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January 13, 2025

State receives $16.4M in federal grants to expand rail service in Hartford, improve infrastructure

PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED A CTrail Hartford Line train.
Contributed State Department of Transportation Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto
By Andrew Larson

The federal government has awarded about $16.4 million for infrastructure projects in Hartford and other parts of the state, including increased service on the CTrail Hartford Line, and funding to further study plans to lower and cap Interstate 84 to reconnect Hartford’s North End with surrounding neighborhoods.

Gov. Ned Lamont and other local and state officials made the announcement Monday afternoon at Union Station. The federal funding, part of President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, will be matched by roughly $14.6 million from the state.

The majority of the funding, $11.6 million, will be used to increase weekday roundtrip service on the CTrail Hartford Line from New Haven to Springfield, Massachusetts, and to expand customer service at Hartford’s Union Station by 75%.

“The Hartford Line is not only providing a valuable and convenient public transit resource for people who live in central Connecticut, but it is also helping create new opportunities for economic growth and development in the towns it serves,” Lamont said. “Expanding service on this line will further make travel on this rail line even more convenient …”

State Department of Transportation Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto said the investment will “provide reliable service for years to come and provide even greater connectivity to Bradley International Airport and the new Windsor Locks Station currently in construction.”

Further, the funding package includes $2 million to study options and to develop preliminary engineering plans to lower and cap Interstate 84 and the Hartford Line rail corridor, in an effort to reconnect parts of the city’s North End that were divided by the highway.

Another $2.4 million will be used to study alternative options and develop preliminary engineering plans for the consolidation of crossings on the Metro-North Railroad’s Danbury Branch in Norwalk and Danbury.

The funding also includes $2 million to study the removal of physical barriers and the restoration of connectivity across I-91 throughout New Haven, from Fair Haven to the Long Wharf district; and $400,000 to study the feasibility of closing the existing at-grade crossing at Toelles Road in Wallingford along the Hartford Line rail corridor and construct a new roadway bridge to carry Toelles Road over the railway and Route 5.

Since it began in 2018, the CTrail Hartford Line has grown significantly. More than 750,000 passenger trips were expected in 2024, the highest ridership year ever, according to the DOT.

By 2030, the CTrail Hartford Line expanded enhancement project is projected to increase ridership by about 90,000.

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