Chester is a town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. The town is part of the Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region. The population was 3,749 at the 2020 census. The town center is defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as a census-designated place (CDP). The name is a transfer from Chester, in England.
Essex is a town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. The town is part of the Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region. The population was 6,733 at the 2020 census. It is made up of three villages: Essex Village, Centerbrook, and Ivoryton.
The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, commonly known as The Consolidated, or simply as the New Haven, was a railroad that operated principally in the New England region of the United States from 1872 to 1968. Founded by the merger of the New York and New Haven and Hartford and New Haven railroads, the company had near-total dominance of railroad traffic in Southern New England for the first half of the 20th century.
Greater Hartford is a region located in the U.S. state of Connecticut, centered on the state's capital of Hartford. It represents the only combined statistical area in Connecticut defined by a city within the state, being bordered by the Greater Boston region to the northeast and New York metropolitan area to the south and west. Sitting at the southern end of the Metacomet Ridge, its geology is characterized by land of a level grade along the shores of Connecticut River Valley, with loamy, finer-grained soil than other regions in the state. Greater Hartford, had a total population of 1,213,531 at the 2020 United States census.
The Lower Connecticut River Valley is a region of the state of Connecticut around the juncture where the Connecticut River meets Long Island Sound. It includes towns in Middlesex County and the western edge of New London County. It is located in the southeastern-central part of the state and includes the seventeen towns of Chester, Clinton, Cromwell, Deep River, Durham, East Haddam, East Hampton, Essex, Haddam, Killingworth, Lyme, Middlefield, Middletown, Old Lyme, Old Saybrook, Portland and Westbrook.
Shore Line East (SLE) is a commuter rail service which operates along the Northeast Corridor through southern Connecticut, United States. The rail service is a fully owned subsidiary of the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT) and is operated under the CT Rail brand. SLE provides service seven days a week along the Northeast Corridor between New London and New Haven; limited through service west of New Haven to Bridgeport and Stamford operates during weekday rush hours. Cross-platform transfers to Metro-North Railroad New Haven Line trains are available at New Haven for service to southwestern Connecticut and New York City. Pre-COVID, around 2,200 riders used the service on weekdays.
The Providence and Worcester Railroad is a Class II railroad operating 612 miles (985 km) of tracks in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, as well as New York via trackage rights. The company was founded in 1844 to build a railroad between Providence, Rhode Island, and Worcester, Massachusetts, and ran its first trains in 1847. A successful railroad, the P&W subsequently expanded with a branch to East Providence, Rhode Island, and for a time leased two small Massachusetts railroads. Originally a single track, its busy mainline was double-tracked after a fatal 1853 collision in Valley Falls, Rhode Island.
Route 9 is a 40.89-mile-long (65.81 km) expressway beginning in Old Saybrook and ending at I-84 in Farmington. It connects the Eastern Coastline of the state along with the Lower Connecticut River Valley to Hartford and the Capital Region.
Route 154 is a state highway in Connecticut running for 28.24 miles (45.45 km). It serves as one of the main thoroughfares in the town of Old Saybrook, intersecting twice with U.S. Route 1. North of Interstate 95 (I-95), Route 154 runs parallel to Route 9, along to the west bank of the Connecticut River. The route ends in Higganum at Route 9.
Centerbrook is a hamlet located in the town of Essex, Connecticut. The village is home to numerous businesses, the Essex Steam Train, a post office, and Essex Elementary School. It has many houses but it is generally considered the more commercial part of Essex.
The Chester–Hadlyme Ferry is a seasonal ferry crossing the Connecticut River between the town of Chester, Connecticut, and the village of Hadlyme. It is the second oldest continuously operating ferry service in the state of Connecticut and is a state-designated historical landmark. The ferry is part of the scenic portion of Route 148 and provides a convenient link between two of Connecticut's tourist attractions: Gillette Castle State Park in Hadlyme and the Essex Steam Train, which runs between Essex and Chester.
