Is this sane?

Posted on July 11, 2008 by

Question:
If NJ is losing jobs, residents, and economic development to Northeastern Pennsylvania as the Star Ledger recently reported, and we are seeking to redevelop urban NJ, and we need to raise gas taxes or tolls to improve NJ transportation infrastructure, then why are we spending a half a billion dollars to accelerate the Pennsylvania hemorrhage, promote rural development, and ignoring far more cost effective urban NJ transit needs?
I have not analyzed this project, so I’m just asking. Investment in a network based on inter-city hi-speed rail (point to point) would be a different kettle of fish and something I strongly support.
$551M rail project on track
ANDOVER TWP. | Norbert Hornstein’s daughter was sitting in traffic on Interstate 80 recently when she noticed the solution to her problems just off the highway: a train station.
For his daughter and other drivers clogging up the road, Hornstein hopes the Lackawanna Cut-Off project moves forward, bringing the promise of passenger rail service between Scranton, and New York City.
“To me, it makes all the sense in the world. To me, the big question is, ‘When?'” the Denville resident said. “We’ve waited long enough.”
The North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority and NJ Transit held a public hearing Thursday in Sussex County to present the project’s latest environmental assessment. Coming about 30 years after the rail line was removed, it offered Hornstein and other residents a glimpse of plans to restore the 133-mile route.
With the report, state and federal transportation officials propose starting the project with a 52.3-mile stretch heading east from Andover Township. It would be completed in about four years. Funding has not been found to complete the remaining portion through Warren County and into Pennsylvania, officials said.
(complete article: http://www.njherald.com/story/11CUTOFF-web

This entry was posted in Hot topics, Policy watch, Politics. Bookmark the permalink.

4 Responses to Is this sane?

  1. OBrienreply says:
    July 11, 2008 at 1:40 PM

    This isn’t an expansion of the railroad, but rather the restoration of a line that existed back in the day, then was foolishly removed.
    I seem to recall that Thomas Edison was actually able to commute by railroad from West Orange to his ore-mining venture in Sussex County. (http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/it/1991/3/1991_3_8.shtml) Were he alive today, he couldn’t.
    Wouldn’t it be environmental progress to restore mass transit to a region that once had it? Just sayin’.

  2. byramaniac says:
    July 11, 2008 at 4:43 PM

    Wolfe – Good questions, and additional information and discussion on the topic can be found here: http://blog.tstc.org/2008/07/09/lackawanna-cutoff-why-now-and-why-there/ (Thanks to our friends at the Tri-State Transportation Campaign)
    That half-billion dollar investment could be put to much better use by providing intra-county transportation within Sussex and Warren counties, where today if you do not have a car, or cannot drive, you cannot survive.
    You are right in your questioning of this logic, in these tough economic times, this money could be much better spent!

  3. unprovincial says:
    July 12, 2008 at 8:42 AM

    If they can put private lanes on the turnpike, why can’t they put a light rail or other public transport system alongside the turnpike to transport people plus their cars from one end of NJ to the other or to the shore? Why sit in traffic Sunday night? I think people would definitely use it. The Amtrak train from DC to the Orlando area is always packed with people and their cars.

  4. eyesofsussex says:
    July 14, 2008 at 10:45 AM

    Those commuters from PA need to know the rest of the story…by example….
    When commuter train service was established in Montclair/Glen Ridge/Bloomfield, the value of the homes went through the roof. Just the thing a municipaity wants to hear when doing real estate valuations!
    On the surface its sounds great if you’re a homeowner. But watch the taxes go up!

Leave a Reply