Senators, Mayor Back Freight
Tunnel Funding
U.S. Senators Charles Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton,
along with Mayor Bloomberg, vowed last week to work to
secure federal funding for a cross-harbor rail freight
tunnel. Joining long time tunnel proponent Jerrold Nadler
at a City Hall press conference, the three elected leaders
declared their readiness to bring the project to fruition.
Bloomberg Budget Will Pressure the $2 Fare
Although Mayor Bloomberg now says East River tolls will
take too long to set up to help with the New York City’s
immediate fiscal crisis, he plans to move quickly on
other elements of his transportation budget agenda ?
cuts to city support for daily mass transit operations.
London Pricing Wiz Headlines RPA Assembly
Derek Turner, chief architect of London’s congestion
pricing scheme, will be the opening speaker at the Regional
Plan Association’s annual Regional Assembly, to
be held Friday, April 25 in Midtown Manhattan.
I-95 Shoulder Widening Widely Opposed
Last week, all of the dozens of emergency responders,
transit advocates and local elected officials at a public
hearing on Governor Rowland’s “I-95 Commuter
Shoulders Project” denounced the plan.
NJ State Workers Still Await TransitChek
Although the New Jersey legislature and Acting Governor
Donald DiFrancesco approved legislation during 2001 to
offer federal transit commuting tax benefits to state
employees, the measure has gone unimplemented during
Governor James McGreevey’s first 15 months in office.
Who Should Pay for a Meadowlands Metro?
This week, NJ Transit officials began addressing traffic
concerns surrounding the 206-acre Meadowlands “Xanadu” business/entertainment
development plan by outlining a rail link to the site.
LIRR Project Prospects
At a recent forum organized by the Permanent Citizens
Advisory Committee to the MTA, acting LIRR president
Jim Dermody said that in addition to building a third
track along the railroad’s main line, it was also
aiming to electrify the Port Jefferson branch east of
Huntington.
Suffolk Road Expansion: A Subsidy for Dumb Growth
A Tri-State Transportation op-ed in Suffolk Life last
week argued that Suffolk County Executive Robert Gaffney
would be truer to his own policies by calling off the
widening of Portion Road (County Route 16) through the
communities of Lake Ronkonkoma and Farmingville.
