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New Canaan residents helped pack a room at UConn-Stamford Feb. 27 to voice concerns about proposed service cuts on the branch railroad line. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan addressed the DOT Commissioner: "Good evening. My name is Kevin Moynihan. I am First Selectman of the Town of New Canaan, the chief elected official for our town. I would first like to thank Commissioner Redeker for being here and for holding this public hearing. I am here representing over 20,000 residents of Connecticut who call New Canaan home – as well as more than 2,000 persons who are daily commuters from New Canaan’s two stations on the New Canaan branch line to jobs, schools and other daily activities in locations between Stamford and New York City -- and hundreds more who commute each day from locations between New York City and Stamford to work or to participate in other daily activities in New Canaan. For more than 90 years, New Canaan has been a bedroom community of New York City – and the New Haven line of Metro North has been literally a lifeline for the economy of New Canaan. The threat of curtailing weekday off-peak and weekend train service would, without exaggeration, literally destroy New Canaan’s economy. New Canaan residents commute to New York City daily by train to jobs as professionals at major law firms, Big Four accounting firms, Wall Street banks, national advertising and media firms, Broadway theaters and TV studios, the United Nations, major medical centers and universities, and dozens of other employers. These are not 9 to 5 jobs ...
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" ... Hundreds of these workers leave New Canaan on trains between 5:30 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. to jobs on Wall Street and Mid-town Manhattan and hundreds return home on off-peak trains arriving at New Canaan between 9:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m. after business dinners, late-night meetings working on deals, after Broadway or TV shows end, or classes at universities are over. Hundreds more reverse commute to New Canaan every day from locations between Stamford and New York City to work for employers in New Canaan, such as restaurants, grocery stores, automobile dealers, hedge funds, banks and other financial firms, and to visit cultural attractions such as the Glass House and Grace Farms, or to teach or provide other services to residents of New Canaan. Many of these workers – especially restaurant workers – depend on off-peak trains to return home after 9:00, or 10:00 or 11:00 pm – especially on weekends ...
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" ... Curtailing off-peak train service on weekdays and weekend trains would wreak havoc on the lives of these workers that have built their lives around the availability of regular daily train service on Metro North to and from New Canaan. Such cutbacks would severely harm numerous New Canaan businesses that depend on these professionals and workers with specialized skills – and some businesses would likely move out of New Canaan. And very importantly, curtailing Metro North service as proposed would literally destroy New Canaan’s real estate values. What young professionals from New York City would consider moving to New Canaan if they could not return at night to where they parked their cars when they got on the train from New Canaan in the morning? I commuted to Wall Street for 29 years, and I know that I would not have chosen New Canaan to raise my family without off-peak weekday Metro North train service. I would only have considered living in a town on the Main Line or in New Jersey or Westchester. Regular train service is again vital to New Canaan’s economy...
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" ... While we in New Canaan recognize that the State Special Transportation Fund needs new revenue sources to fund transportation infrastructure projects and Metro North subsidies, we would also point out that New Canaan is the #3 town in CT -- after only Greenwich and Stamford -- in the total amount of tax revenues our residents send to Hartford each year: almost $240 million per year! Only Greenwich receives less than New Canaan in return in the form of State support and services – less than ½ cent on the dollar. The State Assembly will decide what forms of new revenues will solve the State’s transportation funding problems, but regardless what form they may take you can be sure that New Canaan taxpayers will pay more than our fair share. We believe it would be more than unfair -- indeed, it would be unjust -- to penalize New Canaan residents and New Canaan’s economy by reducing the one State-subsidized service -- regular all-day train service on weekdays and weekends -- that New Canaan depends upon and for which our annual tens of millions of dollars of State taxes more than pay for year in and year out. I would also point out that reducing regular train service on the New Canaan line is inconsistent with the State’s 2012-16 State Rail Plan which contemplates fostering improved rail service to reduce highway congestion in Fairfield Country and for environmental and economic development reasons. New Canaan currently needs improved rail service in certain regards, such as more frequent trains at certain times of day and additional commuter parking at our two train stations to eliminate waiting lists that currently number in the hundreds for commuter parking spaces and to bolster ridership on the New Canaan branch to improve Metro North’s economics and help reduce State subsidies ...
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" ... In closing, I would note that train service first came to New Canaan on July 4th, 1868 when the New Canaan Railroad Company started service on the New Canaan branch line. The Town of New Canaan and a handful of New Canaan’s then 2700 residents invested the majority of the $250,000 in equity capital that built the roadbed from Stamford to New Canaan that we ride today. Unfortunately, the Town and the New Canaan private investors lost all their money when the New Canaan Railroad went bankrupt in December 1882. The trains continued to run under the name of the Stamford and New Canaan Railroad until 1890, and thereafter until the New Haven Railroad went bankrupt in 1935. So, passenger rail service has never been a profitable business, and from 1983 on, with the commencement of Metro North operations, New Haven line rail service has been heavily subsidized by State tax dollars. It’s the price we taxpayers pay for the opportunity to have a thriving economy. For New Canaan taxpayers’ part, we have always been willing to pay our fair share to have a thriving economy as a bedroom community of New York City. I implore the State to not destroy New Canaan’s economy with these draconian and unjust proposed weekday off-peak and weekend service cuts. Thank you for listening."