State Addresses Problems at Critical Fairfield County Transportation Hub

On the heels of Metro-North public hearings on plans to cut discounts on ticket prices for the New Haven rail line and shorten the time purchased tickets remain valid, Connecticut officials on Tuesday night addressed structural problems at one of Fairfield County's busiest transportation hubs.

Concerns about the dearth of parking spaces around the Stamford train station — a place where commuters from Darien, New Canaan, Fairfield, Westport and other towns can transfer en route to Manhattan — and the deterioration of its parking structure, were the major topic raised by speakers Tuesday evening during a public hearing held by the Connecticut Public Transportation Commission.

The situation is very serious, said Frank Steinegger, a lifelong resident of Stamford who owns a business near the station. "The Stamford Transportation Center is the most unsafe and hazardous facility on the entire Metro-North system."

There are steep stairs and narrow doorways with electrically powered doors, he said, and the shuttle van system is chaotic and overloaded.

Steinegger said the length of the platforms along the tracks are too short. During rush hour, he said, the platforms cannot fit the passengers waiting to board a train and those exiting one.

As for the station's parking garage, Steinegger described it as a "complete disaster."

"(The Connecticut Department of Transportation) has had decades to provide added parking and nothing has been done," he said, adding he thought the station needed an additional 1,200 to 1,500 spaces.

"The problem obviously these days is money," said commission Chairman Kevin B. Maloney in response to Steinegger's remarks.

The hearing was attended by about 15 people in the cafeteria of the Government Center on Washington Boulevard.

Ed Czescik, owner of Surwilo Contracting Company near the station on Manhattan Street, said his concern was commuters having to walk across five lanes of traffic.

Czescik suggested that wherever ConnDOT decides to add parking, a tunnel or overhead walkway be installed between the location and the station so commuters can avoid crossing the area's streets, because commuters late for their trains race their cars through the area.

Countering the impression that the state has ignored Stamford station's parking problems, a principal in a company that owns about four acres of land near the station said his firm is well along in providing a solution to the existing situation.

Nick Kyriakos, representing Atlantic Center at Stamford Station, said his firm has spent about two years negotiating and designing a replacement garage with the state, "and we have come up with a very viable solution."

Kyriakos said the new garage would be part of a mixed use development containing residences, office space and a hotel.

It would maintain the "urban fabric" of the area, he said, incorporating existing structures, some of which are 100 years old.

The garage would have 1,000 parking spaces, he said, in "almost a transit-oriented development."

Kyriako said the state's current budget restraints had placed the project "somewhat on hold."

The commission serves as an advisory body to the governor, the state commissioner of transportation, and the Transportation Committee of the General Assembly.