News Round-up and Open Thread for Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Congestion pricing (4.00 / 1)

Well, since you asked (what's on my mind, that is):  I heard a blip on the NPR news round-up this morning that said that Corzine is against Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan, because New Jersey Transit is not capable of handling the surge of riders that such a plan would cause (or something to that effect). 

Not being a transportation expert by any stretch, maybe I'm being unfair, but my first thought was "Well, make NJ Transit capable of it."  I sit in traffic every morning and night going into Newark, and I have looked at the train schedules eight ways from Sunday--they do not meet my needs.  I would LOVE to take mass transit, but I need more flexibility.  What would it take to make this happen?  I'm simply asking this as a blue-eyed question, and maybe I'm completely naive, but I am curious...

 

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by: RedDesert @ Tue Jun 19, 2007 at 14:16:28 PM UTC

posturing (4.00 / 1)

One suspects  Corzine took this (rather rigid) position to set up a possible scenario whereby a huge chunk of the "congestion toll" monies would be alloted specifically to improving mass transit for us here in NJ.

still, in an effort to be green, bloomberg has targeted entries into manhattan, all of which happen to origniate in NJ.  so since we have the most to lose (shortterm) I hope corzine is just setting the stage to make sure that we get the best possible deal should these tolls ever become a reality. 

Assuming others like RedDesert would happily not drive (if only the mass-trans were  more accommodating), this economic dis-incentive to drive might be a part-n-parcel with the mass-trans solutions.

activist for hire.

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by: Jay Lassiter @ Tue Jun 19, 2007 at 15:17:33 PM UTC

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i wonder... (0.00 / 0)

...what you mean, red desert, by "flexibility" -- what route would you be taking, and how does it fail you currently?

And, to put my cards on the table, as it were: As a proud car-free new jerseyan, I support the congestion pricing plan. I think it's wrong for corzine to come out publicly against it. It only adds to the prevailing discourse of "Manhattan residents are for it, everyone in the outer boroughs/CT/NJ is against it."

If he's just posturing for cash, that's even worse. That's what meetings are for.

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by: Jon Whiten @ Wed Jun 20, 2007 at 16:45:58 PM UTC

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it's very, very complicated (4.00 / 1)

I'm not going to 'xplain it all 'cause I surely can't. But there are only two tubes carrying passenger trains in and out of Manhattan (not counting the PATH tubes, which are too small to accommodate real trains). There are something like 20 platforms in Penn Station for NJT. (If that). You can only get so many trains through the tunnels and into the station at a given time safely. And among many other problems, a vast section of central NJ is served by the Raritan Valley Line, which enters Penn Station Newark from the west, effectively meaning that if Amtrak and/or the NE Corridor NJT trains are running late, somerville/plainfield/cranford passengers cool their heels, sometimes for hours, in a yard south of the station, before they can cross the southbound tracks and enter the station.

There are incredibly expensive infrastructure improvements that must be made to accommodate more trains. Secaucus Junction was just a start. It's not quite as simple as buying more train cars and putting them on the tracks. We need a new Penn Station in NYC (the PO is slated for this); another tunnel (or two) under the river; and an overpass (or some damn thing) for the Raritan Valley line.

Congestion pricing is a brilliant solution, as long as Mayor Bloomberg remembers that some of that funding needs to go to creating mass transit solutions that cross the Hudson.

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by: denniscmcgrath @ Wed Jun 20, 2007 at 18:56:52 PM UTC

Thanks (0.00 / 0)

Dennis and Jay:

Thanks for your replies--they do explain a little better some of the issues that I know are underlying the improvement of mass transit here in NJ.  I will continue to watch this subject with interest, and I do feel that I need to get better educated on it, so thanks for the head start.

Jon:

I'm on the Peapack-Gladstone branch of the M&E line--they have slower trains than are on the line going into NYC, so everything takes longer.  That's part of it (and yes, I admit, the whiney part of me saying "why can't the trains go faster?").  The other part is that I have two small children.  If the school called me and told me I needed to come pick one of them up in the middle of the day, there is NO train that runs back directly home for me--I would have to take a bus from Summit, I think.

I understand that running empty trains during a non-rush part of the day is not cost-effective--but I wonder (again, perhaps naively) if NJT would benefit from a bit of the "if you build it, they will come" thinking?

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by: RedDesert @ Thu Jun 21, 2007 at 14:14:24 PM UTC

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