Most in poll say yes to rail line - 78% in Middlesex want their MOM
January 24th 2008 11:59 am
Star-Ledger (Middlesex Edition), Thursday, January 24, 2008
BY MARYANN SPOTO, Star-Ledger StaffA majority of residents living near a proposed rail line through Monmouth, Ocean and Middlesex counties want the service in order to reduce their commute time and ease congested roadways, a new poll shows.
Monmouth and Ocean county freeholders released the results yesterday with the goal of convincing Middlesex County officials the so-called MOM Passenger Rail Line is the way to get people to and from central New Jersey.
Middlesex leaders have cited safety concerns, increased train traffic and plummeting property values as some of the reasons they object to the proposal.
It just keeps getting better and better:
“To help alleviate the region’s growing pains, NJ Transit added bus service to Manhattan, but even that wasn’t enough to meet commuters’ demands. NJ Transit estimates more than 33,000 people would use the Monmouth Junction Alignment — the equivalent of the entire daily ridership on the North Jersey Coast Line.”
“He (Crabiel) reiterated the county’s objections, including safety concerns about increased train traffic at certain crossings.”
The argument is getting weaker and weaker. Of course they will have to put increased protection at many grade crossings. That’s already factored in.
“We don’t get that much benefit in Middlesex County,” Crabiel said.
South Brunswick, Monroe and Jamesburg residents breathe the same increasingly bad air as the rest of us in the county do. And current property price decreases have nothing to do with MOM.
For over 20 years, this project has been dragged through endless debate and delay by a small minority pocket of upper middle class residents of Monroe, Jamesburg and South Brunswick who were silly enough to buy real estate close to active railroad lines - depsite what their real estate agents told them about “unused tracks or the odd freight train every now and then.”
The greater good of the central part of the state is served by the MOM line with a major destination at New Brunswick. Local roads haven’t kept up with the pace of unchecked development in Middlesex, let alone Monmouth and Ocean. Now, it’s too late to build highways - there’s no more land.
The ability of the railroad to carry 5 to 8 times the number of people per hour in the same space as two highway lanes makes any further argument moot. The time has come to get this vital transportation corridor up and running.
LRTADV responded on 25 Jan 2008 at 5:42 pm #
Some of us from Northern Mercer county would use the line too. I live about ten minutes from the proposed Herrod Blvd. station in So. Brunswick. There is no question there will be more traffic at grade crossings, but it will take about 90 seconds for the typical train to pass by. Also, school children won’t be allowed to walk in the track gauge as they do right in front of crossing guards in Jamesburg…. that’s probably a good thing. Some crossings probably should have improvements like flashers, cantilevered flashers, right-angle flashers and gates. A good candidate for a grade crossing elimination would be Gatzmer Avenue. West Railroad Ave. should probably be converted into a cul-de-sac in front of the gas station and the through traffic diverted to East Railroad Ave. (rt. 522) IMHO. That intersection is a headachle even without trains involved.
stuw6 responded on 25 Jan 2008 at 6:27 pm #
Property values dropping?
They tried this excuse in Montclair and everyone’s property values increased dramatically w/ the opening of the Montclair Connection and Midtown Direct service.
The complainers are on crack.
E-44 responded on 25 Jan 2008 at 7:17 pm #
There are few homes built ridiculously close to the ROW and, yes, a few more will find trains in their backyards when the eastbound portion of the wye at Monmouth Jct. is rebuilt. But they are only a handful - and suffering buyers’ remorse from not having done their homework before buying.
The basic law of real estate in any market, up or down, still applies: Some seller’s loss is another buyer’s bargain.
That having been said, with no grade crossings near those homes and no horn blowing, they will quickly realize that the PL42’s will slip by rather quietly at about 85 dbm (more quietly than a school bus with a bad muffler at about 100 dbm or their garbage trucks at about 120).
But with no station in South Brunswick currently planned, values will be mostly unaffected by the reactivation of the line. South Brunswick residents as a whole will neither benefit nor suffer from the presence of MOM, unless the mayor changes his tired tune.
Eine Kleine Multi-level responded on 01 Feb 2008 at 3:30 pm #
I assume these same NIMBYs offer no complaints about autmobiles with “trumpet exhausts” and their decibel level…? Also, during the winter, the heating oil trucks and propane trucks would be around, whose decibel levels are often louder than garbage trucks.