Ribbon Cut On New Bus Ticket Sales Outlet

by Dereen Shirnekhi

DOT Commissioner Eucalitto: Now employees can be warm, connected to other employees, and have access to a bathroom.

DOT Executive Director of External Affairs Vanessa Brooks cuts 72 Church ribbon.

City and state officials celebrated on Monday the opening of a new outlet to buy bus passes downtown — at a location where employees will be able to stay warm indoors, though wheelchair users and others who can’t climb a step will have to wait outside.

The ribbon cutting at 72 Church St. took place a week to the day after the state Department of Transportation (DOT) announced the planned move of the bus ticket sales outlet from the Chapel Street kiosk on the Green to a Church Street storefront around the corner.

“Establishing a home on Church Street has been a longtime dream,” said Tom Stringer, general manager of CTtransit, at Monday’ s presser.

In addition to fare sales, the new location will offer in-person customer assistance, call center operations, and lost-and-found services; 12 employees will work out of the Church Street office.

“This is an improved experience for employees,” Mayor Justin Elicker said.

State DOT Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto highlighted the new location as a “secure space” for workers, who will now also have access to a bathroom (which is not public) and be more protected from weather. He said that the exterior of the Chapel Street kiosk had deteriorated, and that employees had complained and said that they felt separated from other CTtransit employees.

Eucalitto also noted that customers will be able to buy tickets inside, too.

“You mean able-bodied people can buy tickets inside,” called out downtown disability rights advocate David Agosta, who attended Monday’s press conference in his wheelchair. “Disabled people have to stay outside in 20-degree weather!”

There is a step required to enter the 72 Church building and no ramp, meaning that wheelchair users are not able access the new bus pass outlet. Instead, those riders will have to press a button for an employee to go outside and help them buy a ticket.

“You’re violating federal law,” said Agosta. “You are discriminating against people who have disabilities, great-grandmothers who can’t pick up their walkers over the step.”

Eucalitto said that this is how wheelchair users were served at the Chapel Street kiosk as well.

Agosta said that the difference is that no one could stay warm in the kiosk before; now, it’s just disabled riders who can’t. “They [CTtransit workers] gave themselves the privilege to access the location,” he said. “There’s no accessible route to the location. People who have disabilities have equal rights … This very obviously violates federal law.”

Eucalitto said that the DOT is open to continuing to make changes to 72 Church that could make it accessible.

CTtransit is currently working with the Church Street CVS to try and sell bus passes there, too. Go CT cards can be reloaded at CVS and the Whalley Avenue Stop & Shop. That means that the only place downtown where bus riders can buy new bus fares in person is 72 Church. (Riders can also pay for fares with exact change on the bus itself, or via a smartphone app like Token Transit.)

As for the old Chapel Street kiosk location, Eucalitto and Elicker said that they are still in talks to figure out what to do with it. The city owns it and CTtransit leased it. Eucalitto noted the possibility of the kiosk being turned into another bus shelter. (Click here to read about how the state closed the kiosk for more than four months in 2024 for renovations.)

“It’s such a devolution from the spot on the Green,” said press conference attendee and urban theorist Anstress Farwell after Monday’s ribbon-cutting. She said the kiosk is located in the heart of the community. “It [the move] seems like it’s only for employees.”

Farwell said that as a rider over 65 years old, she is required to buy her passes in person in order to qualify for the reduced fair. While she is able-bodied and the step won’t be a problem for her, she said, that may not be the case for everybody.

Farwell said that she’s planning to host with community partners a “Passport to the Green” program at the New Haven Free Public Library at the end of January or beginning of February that focuses on “all things Green,” where community members can “say what they want.”

Outside 72 Church. Inside CTtransit’s new office and call center.

CTtransit GM Tom Stringer: This dream is a long time coming.