An Introduction to CT Rail

When people think of commuter rail in New England in the United States, it’s likely they think of the Metro North Railroad (MNRR) with service into New York City, or of the controversial MBTA rail service into Boston. However, an often overlooked commuter rail service is that of CT Rail. CT Rail is a state-owned railroad that operates the Connecticut portion of MNRR, the Hartford Line, and Shoreline East. Each of these lines has their own unique stories, but all have been created to great success in connecting cities in the small New England state.

Originally, Connecticut was serviced by the New Haven, New York, and Hartford Railroad (or “New Haven Railroad” for short). This railroad connected New York City to Boston, via their main station in New Haven, and operated service in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and eastern New York offering regular freight and passenger service throughout the region to rural communities and cities alike. It operated diesel locomotives east and north of New Haven, and operated electric locomotives into New York City’s infamous Grand Central Terminal. Unfortunately, due to some internal business decisions as well as the greater political abandonment of railroads as a means of transport, the New Haven Railroad collapsed into bankruptcy before being merged into the short lived PennCentral Railroad. While PennCentral is a story for another day, the legacy of the New Haven Railroad is very pertinent for our focus today. As the NHRR collapsed, and the following PennCentral collapsed, the commuters traveling into and out of New York City still needed to get to and from their employers, which drove the states of New York and Connecticut to join in a venture that became the MNRR. For decades, this was simply operated on its own as the only example of commuter rail in Connecticut, with other rail needs met by the national Amtrak.

Come the 1990’s, the traffic on Interstate 95 (the main east-west highway in Connecticut) was reaching a fever pitch, and construction needed to be done between New Haven and New London, paralleling the former NHRR line between the two cities. An agreement was struck between Amtrak, who owned the line, and the Connecticut Department of Transportation (ConnDOT) to operate a temporary railroad between the two to alleviate traffic while construction was undertaken. The service immediately exceeded expected ridership, and eventually ConnDOT decided to continue the service as a permanent rail line.

Come the 2010’s, a growing push for more rail transit along the Interstate 91 corridor between Springfield (Massachusetts), Hartford, and New Haven led to ConnDOT starting work on what would become Connecticut’s third rail corridor. Known as the Hartford Line, the tracks already owned and used by Amtrak, however in working with the state, new stations were built in place of old ones between New Haven and Hartford, and a second track was added on the same section to increase the number of trains that could operate. In 2017, the line opened to the public with a joint Hartford Line – Amtrak ticketing system where fares were shared regardless of the train, and as with Shoreline East before it, it very quickly exceeded ridership expectations.

Throughout the construction of the Hartford Line, CT Rail was formed to overtake the three railroads operating in Connecticut as a division of ConnDOT and consolidate rolling stock and operations. While ticketing remains separate for each line, with some MNRR trains accepting Hartford Line purchased tickets, there is still not an integration of the ticketing services between the lines. This brings us to the state of affairs as it stands today. So, what benefits have been brought to Connecticut via CT Rail?

An improved service across all lines has been steadily undertaken. MNRR’s Connecticut section now runs trains on its mainline every 15 minutes during peak hours, and every 30-60 minutes in off-peak hours. CT Rail in partnership with Amtrak runs trains hourly between New Haven and Springfield, MA every hour from 05:00 to 23:00 with few exceptions. Finally, new trains are being announced on Shoreline East including new services to and from Stamford in Connecticut’s southeast, as well as higher frequency. The scheduling of these lines since 2020 has also been greatly improved including MNRR’s three branch lines in Connecticut connecting the major cities of Waterbury and Danbury to the rest of the CT Rail network with reasonable connections at South Norwalk, Bridgeport, and New Haven Union stations. At these transfer points, CT Rail has also funded several expansions over the years to local bus service allowing “last mile” connections for people transiting. Since 2020, we have seen a gradual but noticeable and accelerating realization that these lines should serve a purpose of transport for people within CT, instead of using the lines as a means of transporting people to and from New York City and places beyond. This shift in mindset has led to the improved frequency, continued upgrades and construction on its lines, expansion of branch line services, and better timetables across the network. In 2019, it was impossible to transit between places like Hartford and Waterbury without spending at least an hour between at New Haven or Bridgeport stations. Nowadays, you can make the transfer in 15 minutes at each point.Rolling stock has also been changed. In 2022, Shoreline East began utilizing M8 trainsets that are also used on MNRR to initiate electric train service along that line, and free up the rolling stock for the Hartford Line. New traincars have also been ordered by CT Rail in order to replace their aging passenger cars on the MNRR branch lines and the Hartford Line that are set to be delivered in 2026.In spite of attacks by the current regime in power of the federal government of the United States, Connecticut continues to improve and expand service via CT Rail providing more opportunities for people to travel across the state without needing to own a car, or worry about the safety risks that driving includes. Millions of riders take CT Rails three services and branch lines, whether it be for a night out in New Haven or commuting to work in New York City or everything in between. Just this year, a new line is being proposed under CT Rail servicing another crucial corridor between New London and southern Vermont, but that is a story for another day.

As a former resident of Connecticut, I utilized CT Rail frequently, mostly for intra-state travel between cities to do things like see friends or travel to work commitments. CT Rail is not without its flaws, and a communist should always strive for better service, funding, worker rights, and affordability. But, in spite of those genuine and necessary criticisms, what CT Rail has accomplished in the last three decades in a country that has proven to be very hostile to public transit is a testament to the successes of commuter and regional rail in the Northeast. It’s a part of our history, and it’s once again becoming a part of our future.

In solidarity,

FurInform