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September 17, 2024 What's Trending

Federal, state officials tout $550M in transit-oriented development on 9th anniversary of CTfastrak busway

HBJ PHOTO | DAVID KRECHEVSKY An electric CTfastrak bus sits in the station in New Britain.
HBJ PHOTO | DAVID KRECHEVSKY New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart, second from left, discusses transit-oriented development projects with Acting FTA Commissioner Veronica Vanterpool, right, while visiting a CTfastrak station on Tuesday.
HBJ PHOTO | DAVID KRECHEVSKY The Brit is a transit-oriented development project in New Britain.
By David Krechevsky

Before moving to Washington D.C., Acting Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Commissioner Veronica Vanterpool spent her entire life in New York. 

But she says she has a strong connection to Connecticut, and especially to the state’s bus rapid transit system, CTfastrak. Vanterpool visited New Britain on Tuesday and joined state officials to ride a CTfastrak bus to Hartford and back and to learn about related transit-oriented development (TOD) as the state marked the system’s ninth anniversary.

When it began operations on March 28, 2015, the busway was controversial because of its cost — $570 million to construct,  of which $113 million was financed by the state.

Vanterpool acknowledged that it took a lot of advocacy to get the busway up and running.

“I used to run an advocacy organization from 2007 to 2017 that pushed really hard for CTfastrak,” Vanterpool said. “We were based in Manhattan, but our region was New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. … So seeing this project come to fruition, … it’s incredibly impressive.”

She added, “We know that when you make that investment in transit, the ROI is significant.”

For Connecticut, that return on investment is somewhat difficult to determine. While CT Transit officials will happily tell you that more than $550 million in related transit-oriented development projects are planned, under construction or completed along the bus route, they say they are unable to provide figures for how much it costs to operate CTfastrak or how much revenue it generates.

According to Lisa Rivers, administrator for the CTDOT Office of Transit, Rideshare and Ferries, providing those figures for CTfastrak isn’t possible because its numbers are not broken out from the traditional bus operations.

The busway has 10 stations along its dedicated route, including three in New Britain. It stretches across communities including Waterbury, Cheshire, Southington, Bristol, Plainville, New Britain, Newington, West Hartford, Hartford and Manchester.

For the Hardware City, the investment in development related to the busway totals $235 million so far, according to Jack Benjamin, the director of planning and development.

Benjamin said New Britain has “about 700-plus (housing) units coming online in the next 18 to 24 months that are true, walkable, transit-oriented development within a half-mile walk of the Fastrak station.” 

He added that 75% of those are market-rate units, while 25% are affordable.

Two of the projects include The Highrailer, which will have 114 units with “a few set aside for low to moderate income,” and The Brit, which will have 107 “entirely market-rate units,” Benjamin said.

Mayor Erin Stewart said the installation of CTfastrak in New Britain was the impetus for the city to repair and upgrade the Beehive Bridge, as well as to rework its sidewalks, add a roundabout, and develop a TOD overlay zoning district to encourage more development.

“A lot of it comes just from planning, coordination and relationships,” she said.

CT Transit officials say they expect busway ridership to benefit from the transit-oriented developments along its route. Monthly ridership in the past two years ranged from a high of 243,265 in August 2023, to a low of 193,300 in December 2023. 

Since its inception through June 2024, CTfastrak has had over 26.5 million total passenger trips, officials said, with an average fare of 95 cents, which reflects various discounts available for the typical $1.75 fair.

Rivers said ridership is down about 20% since the pandemic, which reflects the change to more people working from home.

State officials also thanked Vanterpool for the FTA’s recent $38.9 million grant to help fully convert CTfastrak to an all-electric bus fleet.

The new federal money will go toward purchasing 46 battery electric buses and installing 29 new chargers for the CTfastrak bus service.

The new funding makes up almost half of the $86.6 million project, with state money and other federal money also included in the total.
 

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