I regret that I’m a few days behind on this one, but Mayor Perez released his goals for improving transportation in a commentary piece that ran in the Courant last week (1/13/08). The highlight of the essay:
We need to link commuter rail, Amtrak and access to Bradley International Airport. People should be
able to take the train from Union Station in Hartford to the airport.For that matter, they should be able to take the train from New Haven or Springfield to get to Bradley.
Thinking bigger still: People who use Bradley to fly to and from Amsterdam should be able to simply
hop on a high-speed train going to Boston or New York, avoiding the traffic congestion of those larger
airports.
This caught my attention because I’m thinking about taking a trip to Amsterdam in the summer, and have been thinking about the logistics of getting to and from the airport. It’s much simpler to be dropped off at Union Place–a five minute drive from my place–than to be dropped off at Bradley, or have to pay to leave my car at the airport.
In a time when gas prices are rising and we’re seeing the results of reckless transportation, it makes sense to work harder to improve public transportation. The New Britain-Hartford rapid transit busway isn’t scheduled to start operation until 2012. That seems like a really long time to accomplish this. Hopefully, Perez will begin to be more specific as to how this other transportation will be improved, including a realistic time table.