(The following article by Bill Bowman was posted on the Asbury Park Press website on January 11.)
ASBURY PARK, N.J. — Leaders of a citizens’ group working to restore inland rail service in Monmouth and Ocean counties stepped up their public campaign Monday to force state officials to get the decades-old project moving.
If some progress isn’t made soon, the group’s leaders told the Asbury Park Press editorial board Monday, escalating costs and loss of rights of way for the line to new housing developments could scuttle the project.
“Let’s get it going,” said William F. Braden, the coalition’s chairman. “It’s time.”
Compounding the problem is the fact that a draft environmental impact study on the three proposed railroad routes was supposed to have been completed by 2003 but is still not done. The expectation is that it will not be completed until later this year, members of the group said.
That’s too long, the group’s leaders said, considering that the proposal to reinstate rail service in Monmouth and Ocean counties has been kicking around since the 1970s.
“Should the job be done? Of course it should,” said Bernard Gindoff of the Central Jersey Rail Coalition. “Anyone who drives the parkway knows that.”
Dan Stessel, a spokesman for NJ Transit, which is overseeing the project, said the agency is “moving as expeditiously as possible.”
At issue is the long-standing proposal to create the Monmouth-Ocean-Middlesex commuter line, also known as MOM. Three separate route are being considered, each of which begin in Lakehurst and go through Lakewood. The most popular proposal among Monmouth and Ocean officials would have the line join the Northeast Corridor tracks in the Monmouth Junction section of South Brunswick in Middlesex County, for service north to New York and south to Philadelphia. A second proposed route would meet the North Jersey Coast Line in Red Bank, and a third would connect with that line in Matawan.
Proponents say the rail line would open new markets in the region, would provide Shore area commuters with more options to get to work and would be a positive factor in the fight to keep Shore area military bases active.
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The main sticking point to moving the project along is a draft environmental impact study now being prepared by Bloomfield-based Systra Consulting, which was hired by NJ Transit several years ago. The report has so far cost about $3.2 million of the $4.6 million contract, Stessel said.
Stessel said changes in the study’s scope and a requirement by the Federal Transit Administration that a historical analysis of the lines be included in any reports submitted for consideration have delayed its completion.
“When the project was conceived,” Stessel said, “we were planning on offering two alternatives. Now there are three. With that third alternative, you have that many more station sites to consider. Only after the station sites have been considered can you move on to the environmental, historic and ridership analyses.”
He said the third alternative — the Matawan route — was added after the Systra contract was signed.
The process of looking at the station sites, Stessel said, “is just about done.”
Still, said Gindoff of the Central Jersey Rail Coalition, “this is getting frustrating. It seems like we’re playing a stalling game.”
Shore area politicians say they, too, want to see the project moved along.
State Assemblyman Michael J. Panter Jr., D-Monmouth, said it is “unfortunate that a new line hasn’t been completed al-ready.”
Panter said he favors the Mon-mouth Junction line and would not favor a new line into Red Bank.
“A new line going through Red Bank, Shrewsbury and Tinton Falls would have strong opposi-tion and would be a poor use of taxpayer funds,” he said. “We have an existing commuter line already serving those commu-nities, while western Mon-mouth continues to be under-served.”
State Sen. Andrew R. Ciesla, R-Ocean, a longtime proponent of the rail line, said he, too, is frustrated with the pace of the project.
“I can’t for the life of me under-stand what is taking so long to produce that recommendation,” he said. “We can’t road build our way out of the congestion we have in Monmouth and Ocean counties.”
Braden said his group also be-lieves the Monmouth Junction route is the best alternative, despite opposition to that route from Middlesex County offi-cials.
But, he added, “to really serve the region, we need both.”