State Senator Joe Markley — a republican repping Cheshire, Prospect, Southington, Wolcott, and Waterbury — should be eating his words. People who ride the bus understand how buses function as a system; those who do not ride the bus, slam it.
Our humble station in the Asylum Hill neighborhood serves well. Asylum Hill is home to the Katherine Day House, Stowe Center, Twain House, HartBeat Ensemble’s Carriage House Theater, many churches, and several major employers. It is a densely populated neighborhood of renters (82%), home to many immigrants and refugees, including the Karen who fled Myanmar. Across the railroad tracks and canyon created by I-84 is the Frog Hollow neighborhood — also a densely populated neighborhood of renters (75%) with about 38% of households being car-free. These are lower income, working class neighborhoods. With so many nearby residents needing to get to work, school and daycare, appointments, the grocery store, and more, it matters having transportation near where they live.
The CTfastrak does not only help people move between Hartford and New Britain, and this bus hub more than proves that.
A one-seat ride from this station can bring people to: UConn Storrs, Tolland, Vernon, Manchester Community College, Buckland Hills Mall, East Hartford, Bristol, UConn Health Center, St. Francis Hospital, Hartford Hospital, Bristol, Plainville, Farmington, Newington, West Hartford, and New Britain. There are stops in Southington, Cheshire, and Waterbury; it doesn’t look favorable for a politician to call towns he represents “nowhere.”
The bus to Waterbury connects to other area buses, linking passengers to Middlebury, Watertown, Wolcott, Torrington, and Prospect. The bus to Waterbury also brings people right to the railroad station, connecting them to Naugatuck, Beacon Falls, Seymour, Ansonia, Derby, Shelton, Stratford, Bridgeport, South Norwalk, Stamford, and Grand Central Station . . . which connects to subways, buses, trains, and JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark airports.
This station connects rapidly to Hartford’s Union Station, which means train stops in Windsor, Windsor Locks, Berlin, Meriden, Wallingford, New Haven, and Springfield. Once in Springfield, you can get on the Lake Shore Limited and ride out to Chicago. From Hartford Union Station you can board the Vermonter, which stops include St. Albans, Vermont; Montpelier; Northampton, MA; NYC; Newark, NJ; Trenton, NJ; Philadelphia; Wilmington, DE; Baltimore, MD; and Washington DC. Using the Northeast Regional, you can get to New York’s Penn Station and Richmond, VA. If you travel to New Haven, you then have train access to Branford, Guilford, Madison, Clinton, Westbrook, Old Saybrook, New London, Mystic (Groton and Stonington), Providence, and Boston. There’s also: West Haven, Milford, Fairfield, Darien, Danbury, New Canaan, and Greenwich. From there, if you take another railroad branch, Danbury, you gain access to Bethel, Redding, and Wilton. From New London, you’re hooked into another bus system, giving connection to Norwich, Waterford, Niantic (East Lyme), Mohegan Sun (Uncasville), and Foxwoods (Mashantucket/Ledyard).
Boarding the Greyhound or Peter Pan buses at Union Station takes you to Lewiston, Maine; New Bedford, MA; Cape Cod; Montreal; and, elsewhere.
This station helps make a connection to Bradley Airport: take any of the buses that stop on Platform A and then pull the cord when the bus makes right turn off the of busway. You only ride for one stop, and then cross the street to Union Station. Board the 30 bus from Union Place. It costs the same as a regular, local trip, so you’ll just be making a transfer. Think about what you’d pay to park long term ($6-32 per day, plus gas and general car expenses) versus an Uber/Lyft (around $35 one-way, plus tip), versus bus round trip ($3.50).
Buses from the Sigourney Street Station make stops in downtown Hartford, which connect to other local and express buses, giving access to Enfield, East Windsor, South Windsor, Bloomfield, Glastonbury, Wethersfield, Rocky Hill, Cromwell, Portland, Middletown, Bolton, Coventry, Andover, Columbia, Willimantic, Killingly, Marlborough, Colchester, Chester, Essex, Hamden, Avon, Canton, Torrington, New Hartford, Barkhamsted, Granby, Simsbury, and Winsted. Once in the Middletown bus system, you get access to East Hampton, Haddam, and Killingworth. When you arrive in Storrs, you can connect to Danielson, Brooklyn, and Chaplin. From Bridgeport, the bus can get you to Trumbull and Monroe. From Danbury, you can reach New Milford. Taking the bus from New Haven gets you to East Haven, Orange, Woodbridge, North Haven, Branford, and North Branford. From Bridgeport and New London, you gain access to Long Island. That’s 103 of the 169 towns in Connecticut you can reach with one, two, or three seats starting from a bus at this station, plus the regional, national, and international connections.
A bus to nowhere, indeed!
Here’s a partial list of what you can access in a:
