New tunnel may add riders to MOM Line
Rail service forecast could be affected by ‘one-seat trip’ to NYC
BY SETH MANDEL
Staff Writer
New Jersey Transit is adding a new element to its consideration of a proposed new rail line — the convenience factor.
The agency has been conducting a Draft Environmental Impact Study (DEIS), which includes ridership predictions, for proposed rail service known as the Monmouth-Ocean-Middlesex (MOM) Line, which would serve those three counties.
Dan Stessel, spokesman for NJ Transit, said Monmouth and Ocean County officials requested that the study be expanded to include the effect a proposed new Hudson River tunnel could have on ridership figures.
The tunnel, known as THE (Trans-Hudson Express) Tunnel, would supplement the existing tunnel that connects New Jersey and Manhattan, doubling the capacity of the underground infrastructure.
“[The existing] tunnel has one track in each direction today, so everything that we run into New York goes into one track to the current Penn Station,” Stessel said. “That tunnel is 100 years old.”
Under the current rail proposals, commuters to New York City would have to transfer to another train line at Newark Penn Station.
“But once the tunnel is constructed, it would be possible to take MOM trains and operate them all the way into New York,” Stessel said. “In our discussions with representatives from the three counties, it was concluded that the configuration of the study should be modified so that we’re factoring in a one-seat ride to Manhattan.”
The trains would still stop in Newark and Secaucus, but passengers could stay put.
“A one-seat ride will have an effect on ridership, because it’s a more convenient trip,” Stessel said, adding that the study will quantify just what that effect will be.
NJ Transit has studied three proposals for the renewed rail service. The line commonly referred to as the MOM line would run from Lakehurst to Monmouth Junction, including stops in Monroe and Jamesburg. The two alternatives to the MOM line are a Lakehurst-to-Matawan line and a Lakehurst-to-Red Bank line.
The most recent results of the study brought the Matawan line to the forefront of discussions. The study showed that line would have the largest ridership, with 10,900. According to the report, the Monmouth Junction line, with the highest capital cost estimate, would have a ridership of 9,000.
The Red Bank line, though its capital cost estimate was $130 million less than the Matawan line, had the least ridership, and is now on the back burner, where many officials believe it will stay.
About a year ago, Monmouth County officials released their own ridership estimates, predicting a ridership of 40,666 for the Monmouth Junction line and 22,180 for the Matawan line.
This time, Stessel said, all parties will be working together.
He said officials in Monmouth and Ocean counties hired AECOM Consultants, a national firm with expertise in ridership forecasting, to assist in this round of testing.
“We’ll be working closely with the counties, as they review the forecasting methodology, with the goal of reaching consensus between the three counties,” Stessel said. “Ultimately, our shared goal is to have a final DEIS that the three counties and NJ Transit can get behind.”
But it may be tougher to find a proposal that everybody can get behind.
The Monmouth Junction line would run through several municipalities that do not support the project — among them, Jamesburg and Monroe.
“The train, which is enormously expensive, doesn’t go in the right direction, and it’s not going to be worth it for the disruption and the incredible cost. And the state is so fiscally strapped, to put that kind of money into a capital project, when buses, which are minimal in cost, can easily make up the difference,” said Jamesburg Councilman Otto Kostbar.
Kostbar and Councilwoman Barbara Carpenter have been meeting with the state Department of Transportation in an effort to bring a park-and-ride facility and additional bus stops to Jamesburg, as an alternative to rail service.
“We wouldn’t need the train anyway,” Kostbar said. “But this is a solution to the problem.”
Monroe Councilman Irwin Nalitt agreed with Kostbar’s assessment of the lack of sensibility behind the trains. He said that with the improvements in telecommunications, fewer people will be commuting in the future, choosing instead to work from home.
Also, Nalitt said, many Manhattan-based firms are either moving to, or opening up satellite offices in, northern New Jersey.
“Thousands of jobs are leaving New York and coming to New Jersey,” Nalitt said. “So why do we need another tunnel and more trains going into New York, when the population shift, at least the working population shift, is out of New York, back into New Jersey?”
Nalitt added that the rail service, especially the tunnel, will take too long for these studies to still be relevant.
“By the time the tunnel is built, the people that they’ve surveyed will be dead or retired, so the figures will be meaningless,” he said.
But Stessel said all facets of the project will happen sooner, rather than later.
