Governor Rell: Rail Facility Cost Increases Are “Unacceptable and Unaffordable”

            Governor M. Jodi Rell today said that the projected cost increase of a new rail maintenance facility in New Haven to service and maintain the new fleet of 342 rail cars for the New Haven Line is unaffordable and that the design will have to be changed. The new rail cars are expected to be delivered next year and the rail maintenance facility is in the design phase.

            “These cost escalations are simply unacceptable and the design will have to be revised,” Governor Rell said.  “While part of the reason behind the cost increase is inflationary and difficult to control, a significant portion of the increase is due to the fact that the design was dramatically changed from the time the facility was proposed in 2005 to when the current design was completed.”

The Governor noted that the DOT’s final design added three new elements to the scope of the project: a warehouse, an employee parking garage and a walkway over the track for employees – none of which were included in the original scope of the project.

“These additions have driven the cost well beyond our taxpayers’ ability to pay,” Governor Rell said. “I have not seen or approved these additions to the facility and I will not approve them. I have asked my budget office to undertake an in-depth review the project and its costs and to develop a new plan that is affordable.”

“The fact that inflationary pressures are driving up the expected cost of the facility has been well-known to lawmakers and indeed, former Commissioner Emil Frankel provided that information in testimony last month before the Transportation Committee,” the Governor noted. “However, the add-ons to the project have been neither discussed nor approved and they will have to be re-thought. We will develop this much-needed facility, but we will do so within the parameters of our ability to pay.  A project that costs nearly four times the original estimate is clearly not within those parameters.”

The Governor said that legislators are right to share her concern about the price escalation and that nothing will move forward until all questions are answered fully.

In 2005, Governor Rell announced a $1.3 billion Transportation Improvement Program that provided funding for the design and purchase of 342 new rail cars for the New Haven Line, as well as funding for the new rail maintenance facility.