Current edition: Mobilizing the Region #472
September 14, 2004
All three states that make up the metropolitan region are desperate for money to invest in transportation.
In an exclusive report in August, WNBC News said the debt brought on by the construction of Route 92 in Middlesex County would take the NJ Turnpike almost 60 years to pay off. The estimate does not include any major repairs or re-paving of the road that will be necessary during that time.
Transportation an Issue for Farrell
Dianne Farrell, First Selectwoman of Westport, is in a close match for Congress against Republican incumbent Christopher Shays (Rep) in Connecticut’s western district. Farrell says Shays has not sufficiently won federal transit funds in his 17 years in Congress, and has even put up billboards on I-95 blaming Shays for the route’s chronic gridlock. As a municipal leader, Farrell has been outspoken about the need for mass transit investment and the futility of various highway expansion plans.
MTA Sitting on Plan to Fix Verrazano Toll
The Staten Island Advance recently received a draft of a consultant study for the MTA that outlines a major overhaul for the Verrazano Narrows Bridge toll plaza. The newspaper’s publication of the study’s recommendations may be significant because the MTA’s draft capital program does not include any work on the plaza, not even an environmental impact statement that could ensure that the overhaul is ready to go in the MTA capital program beginning in 2010.
The Transportation Strategy Board is moving ahead with the New Haven-Hartford-Springfield commuter rail study, which would launch frequent train service in CT’s major north-south corridor. The board will seek public input on the project this fall. It still has many hurdles to cross before construction: ConnDOT aims to have federal New Starts money and $250 million in state funds for the work. Elected officials have strongly supported the project, touting it as a job engine.
OUTRAGE, a Williamsburg-based civic group in Brooklyn, staged another truck action event last week to call attention to trucks driving illegally on residential city streets.
| Each week, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign publishes Mobilizing the Region, or MTR. MTR is a bulletin on New Jersey, New York and Connecticut transportation news and opinion from the perspective of advocacy for sustainable transportation. |
| MTR #472 printable format (PDF) file (requires Adobe Acrobat).
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GO TO INDEX of past issues of MTR, since Fall 1994.ll M
Recent editions:
MTR 471-September 8, 2004
MTR 470-August 17, 2004
MTR 469- August 9, 2004
MTR 468- August 2, 2004
