Tag: MOM line

The Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders (don’t you love the absurdly arcane name) is now doing what officials there have accused folks in Middlesex County of doing for years: Obstructing progress.

The freeholders unanimously passed the resolution affirming “support for the Monmouth Junction alternative and opposition to the Manchester to Red Bank line” on June 11. The vote came two weeks after a NJ Transit spokesman claimed the agency had won the backing of Freeholder John D’Amico and other county representatives for the Red Bank line.

D’Amico said that his support had been conditional because the rail agency had deemed “better alternatives” as too expensive to meet federal requirements.

“Better alternatives,” of course, is just a code-phrase for “not in my backyard.” Better, in this case, would mean first sending a line meant to take people north to New York west through southern Middlesex County, adding operating costs and travel time to an already too-expensive to build project.

In any case, this is just a last-ditch attempt to change NJ Transit’s mind — something that is unlikely to happen at this point, when you consider how the players have realigned themselves. Ocean County is on board with the new route and, while Monmouth is officially opposed, I’m not at all convinced that the people in Western Monmouth are all that upset about how this thing is playing out.

And then there is The Asbury Park Press, the state’s second-largest paper and the voice of Monmouth and Ocean counties. The paper had been a staunch supporter of the Middlesex alternative (which would have run through Jamesburg, Monroe and South Brunswick); it has since changed its thinking, calling the freeholder vote “a short-sighted, cutting-off-your-nose-to-spite-your-face decision.”

If the freeholders refuse to come around and recognize the value the Red Bank line would have for Ocean and Monmouth counties — and the futility of holding out for an even scaled-back Monmouth Junction alternative — NJ Transit should proceed with the project anyway.

I couldn’t agree more.

NJ Transit announced earlier this week that representatives from Middlesex, Monmouth and Ocean counties had reached consensus on a commuter line, routing it from Lakehurst to Red Bank.

That was Wednesday. On Thursday, that consensus appeared to be crumbling, according to The
Asbury Park Press:

Monmouth County’s support for a new rail line to Red Bank appeared completely gone on Thursday, a day after NJ Transit officials claimed to have won Freeholder John D’Amico Jr.’s backing for the proposal.

Instead, D’Amico backpedaled, saying his support for the Red Bank route was only conditional because the transit agency “has made its mind up” against rail options relying on routes through Middlesex County.

Republican Freeholders Lillian G. Burry and Robert D. Clifton said they would not support the Red Bank route and D’Amico failed to gain backup from his two Democratic colleagues at the board meeting at the Hall of Records.

I guess this should have been expected, though it does make you wonder about D’Amico and how this process played out. It seems odd to me that NJ Transit could have so badly misunderstood the Monmouth County freeholder, moving ahead with an announcement of a compromise that he claims was never agreed to.

In any case, the Monmouth folks continue their campaign of misinformation — claiming, for instance, that Red Bank had never been on the table when it clearly is part of the environmental impact study being conducted and all of the earlier studies on the project, or that this is about Western Monmouth County and not the Route 9 corridor.

Admittedly, ridership projections for the Middlesex route are higher, but so is the cost to build and to operate by significant margins. Part of the reason is that the project will require significant track upgrades and other improved infrastructure and a host of permits and environmental approvals. Plus, the ridership figures are predicated on new rail stations that are not included in the cost estimates.

It seems to me that the Monmouth folk are doing what they have long accused Middlesex officials of doing — pandering to the NIMBYs.

Finally, after more years than any of us can count, NJ Transit has done what the agency should have done long ago — it has ended debate over the MOM line and will run the rail link to Red Bank.

It is a compromise plan, one that recognizes several realities:

• The Monmouth Junction line was the most expensive to build, by far.
• The greatest need for the line was in Monmouth and Ocean counties.
• Middlesex County was not going to back down and NJ Transit had expressed an unwillingness in the past to move forward without consensus.

Hence, the compromise:

“Each of the three counties have different needs; it’s what could everyone live with,” said Ocean County Freeholder James F. Lacey. “The bottom line is Ocean County needed a rail line. Middlesex County had concerns about it going through their county. We needed something good for the region and the state that we could afford.”

This is, to put it mildly, a victory for the folks in Jamesburg, Monroe and South Brunswick, who refused to give up and continued fighting even as the Monmouth and Ocean County pols continued their own push.

With the compromise in place, NJ Transit can get to work on a much needed rail line and Middlesex County homeowners can rest a bit easier.

Zombies are the undead — and so, apparently, is the MOM Line.

The rail proposal — which is supported by Monmouth and Ocean counties, but opposed in Middlesex — just won’t go away, no matter how illogical or expensive it will be to built or operate.

According to NJ.com, the folks in Monmouth think they can revive the plan by eliminating an expensive tunnel and replacing it with a transfer station. Considering that the line already offered the longest commute, adding a changeover is just plain dopey.

I’m going to have to agree with Mayor Frank Gambatese:

“The state is in dire need of money and this man refuses to acknowledge that this project is dead. If he is not willing to accept having trains go through Monmouth County, then he should just drop it. The whole MOM line should be put to bed.”

Gambatese also said D’Amico’s alternatives require traversing the Monmouth Battlefield State Park in Manalapan, a plan that has drawn significant opposition from Gov. Jon Corzine and state Department of Environmental Protection officials who oppose putting any commuter rail line through the national and state historic landmark.

“If it goes through the park, it’s dead,” Gambatese said. “I suggest Mr. D’Amico start looking at what the people in his county need and meet it without impacting the people in Middlesex.”

The Asbury Park Press criticizes the DEP for what it portrays as a belated entry into the battle over the MOM line, ignoring that the concerns about the Monmouth Battleground State Park raised recently are not new concerns. They have been raised before.