The section of the Hartford, Providence, & Fishkill/ New York & New England right of way between Hartford and New Britain was pressed into service as the CTfastrak Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line in 2015. At present, this is one of only two places on the entire line (the other being a small portion of the Northeast Corridor) where one can actually ride mass transit on the line, albeit on a bus.
The busway has been controversial among railfans for the loss of railroad miles and among taxpayers for its cost. Personally, I think this op-ed by a UCONN student, Thess Johnson, gets it right. The busway exists, and for whatever trouble went on in building it, it works pretty well. My wife and I recently decided it would be fun to eat at a number of places in Downtown Hartford on a weekend afternoon, and parking in the suburbs and taking the bus in made it very hassle free. I'd rather have a train, but I like having good public transit.
All of the station sites listed on the map above were sited with information from the Tyler City Station site. According to that site, Charter Oak Park was a famous horse track that operated from 1874-1940. Tyler City Station speculates that the stop was on the northwest side of the Oakwood Ave crossing, where a trolley depot was.
Like all of the dedicated busway between Parkville and Newington Junction, the HP&F formerly ran next to the New Haven Line (today's Amtrak Hartford Line.) This resulted in a 4 track main. The HP&F were the north/western tracks and the Hartford Line the south/eastern tracks. Today this means the busway is parallel to the Amtrak line, always to the north and west of it.
Today there is no stop on either the CTfastrak busway or the Amtrak Hartford Line rail at Oakwood Ave. That said, there is a CTfastrak stop at Flatbush Ave, one block north, which could be considered the spiritual successor of the Charter Oak stop.
This is an interesting area. It is the borderlands between Hartford and West Hartford and has a lot of manufacturing and industry, but also some rich cultural resources. Some of my favorite Vietnamese restaurants in Connecticut, including Que Huong Pho and KT Bakery are located here.
Click on the thumbnail for the full resolution image
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A paper Connecticut Transit all
day bus fare as it appeared in 2023. The QR code has been removed. I
bought this for service between Newington Junction and Hartford (and
ultimately used it at Flatbush Ave and Kane St, too.) |
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The Que Huong Vietnamese restaurant can be seen from the HP&F/CTfastrak busway (12/2023.) |
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The overpass at Flatbush Ave,
looking north onto the Hartford Line and the HP&F/busway. This
shows its 2013 build date. Some of the work of building the busway has
benefitted the existing Hartford Amtrak line- as the 1965
Connecticut Aerial Survey photograph 01127
shows, there was a dangerous at grade 4 track crossing here that
unfortunately isolated the residents of the former Charter Oak Terrace
housing project from the surrounding area. Now a modern overpass
bridges both lines(1/2024.) |
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A
view to the north along the HP&F/CTfastrak/Hartford Line from the
Flatbush Ave overpass. The Hartford Line tracks are at right, and some
vehicles on the busway are visible to the left of the tracks (1/2024.) |
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The entrance to the Flatbush Ave station, at Flatbush and New Park Aves (1/2024.) |
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A view of the CTfastrak busway platform at Flatbush Ave, facing north (12/2023.) |
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Looking northwest along Oakwood Ave. According to Tyler City Station,
the Charter Oak Park depot would be on the right side of the photo, on
the other side of both the tracks (front) and busway (back.) (1/2024.) |
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A closer look at the Oakwood Ave Crossing. According to Tyler City Station,
we would see signs of the depot and a trolley terminal where this grey
and white striped building with the black and yellow sign is. We are facing west, so the Amtrak Hartford line is closer to us and the HP&F/CTfastrak busway is farther from us (1/2024.) |
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Looking Southeast at the Oakwood
Ave Crossing with a CTfastrak bus passing in front. We are facing east
so the HP&F/CTfastrak busway is closer to us with the Amtrak
Hartford line farther from us (1/2024.) |
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Looking at the site of Charter
Oak Park depot from the back porch of KT Bakery. The white and gray
striped building where the depot would have been is at left and the
school busses on the other side mark the edge of the 4 track right of
way (1/2024.) |
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(c) 2016-2024 Timothy M Dowd. Last Modified @ 19:02 EST on 2024-01-07
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