A draft of the DEIS is currently being reviewed by the Federal Transit Administration. Stessel said NJ Transit expects the DEIS to be completed within weeks, at which point public hearings on the project will be held.
Construction on the tunnel itself could begin in 2009, and be completed in 2015, Stessel said.
Stessel added that the two projects are not dependent on each other, and that the tunnel will not delay the progress of the MOM line.
“What’s changing is the study, not necessarily the scope of the project or the construction,” Stessel said. “The tunnel will happen as a separate, stand-alone project.”
Stessel said that officials, recognizing the fact that the tunnel project, also known as Access to the Region’s Core, has advanced significantly since the start of the MOM Line studies, will recalculate the ridership numbers and study the environmental impact of running the MOM trains into and out of New York.
“That will be possible, thanks to the tunnel project,” Stessel said.
The current Raritan Valley Line originates and terminates at Newark Penn Station. When the tunnel is completed, the line will extend into New York Penn Station. Once completed, the MOM trains, or those of either of the alternative routes, would do the same.
If the MOM Line, or one of its alternatives, gets the necessary approval to move forward, the additions to the DEIS would only have delayed it a matter of months.
But Stessel would not speculate as to the proposed train lines’ chances of coming to fruition.
“We’re moving forward with this federal process, following the guidelines set forth by the Federal Transit Administration,” Stessel said. “In terms of characterizing the likelihood of certain aspects of it or the entire project, I would just decline to do that.”
Nalitt, however, expressed his doubt for the MOM Line.
“I don’t think it’s going to come through Jamesburg and Monroe,” Nalitt said. “I just can’t see it happening.”
Nalitt said he expected discussion on the Monmouth Junction line to end after the initial study showed that the Matawan line would cost less, yet have more riders.
“When that happened, I thought this whole issue was dead as far as we were concerned,” Nalitt said. “It reared its ugly head again.”
But state legislators from Monmouth County last year contended that the residents of Matawan and the surrounding area were opposed to that option, and went so far as to file a formal request with NJ Transit to have the Matawan and Red Bank alternatives eliminated from consideration. That request was denied.
In March 2005, when the study revealed Matawan to be a viable option, Assemblyman Michael Panter said that NJ Transit had ruled out Matawan seven years prior to the DEIS, and he called even the consideration of putting rail service through Matawan “a drastic about-face.”
Panter had also said that many homeowners in Monmouth County who live near the Henry Hudson Trail paid a premium on their homes with the understanding that the trail, formerly a freight train rail line, would remain a walking path. If the Matawan line is built, that path would be used.
Panter said the path was leased to Monmouth County by NJ Transit, but the contract included a reverter clause allowing NJ Transit to resume control of the path for use for a passenger rail service.
And while Panter requested that the Monmouth Junction line be the only line considered, that line may face the strongest opposition — in the form of the U.S. National Park Service.
In June 2005, Kristen Stevens, grant manager for the park service’s American Battlefield Protection Program, sent a letter to NJ Transit and Monmouth County freeholders outlining her concerns for the project.
The concern was that the Monmouth Junction line would run on existing tracks that bisect Monmouth Battlefield State Park in Manalapan. Stevens wrote that the battlefield is currently on the National Register of Historic Places, and has achieved National Historic Landmark status. It is one of only three Revolutionary War battlefields in New Jersey with inclusion on both lists.
Additionally, the park is rated a Priority 1, Class A Revolutionary War battlefield, a status reserved for only the most historically significant and most endangered sites.
Area environmental groups and battlefield restoration groups, such as the Battlefield Restoration and Archaeological Volunteer Organization (BRAVO), also got involved in the renewed campaign to preserve the battlefield.
The rail service proposal has found unflinching support, however, from many Ocean County residents and officials, who would lose out on the renewed rail service if it cannot run through the other counties.
In fact, last May, the Central Jersey Rail Coalition (CJRC) organized a rally in support of the proposed rail service. The rally took place in Lakewood, once home to the famed Blue Comet rail line, which offered commuter service from Lakewood to New York City.
Stessel said all those issues, including the concerns associated with the battlefield, will be taken into account.
He said all the impacts — historical, environmental and customer service-oriented — will be studied for all three proposals, and officials are committed to completing this as soon as possible.
But Nalitt said the agency should be saving the money being spent on all the studies, money that he feels the state and federal transportation departments do not have.
“And why they continue to press forward with this is beyond me,” Nalitt said.
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