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Fairfield County Digs Out: Travel Ban Lifted, Trains Running

FAIRFIELD COUNTY, Conn. – Life was returning to normal across Fairfield County after the storm: The statewide travel ban will be lifted as of 2 p.m. Tuesday and Metro-North trains will be running on a Sunday schedule beginning at 1 p.m., Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced Tuesday afternoon.

A plow clears a road in Bridgeport on Tuesday.

A plow clears a road in Bridgeport on Tuesday.

Photo Credit: Joey Alvarado

“Much of the heavier snow has already passed through most of Connecticut. We expect some more moderate bands to pass through in the next couple of hours, but we are through the worst of the storm,” Malloy said. “The state will resume normal business operations to the extent possible as residents dig out from the storm.”

Amtrak trains are not up and running yet, but Malloy said they will likely resume service Wednesday. He expects that Metro-North will be able to run on a full schedule for Wednesday and that state bus service on CTTransit will also resume Wednesday. State employees are expected to return to work Wednesday.

Most state roads will have received a second treatment by 2 p.m., making them safe for use, Malloy said. But travel bans are still in effect in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, particularly at the borders with Connecticut, he said. The travel bans in New York were lifted Tuesday morning.

“There are parts of the state that may have reached record snowfall, particularly in the northeast portion of Connecticut. The EOC will remain open to monitor and provide necessary assistance to cities and towns that they may request,” he said.

Although the state is not encouraging residents to get on the roads, Malloy said he understands that some people have jobs to get to and places to be. The roads will be passable, though probably slow, he said.

“Right now traffic on some of those roads is very, very slow, even for our own vehicles,” he said.

Malloy said that he was pleased that there weren’t more power outages in the state as a result of the storm -- one large outage of over 1,600 was briefly reported in Greenwich along with a few others.

“This was not the kind of snow that was sticking to wires to help bring them down, and certainly didn’t coat the wires with ice. So that made a difference,” he said. “We’ve had a very aggressive tree trimming program over the last few years, that seems to have paid off as limbs did not come into those wires. So, we’re learning and we’re getting better at this stuff as we go along.”

Even though snowfall totals did not turn out as high as predicted, Malloy said the state took appropriate steps in banning travel and having people stay indoors.

Here are the latest snow totals: 

  • New Canaan: 11.8 inches 
  • Darien: 9 inches 
  • Danbury: 6.5 inches
  • Ridgefield: 6 inches
  • Fairfield: 5.3 inches
  • Norwalk: 5 inches
  • Bridgeport: 5 inches

“People responded to our request, that’s why I’m anxious to reopen the roads as quickly as they can be reopened. Otherwise, people start to lose their faith in what we’re telling them. By closing the roads at 9 p.m. there is no doubt we avoided hundreds of accidents that otherwise would have taken place,” he said. “I think we did the right thing in making that call, we certainly got an unbelievable response from the people of Connecticut.” 

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