The Connecticut Bond Commission is set to approve $2.75 million for engineering, design and environmental permitting at the new Barnum train station in East Bridgeport, said Gov. Dannel Malloy.
The commission will meet July 25 at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford, Malloy said Wednesday at the former Remington Arms factory on Barnum Avenue, a seven-acre brownfield property that will become the location of Bridgeport's second train station.
It would bear the name of showman P.T. Barnum, the founder of the Barnum & Bailey Circus. He was elected Bridgeport mayor in 1875 and also served as a state legislator. Bridgeport is home to the P.T. Barnum Museum.
The station, which received funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation, Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Environmental Protection Agency's Partnership for Sustainable Communities, will sit 1.5 miles northeast of Bridgeport's main station.
Malloy said the new station would help spur economic development in Connecticut's largest city. With funding in place and estimating an 18-month design phase, soil remediation could begin in spring 2016 and construction on the station could occur in 2017 for a start of operations in the fall of 2018, according to the governor.
"We're making smart investments in the future," said Mayor Bill Finch. "Key investments include the East Bridgeport Development Corridor, which will serve as a catalyst for growth in the city's East End, East Side, and Mill Hill neighborhoods. This project is already gaining steam. But it will never reach its full potential without a train station nearby."
Bridgeport is one of many cities trying to integrate transit and economic development.
"Mayor Finch has been very active in revitalizing the city," William Fazioli, a senior managing consultant with Public Financial Management Inc., said in a recent interview in PFM's Providence, R.I., office. PFM advises Bridgeport and New Haven.
Malloy said funding for Barnum station is part of a strategy to increase ridership along the Metro-North Railroad's New Haven line by investing in new stations, train cars and rail infrastructure.
The bond commission on May 30 approved $80 million toward a $1.15 billion, multiyear upgrade and expansion of the New Haven rail yard. That will pay for a new warehouse for rail car components, storage tracks for rail cars, demolition of an old storage facility and a pedestrian bridge linking Union Station and the yard.
In addition, a fifth power supply substation is in service on the New Haven line, which Malloy said should mitigate the risk of prolonged power failures. Last year an outage at Mount Vernon, N.Y., disrupted power for two weeks.
