Northern Branch CLC meeting
July 18th 2007 09:54 am
I attended last night’s Northern Branch Citizens’ Liaison Committee (CLC) meeting. What a breath of fresh air!
The meeting was chaired by NJT Public Affairs Director, Charles Ingoglia. Among other NJT personnel, Linda Mosch, Project Director, and Jeff Stiles, Project Consultant, were at the podium.
Many Bergen politicos attended including some new faces such as Charlotte Vandervalk and Gerald Cardinale, as well as some old friends who spoke on behalf of LRT. There were about 60 people in attendance, many of whom seemed to prefer LRT. Jeff Stiles gave a brief history of the project and then advised in what capacity the CLC would act. After that, Charles Ingoglia opened the floor to questions and comments.
There were questions by many as to the “preferred” mode and what seemed to have been an NJT bias for DMU.
Here’s the good part. No. Make that the great part — There is no longer a bias. I paraphrase Mr. Ingoglia: “As far as DMU vs LRT is concerned, NJT is now [his inflection] committed to an even playing field!”
The CLC will meet again for a scoping meeting (perhaps late August, depending on when the FTA approves the Notice Of Intent [NOI] process).
There will be 3 options and two sub-options studied:
- Option 1 - No build
- Option 2A - DMU to Route 4
- Option 2B - DMU to North Tenafly
- Option 3A - LRT to Route 4
- Option 3B - LRT to North Tenafly
A new Web site (just opened with not much on it yet) for the project can be accessed at: http://www.northernbranchcorridor.com.
alewifebp responded on 18 Jul 2007 at 9:04 pm #
Very good to hear. I look forward to checking out the full launch of the web site.
Bob Scheurle responded on 19 Jul 2007 at 1:18 pm #
Hopefully, everyone will come to their senses and extend HBLRT on the Northern Branch. Here are NJT’s own figures showing that LRT will carry almost 4 times as many riders as DMU: http://www.nj-arp.org/hblrt_dmu.gif
And here is NJ-ARP’s Northern Branch PowerPoint Presentation: http://www.nj-arp.org/northern_hblrt.pps Use right-click, Save Target As… (12 MB, Please be patient while the file downloads. Contains 43 slides; use the Page Down key to advance. If you do not have PowerPoint on your computer, download the free PowerPoint viewer from Microsoft.)
Joe Versaggi responded on 19 Jul 2007 at 1:21 pm #
LRT operation would also have a farebox recovery ratio that is several magnitudes the size of a DMU’s, and leverages existing vehicle types, maintenance facilities, and rail operation.
Bob Scheurle responded on 25 Jul 2007 at 1:19 pm #
NJT now has a presentation and maps showing station locations on the new Northern Branch web site.