Connecticut’s Deficit Could Put Some Weekend Trains at Risk

STAMFORD, Conn. — Anderson Rodriguez’s routine is the same on most weekends. He rides Metro-North Railroad on Friday from his home in the Bronx to Waterbury, Connecticut, to visit three of his children before returning on Sunday.

He may need to find another way to Waterbury. Struggling to deal with a deficit of almost $3.5 billion, Connecticut officials have warned that the state’s financial woes could force the suspension of Saturday and Sunday service on the three branches of Metro-North that connect with the New Haven Line. The branch lines serve 17 stations and provide public transportation to several towns and cities, including Waterbury.

For many riders, the weekend trains are conduits to family, work and school. “I need this train,” said Rodriguez, who does not drive because his license has been suspended. “They cancel this, how am I going to come up here to see my kids?”

Connecticut owns the part of the New Haven Line within its borders, and Metro-North operates the commuter line under a contract. Fares cover about 67 percent of the operating costs, with both New York and Connecticut providing subsidies on the main line. Connecticut, however, pays all of the nearly $33 million in subsidies for the branch lines to Danbury, New Canaan and Waterbury.

The state transportation commissioner, James P. Redeker, said additional funds were needed to continue providing weekend service on the lines. State officials also warned that weekday service outside the morning and evening rush could be curtailed.

Redeker said the state was proposing a rate increase for the branches, as well as the main line from New Haven to Grand Central, of 10 percent on July 1 if it cannot find the money elsewhere. Additional increases of 5 percent are proposed in 2020 and in 2021, which would raise a monthly pass from Grand Central to New Canaan to $406 from $335.

“This is not something I want to do,” Redeker said. “But I have to have a balanced budget. And I have to be able to do that to sell bonds.”

State officials were almost four months late in approving a two-year, $40.2 billion state budget that included spending cuts and measures meant to improve finances.

Several factors make the branch lines appealing targets, including light ridership. Unlike the shared burden on the main line, Connecticut covers the entire subsidy for the three branch lines, which is significantly higher. Where the subsidy is $3.25 a rider on the main line, for example, it is $24.46 a passenger on the Waterbury line.

Officials along the branch lines worry that the cutbacks would diminish the appeal of their towns and limit their ability to promote public transit as a way to attract residents. “We need to improve rail service, not cut it if the end goal is to improve the towns and cities in this state,” said Mayor David S. Cassetti of Ansonia, an old mill town of less than 19,000 on the Waterbury branch.

The head of the council representing commuters warned of the political consequences. Commuters need to hold lawmakers “accountable for the potential fare hikes and devastating service reductions on the branches and if this issue is not fixed, they need to remember this at the polls on Election Day,” said Jim Gildea, the chairman of the Connecticut Commuter Rail Council.

Connecticut relies on a state transportation fund to pay for roads and public transit. But the fund has seen its resources dwindle since 1997, when the state lowered its gasoline tax, cutting total revenue by $4 billion, according to the office of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. An increase in vehicle gas mileage and a growing market for electric cars has also led to a drop in gas tax revenue.

In 2016, a state panel recommended increasing the gas tax to 39 cents a gallon from 25 cents over a seven-year period, raising fees charged by the Department of Motor Vehicles and reintroducing highway tolls, which Connecticut removed in the 1980s. The report has not led to those changes yet. Malloy proposed several measures this week to raise money, including a return of tolls and a 7-cent-a-gallon increase in the gas tax.

Redeker called the tolls a longer-term solution that would take at least four years to put in place and would not alter the July 1 changes to train schedules. Malloy’s office recently froze hundreds of transportation-related capital projects that total $4.3 billion and vary in scope, from the replacement of salt shed roofs to the widening of Interstate 95 between Bridgeport and Stamford. One project that is still moving forward is an expansion of a rail line linking New Haven and Springfield, Massachusetts, that is intended to spur development and ease highway congestion.

The threat to eliminate weekend service comes even as demand for railroad service in Connecticut has grown. From 2005 through 2016, the last year for which data was available, annual ridership on the New Haven Line rose about 19 percent to 40.48 million from 33.89 million. During that period, annual ridership on the three branches increased about 14 percent, to 2.6 million from 2.3 million. Weekday ridership on the Waterbury line averages 960; on Saturdays, the average is 834.

Aaron Minnifield, 22, rides the train on the weekend from his home in Waterbury to Bridgeport where he is taking classes at the New England Tractor Trailer Training School. He does not own a car, but said his dream job as a state-to-state truck driver was already lined up.

“I’m just trying to get out from living out here,” Minnifield said, “because all I know is Connecticut. So I’m trying to explore something new.” Minnifield is scheduled to graduate in March, just ahead of the branch lines changes in early summer, if they occur.

“People got to work,” he said. “Kids got to go to school.”