Officials Advocate for Improvement on Metro-North's Danbury Branch

Lawmakers and politicians from Western Connecticut asked the General Assembly on Wednesday to adopt bills that would improve service on Metro-North’s Danbury branch, the Danbury News Times reports.

According to the paper, replacing diesel trains with electric ones and extending the service to New Milford, Kent and eventually the Massachusetts line is part of the push to improve the service.

Ridgefield First Selectman Rudy Marconi said at the hearing if service is not improved the state is going to lose people to New York and New Jersey.

Bills seek to electrify the line, call for a study to determine the cost of extending the line, restore Housatonic Railroad freight service to Massachusetts, allow the use of tax bonds to fund improvements, study mass transit in Fairfield County, establish a transportation funding bank and study Merritt Parkway traffic, the paper reports.

Read the full story at the Danbury News Times.

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