Hartford Line Train Passes 1M Riders

January 16, 2020 | Reprints | Unlock Link | Print

Gov. Ned Lamont has proposed a big investment in high-speed rail to shrink travel times between the state’s biggest business centers down to 30 minutes. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia user Jehochman / CC BY-SA 4.0

The state’s 18-month-old commuter rail line has already broke the 1 million-rider mark, Gov. Ned Lamont said.

Newly released data from the Hartford Line shows that 1,075,559 trips were taken on the train from when it launched on June 18, 2018 to the end of December 2019. The millionth ride occurred during the busy Thanksgiving travel period in late November.

Ridership on the Hartford Line, which connects commuters to destinations between New Haven, Hartford, and Springfield, has been growing at a rate of 25 percent year-over-year. Now a year and a half into its operations, the rail line is on track to exceed 750,000 passenger trips during its second year – outpacing the 666,960 passenger trips originally forecast. Since May 2019, when ridership saw a 10,000-trip jump, the line has been averaging 63,452 trips per month.

Lamont said the growing popularity of the rail service indicates the desire of Connecticut residents to utilize public transit as a regular commuting option and argued it is another reason why the state should expand the Hartford Line under his 10-year CT2030 transportation plan to improve the state’s roads, trains, buses, airports and ports.

The Hartford Line has been touted as a housing creator, and a recent study from the National Association of Realtors and the American Public Transportation Association found the median home sale price near CTFastrak bus rapid transit stations saw a 13 percent jump when the Hartford-area line was built, compared to a 3 percent increase region-wide.

Lamont said the CT2030 plan would increase frequency and quality of service along the line, add new train stations in Enfield and Windsor Locks and create a connection from the new Windsor Locks train station directly to Bradley International Airport. The plan would also improve travel times on Metro North and be funded in part by controversial highway tolls.

“Central and northern Connecticut should have had a commuter rail line for decades – quite frankly it’s astounding that it wasn’t until a year and a half ago that the region finally got one, and these numbers show that people want more options to travel by rail,” Lamont said in a statement. “Increased transportation options create new opportunities for economic growth, and the development that is occurring up and down the Hartford Line is a perfect example. We cannot stop here – this is case in point for accelerating transportation investments across the state.”