Environmental Group Responds to Busway Opponents

Following a "Block the Busway," meeting organized this week by Sen. Joe Markley (R – Southington), the Connecticut Fund for the Environment issued a statement on the senator's attempts to stop the construction of a planned busway from New Britain to Hartford.

"As has been said time and time again, by attempting to block the busway, the opponents are effectively blocking an influx of thousands of jobs that are badly needed to revive our struggling economy, "  said Rebecca Kaplan, director of communications for Connecticut Fund for the Environment.

"It is estimated that the project will create more than 4,000 jobs, putting construction workers, engineers, bus drivers and everyone in between back to work," Kaplan wrote.

She said in the statement that studies have shown the 9.4-mile rapid transit busway will protect the environment and take thousands of cars off the road which will decrease greenhouse gas emissions. 

Markley held a meeting Wednesday in Waterbury aimed at stopping the busway project. It was one in a series of meetings he's organized in a number of communities. Markley has also petitioned the state to investigate the affect the busway would have on the environment.

In a statement released this week, Markley said that a formal hearing in October by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection will attract opponents who are against the cost of the project.

"I am convinced that common sense and popular outrage can still stop this ill-conceived and ludicrously overpriced boondoggle," Markley said in the statement.

A public information meeting on the busway will be held by the state Department of Transportation on Aug. 11 in New Britain.