(The following editorial appeared on the Asbury Park Press website on February 7.)
ASBURY PARK, N.J. — The $250 million the Corzine administration is pledging for studies and preliminary engineering to help bring a new rail line to Monmouth and Ocean counties is a shameless attempt to curry public favor for Gov. Corzine’s toll hike plan.
The proposed Monmouth-Ocean-Middlesex line has been studied for decades. The long-deferred draft environmental impact study of the MOM project is expected to be ready next year. Corzine could best show his commitment to mass transit in Monmouth and Ocean counties by using his influence to get a decision on a route — preferably the western route — from the three under consideration. Eliminating the other two would expedite the study process.
Ridership surveys and polling of residents of all three counties point to the Lakehurst-to-Monmouth Junction route connecting with the Northeast Corridor in Middlesex County as the clear preference. The other options, from Lakehurst to either Red Bank or Matawan to connect with the North Jersey Coast Line, should be dropped from ongoing and future studies.
Corzine and Transportation Commissioner Kris Kolluri should demonstrate their sincerity in giving residents of Monmouth and Ocean counties what Kolluri called a “viable mass transit option” by convincing county and municipal officials in Middlesex to drop their opposition to the Monmouth Junction route.
The MOM line is one of the top five initiatives in Corzine’s transportation construction program if the toll plan wins approval. But residents of Monmouth and Ocean would be better served if the governor, a former U.S. senator, used his access to federal agencies and influence with NJ Transit to see that the project moves from the study stage to actual construction.
Kolluri said last week the $250 million would be part of a 10-year, $42 billion transportation program funded by proceeds generated by the toll hike plan. The MOM line doesn’t need $250 million “somewhere down the road.” It needs an immediate decision on a route and the swift completion of environmental impact and related studies — regardless of whether Corzine’s plan is ever approved.