Three years later, construction continues at Darien train station
Work was originally supposed to be done in the summer of 2025, then the summer of 2026.
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Three years after the Connecticut State Department of Transportation started work to modernize the Darien train station and make it more accessible for people with disabilities near the end of 2023, construction is still ongoing.
"They're not really building anything, it's just a bunch of caution tape around everywhere," observed Linnea Stacke, a young girl from Darien on her way into the city with her friends.
The DOT's original plans said work would be done in the summer of 2025; then, in January 2026, News 12 reported that it would be done by the end of that summer.
Instead, as the end of 2026 approaches, parking spots are still blocked off, half of each platform is still closed, and work continues.
"It still looks exactly the same as when I stopped commuting over a year ago, which is just crazy, because what's happening? So it's a little bit frustrating where our taxpayer money's going," said Shara Venezia-Walerstein, a Darien resident who recently went from commuting to working remotely.
"There's just no place to park," added Jennifer Ireland, who takes the train from Darien at least five days a week.
The town's First Selectman, Jon Zagrodzky, says from his conversations with the state, the latest expectation is that work will be done this spring - potentially as soon as March, but no later than Labor Day.
According to Zagrodzky, the delays are not due to any one thing, but instead, to many different things adding up.
"I don't think that any of the failures I've heard about are really in people's regular control," he said.
As News 12 reported in January, the station's new platforms, which are the first in the state that will be electrically heated to melt ice, are taking longer than expected.
The company that makes the metal railings also went out of business, forcing them to put up temporary wooden ones while they wait for a replacement.
The state also paused work for six weeks during the summer to avoid disrupting trains during the FIFA World Cup, while work on the Walk Bridge in Norwalk has also caused delays.
"One thing I've learned in government is that it's always something, and so since it's always going to be something, even if you don't know exactly what that is, it's better to just go ahead and plan for it," Zagrodzky said, of the original deadline. "If they had just said up front it's going to be four years, you would have been surprised, but at least, as these delays mounted, you would have understood, because you would have been expecting it."
Zagrodzky tells News 12 he was just recently in Hartford to meet with the commissioner of the DOT about the project. He says the state is also disappointed in the delays and focused on finally getting this finished.
