DOT's Not Ready To Run Transit System

By ALBERT C. SONG
April 27, 2008

The cost overrun on the rail car maintenance facility to be built in New Haven points to two organizational challenges within the state Department of Transportation.

The DOT is not set up to create and operate all aspects of a mass transit system. Also, the state's convoluted relationship with New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority makes it hard to delineate who is responsible for what in the operation of the New Haven line.

Until I retired in 2003, I was principal engineer in charge of rail mechanical operations in the DOT's Office of Rail Operations. I believe I was the only licensed mechanical engineer in the department.

I was instrumental in developing the 2002 study that anticipated the procurement of new electric rail cars. The study concluded that the existing 1975-vintage rail maintenance facility was antiquated and would need to be replaced. The price tag in 2002 dollars was $285 million. With a 3 percent annual escalation, we estimated a rise to $331 million by 2007.

Thus I was surprised to see the project cost mushroom to $732 million and nearly $1.2 billion by the 2019 completion date. Gov. M. Jodi Rell's reaction to this unfathomable escalation is understandable.

My understanding of the DOT's function, which has not changed much since I went to work there in 1986, is to construct, service and maintain highways and bridges. The department is well qualified and equipped to build highways in a professional and efficient manner, and is unquestionably good at it.

However, in my view, the DOT is not organized and staffed to direct rail car design, rail car manufacturing nor construction of mass transit system. As far as I knew, no interest or effort was ever expended to develop a transit capability.

There is another important factor no one seems to address. It is the complicated operational relationship between Connecticut and New York in the running of the New Haven line of Metro-North Railroad. Although Connecticut owns rail tracks within the state, New Haven line trains also traverse New York tracks to get to Grand Central Terminal.

Connecticut owns about two-thirds of the rolling stock; New York owns the remainder. But New York's MTA operates the line, not Connecticut. Furthermore, the MTA is the prime agent in major rail car procurement; but Connecticut has to provide maintenance facilities. What happens is that we receive "cues" from Metro-North/MTA what "they" want; how and when "they" want to do projects which the DOT dutifully "obliges" and funds with minimal objection.

In fact, Metro-North/MTA has no funding responsibility in Connecticut's projects. However, since Metro-North/MTA operates and maintains the New Haven line, it seems to have 100 percent say in most aspects of the operation. In short, entire project responsibilities have been outsourced to Metro-North/MTA since 1970s, and Connecticut simply pays the bills.

The DOT must change.

The transportation priority has shifted since the late 20th century; highway building and maintenance should not be the DOT's primary focus in 21st century. With the scarcity of fuel and no relief in sight, the DOT's emphasis should shift toward mass transit. Gov. Rell just named a new DOT commissioner, Joseph F. Marie of Scottsdale, Ariz., with a strong transit background. To improve transit in Connecticut, he'll have to change the DOT organizational structure to reflect a new reality.

Albert C. Song of Trumbull is a former principal engineer with state Department of Transportation's Bureau of Public Transportation.