Uncertain Future for Busway

Hey Connecticut, you’ve got less than three years, four months, and seven days to construct a form of rapid transportation that is called a busway connecting the two cities in Central Connecticut. Think you can do it?

Since the late 1990s, there have been massive talks about the proposed Hartford-New Britain Busway. Yes, it is a proposal. No, not one stitch of progress has been made. For the past 5 years, the Busway has been all talk but no action. But the day construction of the $569 million project breaks ground will be the day the Connecticut government stopped talking and started working.

The Busway will affect some of the routes in the CTTRANSIT Hartford Division as well as all the routes operated by New Britain Transportation, a subsidiary of CTTRANSIT. Homes and businesses were displaced during the proposal of the Busway as the state acquired 17 out of 22 properties around the Busway.

The Busway, if completed by 2013, will serve 11 stops within the communities in Hartford, West Hartford, Newington, and New Britain. But apples to apples, if the busway does not launch by 2013, it could be another I-291. Remember when I-291 was to be constructed as a ring around the suburbs of Hartford? The proposed project included the northern terminus of present-day CT Route 3 as the highway shifted westward through Rocky Hill and Newington bypassing the Berlin Turnpike before curving northward toward present-day CT Route 9. The loop would be complete with proposed interchanges with Farmington Avenue, Albany Avenue, and North Main Street in West Hartford as well as Bloomfield and Blue Hills Avenues in Bloomfield. Unfortunately the I-291 that was built crosses the Connecticut River at Putnam Highway in Windsor heading eastward into I-84 in Manchester.

Granted, the Busway could ease the traffic off of I-84 and I-91 going away from Hartford.

Walter Cronkite (1916-2009)

Walter Cronkite

Before blogs, before tweets, and even before the Internet, one man told the news “like it was.” Walter Cronkite late Friday night in his New York apartment at the age of 92.

No one from my generation was even born when Cronkite anchored for CBS News from 1962 to 1981. He was the eyes and ears of all of us when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963 and when the Apollo 13 space program first landed on the moon on July 20, 1969. He ended all his newscasts with his signature 5-word phrase: That’s the way it is. Yes, Cronkite showed us what journalism is really all about.

I’m sure Cronkite couldn’t have been prouder to see the first female solo anchor host the nightly news. On Tuesday, September, 5, 2006, Katie Couric took on the role as lead anchor of the CBS Evening News succeeding now-retired Dan Rather.

…and that’s the way it is, Friday, July 17, 2009.