HARTFORD — The Lamont administration is preparing financing for the purchase of 72 new rail cars, including for the Waterbury branch of the Metro-North Railroad.

The State Bond Commission is expected on Wednesday to approve a $300 million authorization to pay for the replacement rail coaches for Shoreline East, the Hartford Line, and the Danbury and Waterbury branches of the New Haven Line.

The bond commission is also scheduled to vote on $5 million for assisting state agencies and local governments in responding to the coronavirus outbreak. The Lamont administration is developing guidelines for distributing this funding.

The agenda Wednesday additionally includes more than $140 million in municipal funding.

The 10 members of the bond commission will conduct the special meeting via teleconference due to the coronavirus outbreak. The event will be broadcast live at 1 p.m. on CT-N, the network that provides noncommercial television coverage of state government meetings.

The bond commission is meeting for the first time since the legislature approved a two-year bonding bill on March 11 that had been held up in the debate over transportation funding and highway tolls.

The purchase of new rail cars and locomotive had been proposed in a 10-year transportation funding plan, called CT2030, that Lamont and Democratic legislative leaders negotiated late last year. That initiative recommended 132 new coaches and 30 locomotives for all the commuter rail lines.


Advocates of the Waterbury line say eight locomotives and 24 rail cars are needed to meet its long-term service needs. They estimate those additions would allow for trains to run roughly every 30 minutes during the morning and afternoon peak hours and every 60 minutes during off-peak hours.

In addition to the $300 million authorization, the bond commission agenda Wednesday also includes another $45 million for rolling stock for the Hartford Line and the state share for its Windsor Locks Station.

.The commission is expected to approve $76 million for grants muncipal projects, plus $66 million for local transportation project