Imagine the CT Housatonic Line
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A guest post by Connecticut resident Matt Silber. Train Time welcomes guest posts and podcast suggestions.
Imagine yourself on a sunny cruise through the Berkshire Mountains. Autumn colors explode outside your window as you sip your pumpkin spice latte. Now, imagine your hands off the wheel, no red lights, and no careless drivers weaving across the lanes. Just you, Mr. or Ms. Leaf-Peeper, riding a noiseless zephyr through ecstatic natural beauty.
Every autumn, thousands of daytrippers flock to the Berkshire Mountains in Massachusetts and their foothills in northwestern Connecticut. These visitors bring a welcome cash infusion into local economies, but also irritating traffic and expensive road wear. Additionally, high housing costs and clogged commuter thruways regardless of the season are issues on both sides of the border. It is in the best interest of these two states to consider expanding alternative modes of transportation into and through this valuable region to turbocharge economic growth while improving quality of life for residents.
The tools to do this lie at our feet. A railroad, known as the Berkshire Line, connects Danbury, Connecticut and Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The Berkshire Line served passengers until the 1970’s when, after car-centered development became the norm, rail services disintegrated. Today the route is owned by the Housatonic Railroad Company and only serves the occasional freight locomotive. In the towns of New Milford, Kent, Cornwall, and Canaan, passenger stations along the route have been repurposed into shops, chambers of commerce, or lie abandoned.
Connecticut now needs to commit to restoring passenger rail service on the Berkshire Line. Massachusetts has already conducted the studies, bought the tracks, and made the requisite improvements. Millions have been spent, but the line remains inactive. Why? Because without coinciding action on Connecticut’s share of the tracks, the line cannot operate at a capacity necessary to justify service. Governor Lamont has set ambitious goals for expanding rail service, and the state was soaked in a fountain of federal money to do so, yet activity on the Berkshire Line remains dormant.
This inaction leaves Massachusetts stuck with the bill for an incomplete project, tourist dollars choked off from business owners, and no forthcoming solutions to northwestern Connecticut’s existing transportation and housing challenges. In some cases, state legislators are proposing anti-solutions, programs that drain coffers while improving nothing, like adding another lane to I-84. The state would be better served by just setting a giant pile of money on fire. This is a simpler way to waste taxpayer dollars and increase carbon emissions while doing nothing to ease traffic or home costs.
A multifaceted solution to the issues facing Connecticut is to coordinate with local zoning councils to facilitate transit-oriented development (TOD) in areas adjacent to reactivated Berkshire Line passenger stations. This would help address statewide issues of housing costs while at the same time reducing taxpayers’ burden for the line’s operation. Presently, Connecticut is facing an artificial housing shortage due to outdated zoning codes that emphasize low-density sprawl. This nanny-state interference drives up home costs and entrenches automobile reliance. By reactivating passenger service along the Berkshire Line and rezoning around stations to allow for mixed-use development of moderate density (think Bedford Falls, not the Bronx) we can create a transportation artery that links hubs of pedestrian-friendly centers of cultural enrichment.
The reactivation of the Berkshire Line isn’t just about creating adorable, Rockwellian hamlets for tourists to admire, it’s also about economic stimulation and meeting the needs of our regional community. Hundreds of commuters drive from towns like Kent or Canaan into Danbury every day. These essential workers end up stuck in traffic on insufficient roads that are easily clogged. Restoring passenger service to the Berkshire Line will ease access to the region for visitors but also make transportation for existing residents more pleasant.
Litchfield County residents may hear “transit oriented development” and want to run for the (rolling, verdant) hills, but reactivating passenger service on the Berkshire Line and rezoning for common-sense density around stations will benefit everyone. By expanding rail access into the region, we can increase revenues for local communities. By reasonably upzoning areas adjacent to stations, we can defray tax burdens for local residents, increase the state’s desperately needed housing stock, and create a self-sustaining ridership base for the line.
News
Connecticut representatives are again taking action on rail. Read about the latest efforts in Hartford: “CT representatives push for expanding commuter rail lines to New Milford.”
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