Her proposal did not come with a price tag. That will be submitted separately with a budget adjustment she will send to the legislature when it convenes February 8.

Rell proposed commuter rail service with eight trains daily each way between New Haven, Hartford and Springfield to supply what she called a “natural job development corridor.” Amtrak provides service from New Haven to Springfield, but it is not a commuter line.

The governor’s commuter train proposal endorses a plan that has been studied and backed by several state and local officials in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Rell also called for bus service from the Windsor Locks train station to Bradley International Airport and completing a 9½-mile “busway” between Hartford and New Britain.

The governor proposed new train stations in Enfield, Newington and North Haven and rehabilitating about 40 locomotive-pulled trains now used on the Metro-North commuter railroad.

Senator Biagio Ciotto, D-Wethersfield, co-chairman of the legislature’s transportation committee, said last Sunday it was the first he heard of Rell’s plan.

“Transportation figures to be a good issue in this session,” he said. “Everybody wants to improve our situation throughout the state. We’ve got to find a way to pay for it. I’ll be looking with great interest to see what the proposal is.”

Connecticut is plagued by gridlock along many parts of its three interstate highways and Merritt Parkway, aging commuter trains and stations that lack adequate parking space. Policymakers have been seeking solutions to calm angry commuters and businesses while avoiding budget-busting plans.

The General Assembly last year approved a $1.3 billion plan authorizing $667 million to buy 342 new Metro-North commuter rail cars and hundreds of millions of dollars more for highway improvements.

Rell said her plan includes no tax increase but would instead be funded by transferring a portion of the petroleum gross receipts tax revenue to the special transportation fund.

Businesses that sell gasoline, solvents, oils and other petroleum products in Connecticut pay a 5.8 percent tax on their gross sales. The tax is set to increase each year until it reaches 8.1 percent in July 2013.

The state transfers about $21 million of that tax money from gasoline sales each year into its special transportation fund.

Last year’s transportation improvement package requires the state to steadily increase that amount through the 2014 budget year, when more than $119 million would be transferred annually to the special transportation fund.