“Any capital generated at the station or its garages should be reinvested back into neighborhood improvements. “We think control should stay local and any new building should be designed for residents and the local community,” she said. Harp noted that the city also has provided bike parking and long term lockers at Union Station. ( Redeker has repeatedly defended the state’s stewardship of CT Transit bus service in New Haven, which has widely been criticized as broken.) DOT has promised to put GPS on CT Transit buses in New Haven in response to a request, but first put them in Hartford, and now is running years late in New Haven. In testimony before the committee, Mayor Toni Harp said the city has made investments in the station including providing a free downtown shuttle with GPS. Mayor Toni Harp: We can’t even have a conversation. He added that any transfer in ownership would likely have to be approved by the federal government because the renovation was paid for with that entity’s money.īut all that said, he intimated to lawmakers that New Haven Parking Authority’s 35-year history running the station puts it in a good place to compete against anyone vying for the three future management contracts envisioned for Union Station-one for parking and operations management, another for station maintenance and a third for commercial development and customer service. Redeker also raised questions about the city’s ability to run a profitable station, citing DOT studies that show the station would struggle without state subsidies or a fare hike in perpetuity. Redeker called those “just a few examples of the lack of responsiveness.” Elevator and escalator repairs have taken weeks not hours or days to accomplish.The main ladies room had no hand towels, and the dryer was inoperable.Friday the station entrances and doors were still filthy from the storm even though the storm was on Tuesday.More than a dozen people from New Haven dominated a public hearing of the state legislature’s Government Administration and Elections Committee in support of a bill to turn the entire station, and its revenues, over to the city, which says it will reinvest in a transportation hub that includes not only more parking, but commercial space and public transportation that mesh with the ongoing efforts to reconnect the Hill to Downtown. ( Click here for a previous story detailing the city’s arguments about control of the train station and design of the second garage.) The Harp administration, saying New Haven rescued a beautiful station slated for demolition and turned it into one of the nation’s busiest, wants the city to run the place indefinitely and see a far different version of the garage built. The state Department of Transportation (DOT) wants to extend the contract three years while it builds a second garage there, then put the management contract out to bid. The city’s 35-year lease to operate the train station is set to come to an end in June. State and city officials, along with a chorus of community activists, offered those starkly competing visions last Monday at a state legislative hearing room and in press interviews, as a dispute over the future of Union Station burst into public view.
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