But while the railroad crews are still “playing Whack-a-Mole” with trouble spots, any hopes for expanded service and more express trains probably won’t happen “until the spring,” says the commissioner. Stats show overall weekday ridership is topping out at 53% of pre-COVID numbers. But a handful of rush hour trains are up to 75%. And new technology allows the railroad to know on a minute-to-minute basis just how crowded each train is. He said that he has plenty of spare rail cars so that CDOT’s partner, Metro-North, is quick to add cars to increasingly crowded trains. The nation will soon be awash in money from the recent infrastructure bill with $30 billion designated for Connecticut and another $100 billion up for grabs in competitive bidding. But to write the grants and prepare the engineering to qualify for that money, CDOT needs to deal with its brain drain. Almost 400 senior staffers at CDOT have retired this year with more expected to leave next year before pension rules change. In addition, the agency needs to hire 200+ staffers just to handle the new infrastructure projects. Commissioner Giulietti says his recruiters are visiting universities and even high schools to find and develop talent.
