Richard Blumenthal

I actually have supported the idea of improving our rail system so as to enable an hour trip from New Haven to New York and 45 minutes from Bridgeport to New York.

If we want an economic driver for the state of Connecticut, it's improved and more frequent and faster rail service.

I want to join, by the way, in your expressing appreciation to Governor Malloy and to Commissioner Redeker for their commitment to improving infrastructure.

So if one of the feeder cables fails, or one of the substations fails, there will be a backup that--

Are you concerned that there may be the same vulnerability, Mr. Permut, with respect to other substations that exist in Connecticut?

The bottom line is $3 billion right now on the Connecticut side is a hefty investment in a state with the highest per capita debt in the Nation.

I don't think, again, with all due respect, I'm satisfied that Con Ed is doing as much as it should to provide for the monetary compensation to Metro-North or to others who may have been harmed.

So let me just go back from that global line of questioning to more of the detailed questioning.

Do you agree, Commissioner?

What was the cost of the 12 days of disrupted service?

It was your responsibility to maintain and make sure that line served the substation owned by Metro-North.

The ripple effects were far reaching and profound.

We simply cannot afford not to make these crucial investments in our outdated infrastructure.

The fact of the matter is that I was dismayed and frustrated and outraged as much as that commuter and others by the 12-day service disruption caused by Con Ed's failure to carry out its work and prepare adequately for the possibility of a…

Now, increasingly, our economic vibrancy depends on people being able to access Fairfield County from New York by rail.

Because you had the contract authority from Congress to get that money out of the trust fund, as you've talked about, Senator Blumenthal, we built it.

Connecticut and the Northeast deserve a fair share.

But your point, Mr. Permut, if I can just cut through what you just said, is that, essentially, there was no plan in this instance for the Mount Vernon substation, either Dunwoodie or Washington Street substation, in the event that power…

So my belief--and I think a rational person would conclude--is that the fact that this cable was 6 years beyond its normal design life was a contributing factor, if not the cause, of perhaps its deteriorating and ultimately its failing.

Our nation has been laggard and lax in making sufficient investments.

One point is very clear, and that is that Con Ed should be reimbursing Metro-North, Amtrak, and others for all the costs that occurred in this service outage--$2 million a day is estimated to have been the cost for Metro-North, $62 million…

If an artery is blocked at some point, the whole body fails.

Your focus on this disruption in and of itself should serve as a wake-up call.

There would be sufficient power supply from these other substations to compensate for the alternative neighboring substation if it went offline?

Thank you, Mr. Ivey.