Anyone who rides on the Waterbury branch is invited to an “organizational meeting” to be held 6:30 p.m. July 9 in the Valley Council of Governments offices at the Derby train station (near the main entrance to Home Depot).
The meeting’s goal — draw attention to Metro-North Railroad’s 27-mile Waterbury branch, which passes locally through Seymour, Ansonia and Derby.
In the Connecticut commuter world, it’s the Rodney Dangerfield of train lines.
There was even serious talk in the 1990s about abandoning the Waterbury branch.
“For years, the Waterbury Branch Line has had to deal with a lack of planning and investment in the line, an usually high number of busing substitutions, a lack of friendly commuter service times or any real weekend scheduling,” the Connecticut Commuter Rail Council said in a statement released Tuesday about the upcoming meeting.
The release is embedded below:
The branch isn’t heavily used, so it tends to fall to the bottom on any state or Metro North “to do” list. But locals argue ridership would increase if service was better.
Money, improvements and press releases from politicians flow to the Danbury branch, the New Haven main train line, the New Canaan branch — and to other transportation projects, such as the $569 million bus line under construction from Hartford to New Britain.
Now it is time for the public to start lobbying for the Waterbury branch, according to Jim Gildea, a Derby resident who serves as vice chairman of the Connecticut Commuter Rail Council.
“For too long, the Waterbury branch commuters have had to deal with substandard service and less attention than the other branch lines of the New Haven line. It’s time we organized as commuters to ensure our voices are heard by our legislators and the state Department of Transportation and Metro North railroad as they are responsible for the service that is provided to the line,” Gildea said in a prepared statement.
Organizers of the July 9 meeting in Derby hope to “mobilize and engage the commuters of the branch line so they can better get their voices heard by their elected legislators, the state Department of Transportation and Metro North Railroad,” according to to Connecticut Commuter Rail Council.
The Line
The Waterbury branch is a dinosaur.
It lacks signalization — a safety system that prevents trains from colliding. And it’s a single-lane track, which severely limits train service.
The state Department of Transportation was planning to invest in a “signalization” program that would allow more trains to use the track.
But, according to the Commuter Rail Council, that project, mandated by the federal government, no less, is falling by the wayside — and that’s raising some concerns about long-term plans for the Waterbury branch.
“ … In what may be the biggest threat to the long term prospects of the line, the CTDOT has pushed out and delayed the start of the positive train control work on the branch line that has been mandated by the Federal Railroad Administration and would expand the ability to schedule more and more frequent commuter trains,” according to the rail council’s release.
“Originally slated to commence in summer of 2014, there is now no firm date being given by CTDOT nor have they even secured the necessary rights-of-way to complete the project,” according to the commuter rail council.
An e‑mail seeking comment was sent to the state DOT Tuesday afternoon.
Improvements to the Waterbury branch were estimated to cost about $290 million.
Economic Development
If you don’t ride the Waterbury branch — and the vast majority of people reading this article do not — improving the train line has been cited endlessly as a way to spur economic development, especially in downtown Ansonia and Derby, where there is easy access to the train stations, and a glut of under-utilized properties.
Four of the state’s top 20 most distressed communities — Ansonia, Derby, Naugatuck and Waterbury — have stops on Waterbury branch. The state designation takes into account factors such as per capita income, unemployment and poverty.
Valley leaders often talk of “transit-oriented development,” that is, mixed-use development anchored by easily accessible train and bus stations, as a key to true downtown revitalization in Derby and Ansonia.
Yet, if you want to get to an office job in Stamford from Derby by 9 a.m. on a Wednesday, one has to arrive at the Derby train station at 6:17 a.m. for a 54-minute ride. A second option — catch the 7:14 a.m. train, but that’s a 70-minute ride with a transfer in Bridgeport.
Also, service is often disrupted, leaving commuters guessing as to whether they’ll be riding a train or a bus at any given moment.
Another option is to drive your car on Route 8 south and get stuck on the Commodore Hull Bridge over downtown Derby and Shelton. That’s something 45,000 vehicles already do every morning — on a bridge designed for less than half that capacity.
Sheila O’Malley, Ansonia’s economic development director, said the lack of modern train service hurts the region.
“I think pressure has to continue come from our legislators and other elected officials to move ConnDOT along in the process,” O’Malley said. “Ansonia and the region has been crippled by the lack of modern, readily available rail access and these rail issues begin in Waterbury.
“The lack of improvements and attention to rail can be felt throughout the Region. We desperately need to increase ridership all along the Route 8 corridor to help provide ease of transportation to and from work and to transport people into and out of our downtown areas. The viability of our downtowns and cities depend on it,” O’Malley said in an e‑mail.
It’s not just Valley leaders who see improvements to the Waterbury branch as important.
In April, James Redeker, the commissioner of the state DOT, wrote a letter to Anthony Foxx, the secretary of the U.S. DOT, saying the Waterbury branch improvements would give Waterbury residents “access to major employment centers such as New Haven, Bridgeport, Norwalk, Stamford and New York City.”
Rick Dunne, executive director of the Valley Council of Governments, has also been preaching the economic development angle.
“We need to start working immediately to expand train service in this corridor so that we can reduce the average commute between Waterbury and Stamford from 2 1⁄2 hours by car to a 1‑hour train ride,” Dunne said in a prepared statement. “Only then will large Fairfield County employers again be able to seriously consider expanding the number of jobs they bring to Connecticut.”
The average number of riders using the Waterbury branch Monday through Friday, as per Metro North:
2004 – 440
2005 – 468
2006 – 488
2007 – 556
2008 – 878
2009 – 822
2010 – 900
2011 – 1,014
2012 – 1,002
2013 – 922
