An “enhanced” weekend schedule is coming in November to the Waterbury branch of Metro-North Railroad, Gov. Dannel Malloy announced during a press conference in New Haven Wednesday.
The 27-mile Waterbury branch of the commuter rail line passes locally through Seymour, Derby and Ansonia.
Ridership on the branch is low — about 1,000 riders a day Monday through Friday in 2011 and 2012 — but advocates say the numbers would increase with better train service.
The Waterbury branch traditionally gets the oldest commuter rail cars in the state. The track lacks signalization — a safety system that prevents trains from colliding — which severely limits the number of trains able to travel the track.
But it is an election year in Connecticut, and transportation is clearly an issue.
Frustrated Waterbury branch riders came out in force during a forum on train service held in July in Derby.
Malloy announced Wednesday a new train will depart Waterbury on Saturdays and Sundays at 10:10 p.m. — two hours later than the current schedule, according to a press release from the governor.
Also on the weekends, a new, last train will leave Grand Central at 10:04 p.m. — an hour later than the current last train out of New York City.
That train will pass the Bridgeport station at 11:41 p.m. and continue up to Waterbury.
In addition, there will be a three-hour interval between trains on the weekends on the Waterbury branch instead of the current mix of three and four-hour intervals.
The Waterbury branch, which was almost abandoned in the 1980s, is also inching toward getting a signalization system installed.
In July, Malloy announced that the design phase of that project will begin next year.
“Funding of $6 million to $7 million will be provided by the Connecticut Department of Transportation for the design,” a press release from the governor’s office said.
While there is no word on when the signalization system will actually be installed, transportation advocates said the fact the state is committing to spending millions to design the system is evidence of the state’s commitment to the project.
Roland Garneau, a former Waterbury resident who just moved to Ansonia, was waiting for a train at the Ansonia train station on West Main Street just minutes after Malloy’s press conference Wednesday.
He said the Waterbury branch isn’t perfect — there are no public restrooms at the Metro North station in Ansonia, for example — but it still beats riding a bus.
“The buses? You don’t know how late it’s going to be. You’re waiting for the bus, and ‘Oh (shoot), it’s not coming,” he said.
Garneau also said he would like to see an earlier train from Ansonia to Waterbury in the morning.
“The first train that goes north is 8:27 a.m. If I have to go to a job, and there are some manufacturing jobs in Seymour, Naugatuck and Waterbury, I can’t get there until 9 a.m. Some people are already on their first coffee break by then,” he said.
After Malloy’s train announcements, Jim Cameron, a longtime transit advocate and the founder of the Commuter Action Group, praised Malloy in an email “for his leadership in improving Metro-North service.”
Cameron threw a dig at Tom Foley, the Republican trying to unseat Malloy.
“While his opponent this November says he thinks we spend too much money on mass transit, Governor Malloy clearly understands the importance of those investments and how they benefit everyone in the state, be they riders of Metro-North or not,” Cameron said.
Cameron was referring to an interview Foley gave with the New Haven Independent in which Foley accused Malloy of trying to “push people out of cars onto mass transit.”
Foley argued that under Malloy the state has “purposefully” neglected roads and bridges as a matter of policy to boost train and bus ridership, the Independent reported.
During a campaign stop in Ansonia Sept. 16, Foley was asked about what he would do for the Valley’s Waterbury train line if elected.
Foley said he wasn’t familiar with the issues facing the Waterbury branch commuters. He accused Malloy of spending transportation money only to score political points.
At the same time, Foley said “we need to make the investments that need to be made to support mass transit for the people who depend on it.”
“It’s good economic policy for a lot of communities,” Foley said at the time.
