To the editor:
Mayor Frank Gambatese is correct when he states that a train station should not go forward unless the traffic problems are addressed. I would like to voice my observations because I have lived and worked in this township for more than 60 years.
There is a right-of-way running from the main line of the railroad where there was a railroad station facing three different sets of rails. This was called Monmouth Junction Station.
There is a right of way that was the first railroad in New Jersey and in the country, it curves from the former station location north then west, crossing New Road and then, travels west where is crosses Route 1 and proceeds into Kingston, where it then parallels Lake Carnegie crossing under the dinky line and the light rail to Camden all at one location.
These routes have many possibilities as a light rail line or a bus only route.
The abundance of open lands along the route means ample parking for passengers of the main line and the MOM line and Trenton station.
Don’t get me wrong. Those who purchased homes next to the rail line to Monmouth County can be protected, the lesson learned, comes from the barriers erected west of New Road on route 522, we all paid for them with our local taxes.
NJ Transit should protect the homeowners with aesthetically looking sound barriers. There is a dividend in that housing near a railroad station; the property values increase 20 percent. There are statistics to back this fact up.
Locally, there is only one building of historic value remotely near the former Monmouth Junction station and that is the Long View farmhouse, which dates to the 1700s.
How can something be done to include the surrounding towns and their concerns?
Do what was done in North Jersey, form a transit committee that promotes rail transit and financing as they did in Bergen County. Their efforts produced the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail system that runs along the northern side of the Hudson River, they are also working on a new tunnel under the Hudson River.
Harold Switzgable
Monmouth Junction
