(Newsday posted the following Associated Press article by Diane Scarponi on its website on April 22.)
NEW LONDON — In summer, when southeastern Connecticut fills with vacationers, a little turf war breaks out between recreational boaters and Amtrak.
They battle over the use of five old-fashioned, moveable bridges that blend into the region’s salt marshes and waterways.
Both sides agree the bridges have to be down when the trains go over, and up when the boats go under.
But the fight over how often these bridges should be up or down has embroiled everyone from commuters and environmentalists to transportation leaders and the influential boating lobby.
“There’s no question this is a delicate balancing act between competing needs,” said Amtrak spokesman Dan Stessel. “You can’t please everyone all of the time.”
The biggest casualty in this turf war is Shore Line East, a commuter rail operated by Amtrak that runs along Connecticut’s shoreline from New London to Stamford.
Amtrak said this week it will end westbound Shore Line East service from New London and start service instead in Old Saybrook, to avoid having to run over those five bridges.
Amtrak said it would still operate one train daily from New Haven to New London, and an additional train on Friday nights in the summer.
The changes are happening so that Amtrak can run more of its high-speed Acela trains from Boston to New York without running afoul of Connecticut environmental permits.
The permits favor boaters’ rights to use the waterways. They limit the number of times the bridges can be lowered to let the trains pass.
“Amtrak’s not being a really good neighbor, and Shore Line East is the casualty in this fight,” said state Sen. William Aniskovich, a Republican leader on the legislature’s Transportation Committee whose district runs along the shoreline.
Amtrak said it will honor the New London commuters’ monthly Shore Line East passes to New Haven. Only about two dozen people took the two trains from New London each day.
Amtrak and other supporters of the change, including the boaters’ association, point out that Amtrak’s trains are nicer and have speedier service.
“If you’re a person in New London who wants to go to New Haven, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that if you can get an express trip on Amtrak, you’re better off,” said Harry Harris, the chief of public transportation for the state.
But to regional planner Linda Krause and other fans of mass transit, the needs of recreational boaters should not dictate state transportation policy.
“These are people with large recreational boats, for the most part. It seems to me they are on vacation and they can wait, instead of ending the only public commuter transportation that goes across the Connecticut River,” said Krause, director of the Connecticut River Estuary Regional Planning Agency.
Krause and Rep. Andrea Stillman, D-Waterford, also said that any cutback in Shore Line service runs against state transportation policies.
The Transportation Strategy Board, which has been studying ways to alleviate traffic on Interstate 95, recommends increases to Shore Line East as a way to reduce highway traffic.
Boaters, represented by the Connecticut Marine Trades Association, insist Amtrak has been trying to run over the rights of boaters since it electrified the northeast corridor.
Each time a bridge is lowered for a train, boats back up along the waterways. The situation harms marina business, interrupts schedules and can create a safety hazard.
State permits limit Amtrak to 44 trips per day over the bridges. The Department of Environmental Protection said Amtrak violated the permits by running 47 trains in January.
“Just because we’re small doesn’t mean you can step on us. You do have to play the game by the rules we’ve set up,” said Grant W. Westerson, executive director of the boating group.
Westerson also pointed out that few people ride Shore Line East from New London and that the state heavily subsidizes the rail line while offering no aid to boaters.
The DEP is caught between the desire to maintain access to waterways and the desire to beef up mass transit.
“We tried to make sure everyone was on board with this, that it would meet everyone’s needs,” said Tom Ouellette, an environmental analyst with the DEP’s Office of Long Island Sound Programs.