Connecticut’s residential coastline is two worlds, the one of newcomer millionaires and one whose wealth and New England roots span generations. Now, their differences over a rail route threaten to gum up plans for the U.S. Northeast’s fastest-ever trains.
About 30 miles from Manhattan, hedge funds such as Bridgewater Associates and Tudor Investment Corp. and Fortune 500 companies help make Stamford the busiest station in the wealthiest state for Amtrak’s Acela Express. Boardings are 47 percent lower toward the east, where century-old estates overlook the Long Island Sound and the Ivy League’s Yale University has educated scholars for 300 years.
With the national railroad preparing for even faster Acela service between Boston and Washington, however, some of those towns are in the cross-hairs of a Federal Railroad Administration proposal for a 50-mile (80-kilometer) bypass designed to reduce curves and choke points. The plan, one of three under consideration, was so unpopular among residents that a group of lawmakers, including Democratic U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, last month threatened to tie themselves to the tracks.................


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