(The following story by Chelsea Michels appeared on the Asbury Park Press website on November 8.)
JACKSON, N.J. — If it were up to Daniel Green, there would be more passenger railroads in Ocean County, even winding their way through Jackson.
Green, 66, of Jackson, who is a member of several local and statewide railroad organizations, also is a cantor with Congregation B’nai Israel in Toms River.
He was one of the founders of the Central Jersey Rail Coalition in January 1997, which was created to bring commuter rail service back to Ocean County.
Central Jersey Rail Coalition, along with New Jersey Association of Railroad Passengers and the Ocean County Transportation Board, where he is a member of both, all work toward increasing passenger rail service in the Shore area, specifically focusing on the Monmouth-Ocean-Middlesex (MOM) Passenger Rail Project.
If the Monmouth Junction alternative of the MOM railroad was approved, which would take several years just to approve, it would start in Lakehurst and run through Manchester, Jackson, Toms River, Lakewood, Farmingdale, Howell, Freehold, Freehold Township, Manalapan, Englishtown, Monroe Township, Jamesburg and South Brunswick. It would link with the Amtrak Northeast Corridor line in New Brunswick, giving riders the opportunity to go from Lakehurst to Penn Station in New York City, he said.
“There’s no room for more highways,” Green said, “and the rail line is already here.”
He said that by refurbishing the rail line in Lakehurst and at the other proposed sites, residents without cars would be given the opportunity to travel both north and west.
“Hundreds of thousands of people who cannot drive are desperately in need of public transportation,” Green said, adding that having a rail line through towns such as Lakehurst and Jackson could boost the economy and entice people from north New Jersey to come visit Ocean and Monmouth counties more frequently.
Green said there are three alternatives being discussed for the MOM rail line, including the Monmouth Junction Alignment, the Freehold-Matawan Alignment and the Red Bank Alignment.
Although the Monmouth Junction line is the most expensive one planned, estimated at about $800 million, he said it could attract many more passengers than the other two alternatives.
“The other two alignments would not serve people (who want to go south as well as north) at all,” he said.
Although he works with several different rail lines through his organizations, Green said that MOM is his primary focus.
Al Stokley, 65, of Toms River, a railroad historian and founding member of the Central Jersey Rail Coalition, said that no passenger trains have run on the Lakehurst railroads since April 1953.
He said the coalition, which was started by Stokley, Green and several other members, was created after a 1996 meeting with NJ Transit officials, in which bringing back passenger rail service was discussed.