fit into their new plans with how many trains they intend to fund on this line going forward,” Giulietti said. “A new accessible station with a high-level platform will be constructed here. Riders can board and head north to Springfield — or south to New Haven and New York.”

The project is part of an effort by the state to improve rail service and by the town of Enfield to advance its Transit Oriented District plans.

There were joined at the announcement by several other officials, including Gov. Ned Lamont, U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, and U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, both D-Conn.

No airport link

Direct train transportation from Enfield, or anywhere in the state, to Bradley International Airport is still a dream, Giulietti said.

“I would love nothing more than to be coming up here and saying, ‘Yeah, we are putting a rail line right into that airport,’ because that’s what modern cities do. It’s one of the things we’ll work on toward the future. But in the meantime, we are setting up direct connects from both Hartford to the airport and as well from Windsor Locks to the airport,” he said.

“We can have regular service with a bus that will make the direct connection in going right in to provide the quickest service we can right now, whether we go with rapid transit bus or rail connection in the future.”

Bringing back the Enfield train station is one step in that process of increasing connectivity and reducing the need for cars in the state, Giulietti said.

The Enfield station will be intermodal, with passengers able to transfer to other rail services as well as to the state’s bus system, Courtney said. An additional $2.5 million was provided through a federal earmark and will assist in making the project intermodal, he said.

“This is going to be an intermodal project, not just a train station. People literally won’t have to get into an automobile to get the benefits of this service,” Courtney said. “This is a competitive grant. It’s almost cutthroat because there are so many applicants around the country going for a limited pot of money. For every award there were five applications across the country.”

The funds received by the federal government and the state bonding will go toward adding five new train stations in Connecticut: in Windsor, Windsor Locks, West Hartford and North Haven, along with Enfield, Blumenthal said.

“They’re going to be on a map of train transportation in a much bigger way, enabling the kind of development you see right here,” he said.

The increase in federal funds received for transportation in Connecticut is partially due to the state’s investment in its transportation and infrastructure improvements, Murphy said.

“We are able to win federal grants at a pretty dizzying pace for transportation projects in Connecticut because the DOT and White House knows that that money is going to be well spent in Connecticut and it’s going to be matched by state dollars,” Murphy said.