Rail on Goethals Bridge Subject of Meeting
At the December 7 Goethals Interagency and Public Interest Working Group meeting, Goethals Bridge Twin Project Manager Dennis Vignola announced that the Port Authority study of the feasibility of rail transit over the new span has been completed, and the outcome is affirmative -- there will be space and capacity in terms of loading, etc. to include rail on the new bridge. Recall that Campaign members and bike enthusiasts, environmentalists, growth management and other citizen activists pounded the Port Authority on this subject at a September 28 meeting. The Port Authority is not saying there will be rail over the new span, but it's a start. The Port Authority recently wrote to the U.S. Coast Guard, the agency developing the DEIS, requesting that the preferred alternative be revised to include capacity for rail transit. The working group has finished surveying the field on each side of the Arthur Kill and has now broken into four subgroups: transit, freight movement, land use and pricing. The transit group is moving ahead first with definition of its work plan. The land use group will be spearheaded by the Campaign. The DEIS is now slated for release in April, 1995. Contact Tri-State Transportation Campaign, 212-777-8181.
