MOM scoping hearings to begin

Comments on new rail line will be used to formulate study

By charles w. kim
Staff Writer

By charles w. kim
Staff Writer

The public will be heard next week regarding a study of NJ Transit’s proposed Monmouth-Ocean-Middlesex (MOM) commuter rail line.

Three separate public hearings are scheduled to begin Tuesday, one in each of the three counties that the proposed line will run through.

According to a newsletter from NJ Transit, the "scoping hearings" will allow residents to give their opinions on the line and help shape a draft of an environmental impact study on the $400 million project.

According to the agency’s newsletter, the study will evaluate three different routes to get commuters from Ocean, Monmouth and Middlesex counties to the Northeast Corridor Line or New Jersey Coast Line for connecting service into New York City.

The first hearing is scheduled for Tuesday at the Holiday Inn on Forsgate Drive in Monroe, and will run from 1:30-9 p.m.

The second will take place on Wednesday at the Ramada Inn of Toms River on Route 9 in Ocean County.

The last hearing is scheduled to be held at the Freehold Gardens Hotel off Route 537 in Freehold Township on Dec. 9.

While there is support for the plan in Monmouth and Ocean counties, three Middlesex County towns and the Middlesex Board of Freeholders oppose the plan.

The preferred route would take commuters from Lakehurst north to Dover Township, through Jackson and Lakewood in Ocean County to Farmingdale, Howell, Freehold Township, Manalapan, and Englishtown in Monmouth County, and west through the Middlesex County towns of Monroe, Jamesburg, and South Brunswick.

The service would then connect to the Northeast Corridor Line in the Monmouth Junction section of South Brunswick.

Two other routes, one heading east from Farmingdale to Red Bank, and another heading north to Matawan from Freehold, will also be evaluated, according to the agency.

All three routes would use diesel trains to reach Newark before transferring passengers to electric trains into New York, according to the newsletter.

The study, awarded to SYSTRA Consulting of Bloomfield last year, will also look at the many impacts that the controversial proposal will have on the region.

The study is expected to be completed and distributed for public review sometime in 2004.

The MOM rail plan was included in a 1996 major investment study, but was dismissed in favor of enhanced bus service on the Route 9 corridor.

The idea came up again following the appointment of Jeffrey Warsh as director for NJ Transit in 1999.

Warsh was replaced by former Amtrak head George Warrington earlier this year by Gov. James McGreevey.

During Warsh’s tenure, the state Legislature added a central New Jersey rail link to the state’s Circle of Mobility plan, making the project eligible for federal funding.

That legislation did not specify the route.

According to NJ Transit, the enhanced bus service on Route 9 has not kept up with the rapid growth throughout the region, and the rail route is needed to relieve overcrowding and reduce traffic in the three fastest growing counties.

Currently NJ Transit operates 610 commuter rail trains serving some 221,000 passengers each day.

According to the agency, about one in every four residents in the state lives within walking distance of a train station, but "parts of Monmouth, Ocean and Middlesex counties have few travel choices but automobiles."

"Hours spent delayed in traffic in the region are twice the New Jersey average," according to the agency. This is because the population in the region has grown twice as fast as the state average between 1990 and 2000, it said.

The hearings will give residents the chance to speak on the project or submit comments in writing to clarify the areas that the study needs to look at.

A draft of the scoping document is available on the Internet at www.njtansit.com. NJ Transit has also set up a hot line that people can call if they need additional information at 1-866-MOM-DEIS. Residents may also call that number to schedule an appointment to offer testimony at any of the three hearings.