The campaign to derail the New Britain to Hartford busway made a stop in West Hartford this afternoon.
State Sen. Joe Markley, R-Southington, and state Rep. Whit Betts, R-Bristol, brought clipboards and petitions in their quest to win an environmental review for the $569 million project.
But Markley acknowledged he has a larger agenda than simply forcing the state Department of Environmental Protection to hold a hearing on the busway.
"I won't be coy about it,'' Markley said, standing in a small patch of shade across from the Cheesecake Factory.
"I would stop this any way I could stop it. If there are good environmental reason to stop it, it should be stopped but it should be stopped for fiscal reasons and for practical reasons and for reasons of sanity."
Only 25 signatures were needed to force the hearing; Markley and Betts collected nearly 60.
The busway, a bus-only highway linking Hartford and New Britain, has been a source of controversy for years. Supoorters, including Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, say its a key piece of the region's mass transit puzzle and will create hundreds of construction jobs. They point out the feds are kicking in about $270 million of the project's cost. Opponents denounce it as a costly boondoggle that few will ride.
Several of the citizens they approached at Blue Back agreed that the busway is a bad idea. "I don't think that many people are going to use it,'' said Fred Macko of West Hartford.
Robert Lipman, also from West Hartford, said he thinks the project is a waste of money but, he added, "it's going to happen because the governor wants it to happen.''
Not if Markley and Betts have anything to say about it. They are already planning to take their anti-busway crusade to U.S. House Speaker John Boehner in the fall.
"If we can start to build public opposition, then the federal government's going to have to take another look,'' Markley said.
Added Betts: "That's the point of this-to slow it down. If the people speak up strong enough and loud enough, I think this project can be stopped."