A train platform could be installed along this Mechanic Street parking lot, Norwalk businessman Michael McGuire said.NORWALK, Conn. – Mike McGuire’s push to get a train station for the Wall Street area has hit pay dirt– the state is funding a feasibility study.
The State Bond Commission on Friday authorized a $250,000 grant under the Let’s Go CT program to investigate adding a train stop along Metro North’s Danbury line, at Wall Street, State Rep. Chris Perone (D-137) announced in a press release.
Perone is Chief Transportation Financial Officer for House Democrats, a.k.a., the transportation “czar.”
“Transit-oriented development in the Wall Street area will help this neighborhood develop and grow,” Perone said in the release. “We have seen redevelopment, like the Wall Street Theater, increasing transportation options will increase opportunities to grow.”
McGuire, owner of a Wall Street office building, has been campaigning to get a Wall Street train, speaking to the Redevelopment Agency and at other public meetings. He recently visited U.S. Rep. Jim Himes (D-Greenwich) to discuss the issue.
Although McGuire originally talked about putting a train station behind 45 Wall St., more recently he has proposed putting a train platform off the Mechanic Street parking lot, below Burnell Boulevard, which he has said would cost less than $2 million.
Perone noted in the release that the Wall Street area is not as accessible by mass transit as other parts of Norwalk.
“The first step is increasing access to public transportation – money and development will follow access,” Perone said.
The Wall Street area once had a train station, under Wall Street. It was destroyed in the 1955 flood and was not rebuilt.
That was because diesel trains are just getting up to speed with they arrive in the Wall Street area after leaving South Norwalk, Norwalk Chief Building Official Bill Ireland said recently.
“Many residents have expressed interest in bringing back a train station to the Wall Street area of Norwalk and this bonding will provide the necessary financial support to explore this concept further,” State Rep. Bruce Morris (D-140) said in the release. “I appreciate the State Bond Commission’s approval of this funding as it will ensure residents have the essential information they need to make an informed decision about the potential metro stop.”
“A tech oriented live-work neighborhood will be established in an urban downtown in the Westchester/Southwest Fairfield County area over the next three to seven years simply because the market demands it,” McGuire said in an October letter to the editor. “The question is where will it be established? Here, or in Dobbs Ferry-Irvington, Yonkers, New Rochelle, or Larchmont? Of all these locations Downtown Norwalk has the best attributes to support such a live-work community, except it doesn’t have a train station.”
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