Deb Heinrich

By: Hannah Vahl , Shoreline Times Staff writer

MADISON-Residents celebrated a different kind of independence this Fourth of July weekend: from cars, as the Shore Line East train officially expanded service to include weekends and holidays year-round.

Governor Jodi Rell announced the change just three days before the holiday. "This is great news for everyone who is looking for ways to save money on their gasoline purchase," she said. "The timing could not be better, as the state experiences an influx of summer residents and tourists coming to the shoreline."

On Saturday, State Senator Ed Meyer (D-12th) and State Representatives Pat Widlitz (D-98th) and Deb Heinrich (D-101st) all took a ride on the 11:10 train to New Haven from Madison's train station.

"Mass transit is key to creating strong transportation," said Heinrich, who said the legislature has provided funding to the state Dept. of Transportation for the Shore Line East. She called the train "an important investment."

Widlitz, whose children live in New York, said that when they visited it would sometimes take two hours to get them to Union Station in New Haven on a Sunday.
First Selectman Al Goldberg, there to see the state legislators off, said that local businesses would benefit from the expanded train service. "Madison is becoming, even more so, a day destination," he said.

Nine trains are to run in each direction, with four westbound trains to New Haven from the early morning to the late afternoon and five eastbound trains to Old Saybrook from mid-afternoon to late evenings.

Two years ago, the General Assembly mandated that the state Dept. of Transportation put out a report on what it would take to get the Shore Line East running on weekends and holidays.

Last year, the state experimented with weekend and holiday service. The seven-week test run between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day provided more than 3,600 passenger rides.

In April, Rell announced that Shore Line East weekday ridership increased over 4.5 percent last year.

While residents and legislators alike celebrated the victory, they did note that expanded service had been hard-won. "The weekend service has been a long time in coming," said Connecticut Commuter Rail Council Chairman Jim Cameron. The expanded service was supposed to start on Memorial Day, but planned work on a bridge over the Thames River in New London disrupted service on Amtrak, according to Cameron, and so the service expansion was postponed.

And Guilford resident Bob Jelley, secretary for the Commuter Rail Council, said, "It's about time." He noted the lack of advanced publicity leading up to the announcement, both of the year-round weekend and holiday service and last year's seven-week experiment.

Still, support from the Governor's office has come a long way since Governor Rowland threatened to cut funding for the Shore Line East altogether in the mid-90s, as a cost saving device.

And new M-8 cars for the Shore Line East are scheduled to arrive next summer. They will feature amenities like outlets next to seats, individual headrests, and larger windows. Meyer said the cars will also accommodate bicycles.

Even before these luxury cars arrive, Cameron thinks the weekend and holiday cars will be packed. "I'm fully expecting there will be a tremendous response by riders, certainly because of high gas prices," he said.

The new schedule is available at www.shorelineeast.com or by calling 800-ALL-RIDE.