The Hartford and New Haven Railroad (H&NH), chartered in 1833, was the first railroad built in the state of Connecticut and an important direct predecessor of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. The company was formed to connect the cities of New Haven, Connecticut, and Springfield, Massachusetts. It built northwards from New Haven, opening its first segment in 1838, and reaching Hartford in December 1839. The company reached Springfield in 1844 under the auspices of the Hartford and Springfield Railroad, a subsidiary chartered in Massachusetts. Branches were later built to Suffield, New Britain, and Middletown and operated by the Hartford and New Haven. The H&NH merged with the New York and New Haven Railroad in 1872, forming the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.
Route 148 is a state highway in southern and southeastern Connecticut running from Route 79 in Killingworth to Route 82 in the village of Hadlyme. Route 148 crosses the Connecticut River using the Chester–Hadlyme Ferry.
Estuary Transit District, doing business as River Valley Transit, is the public transit provider for the Lower Connecticut River Valley region. ETD provides bus service in the municipalities of Chester, Clinton, Durham, Deep River, East Haddam, East Hampton, Essex, Killingworth, Haddam, Lyme, Old Lyme, Old Saybrook, Portland, Westbrook, Middlefield, Middletown, and Madison. It was formed in 2022 by the merger of the Estuary Transit District and Middletown Area Transit.
Steamtown, U.S.A., was a steam locomotive museum that ran steam excursions out of North Walpole, New Hampshire, and Bellows Falls, Vermont, from the 1960s to 1983. The museum was founded by millionaire seafood industrialist F. Nelson Blount. The non-profit Steamtown Foundation took over operations following his death in 1967. Because of Vermont's air quality regulations restricting steam excursions, declining visitor attendance, and disputes over the use of track, some pieces of the collection were relocated to Scranton, Pennsylvania in the mid-1980s and the rest were auctioned off. After the move, Steamtown continued to operate in Scranton but failed to attract the expected 200,000–400,000 visitors. Within two years the tourist attraction was facing bankruptcy, and more pieces of the collection were sold to pay off debt.
The Connecticut Valley Railroad was a railroad in the state of Connecticut founded in 1868. The company built a line along the Connecticut River between Hartford and Old Saybrook, which opened in 1871. It was reorganized as the Hartford and Connecticut Valley Railroad in 1880, and leased by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad in 1887. Following partial abandonments by the New Haven Railroad and successor Penn Central Transportation Company between 1968 and 1972, the line south of Middletown was revived as the Valley Railroad, a heritage railroad, while the portion in Middletown and northward saw operation by several freight railroads. As of 2022, the Providence and Worcester Railroad and Connecticut Southern Railroad both operate portions of the former Connecticut Valley Railroad.
The Shore Line Electric Railway was a trolley line along the southern coastline of Connecticut, running between New Haven and Old Saybrook with additional branches to Chester and Stony Creek. Unlike most trolley lines in New England, the Shore Line Electric was a true interurban, running large railway-style cars largely on a private right-of-way rather than on public streets. Though its main line was in operation for only 15 nonconsecutive years, the Shore Line Electric briefly acquired a substantial network of trolley lines stretching across eastern Connecticut, including the Norwich and Westerly Railway, the Groton and Stonington Street Railway, and several lines of the Connecticut Company. Most of the trolley line no longer is extant, however, the Shore Line Electric Railway Power House still stands along the mouth of the Connecticut River in Old Saybrook.
Valley Railroad 97 is a preserved 200 class 2-8-0 "Consolidation" type steam locomotive that was built by the American Locomotive Company's Cooke Works for the Birmingham and Southeastern Railroad.
The Meriden, Waterbury, and Connecticut River Railroad was a railroad in the state of Connecticut. The charter, originally granted in 1871 to the Meriden and Cromwell Railroad, was obtained by Meriden residents and construction began in 1883. The line opened between the city of Meriden, Connecticut, and the Connecticut River in Cromwell, Connecticut, in 1885. An extension to Waterbury, Connecticut, was completed in 1888 as the Meriden and Waterbury Railroad, and the two companies merged to form the Meriden, Waterbury and Connecticut Railroad.
