(The following story by Bob Jordan and Larry Higgs appeared on the Asbury Park Press website on May 29, 2009.)
ASBURY PARK, N.J. — Monmouth County’s support for a new rail line to Red Bank appeared completely gone on Thursday, a day after NJ Transit officials claimed to have won Freeholder John D’Amico Jr.’s backing for the proposal.
Instead, D’Amico backpedaled, saying his support for the Red Bank route was only conditional because the transit agency “has made its mind up” against rail options relying on routes through Middlesex County.
Republican Freeholders Lillian G. Burry and Robert D. Clifton said they would not support the Red Bank route and D’Amico failed to gain backup from his two Democratic colleagues at the board meeting at the Hall of Records.
Burry said a Monmouth-Ocean-Middlesex, or MOM, rail project has been talked about for years.
“I myself have been involved with this for four or five years and the Red Bank line was never under consideration,” Burry said. “It would place such a tremendous impact on Red Bank in extra congestion.
“This option does nothing for western part of the county, and that was supposed to be the whole idea of the project. It’s good for Ocean County but not western Monmouth County.”
On Wednesday NJ Transit officials announced “common ground” has been reached between the three counties for Ocean County to Red Bank line, instead of to Monmouth Junction route, at a May 21 meeting attended by D’Amico and officials from Middlesex and Ocean.
That line’s southern terminus would be in Lakehurst, and it would run through Lakewood along existing freight tracks to join the North Jersey Coast Line in Red Bank. It also includes the possibility of a spur between Freehold and Farmingdale, and consideration of better bus service on routes 9 and 18.
D’Amico said he and other officials were to pitch the proposal to their constituencies, and were told that NJ Transit wouldn’t announce an agreement.
“NJ Transit forgot that wasn’t part of the process,” D’Amico said of the agency’s announcement of his support.
Freeholder Director Barbara J. McMorrow, a Democrat, said NJ Transit officials — “because they’re not particularly interested in routes we prefer,” she said — should be asked to explain at a public meeting “why the Red Bank line makes sense and how Red Bank’s concerns about traffic and congestion can be addressed.”
NJ Transit officials declined to comment on D’Amico’s remarks.
“We’re just not going to respond to that,” said Joe Dee, NJ Transit spokesman.
At the May 21 meeting, participants agreed that NJ Transit would draft a statement to the three counties to approve before releasing it to the press and NJ Transit would contact Red Bank officials after the statement was “approved by all” and before it was released to the press, officials said.
However, no formal indiction of support, such as a vote, resolution or letter will be required by NJ Transit from the counties.
“At this point we’ll continue to work with communities we committed to work with,” Dee said. “Ultimately we know there are many stakeholders, including individual communities such as Red Bank and the three counties, who will need to be comfortable with what alternatives advance.”
While Dee said that NJ Transit will continue to work with all parties toward that goal, he would not say what, if any, formal commitment NJ Transit would require from the counties.
Meanwhile, District 12 legislators joined Red Bank officials in opposing the Red Bank route. Red Bank officials are concerned about additional trains blocking crossings at major streets, which happens when trains make station stops there.
“‘This is the least desirable of all of the options that have been looked at,” said Senator Jennifer Beck, R-Monmouth and a Red Bank resident. ‘It’s not just Red Bank, but Shrewsbury, Tinton Falls, Little Silver and Fair Haven that will have to deal with increased traffic and fewer available parking spaces for more riders.”
Beck and her assembly counterparts Caroline Casagrande and Declan O’Scanlon said in a release that without going to to western Monmouth County and into Middlesex, this rail line will have completely missed its purpose.
In Feb. 2008, Gov. Jon Corzine told people at a forum in Middlesex County about the now defeated plan to increase tolls and borrow money against the revenues that the proposed Monmouth-Ocean-Middlesex rail line will not go through Middlesex County, saying it “would be the MO line, not the MOM line.”