EDITORIAL: Rail study needs to also consider impact on community
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During the Oct. 28 Planning Board "zoning game" meeting, many residents had questions and concerns about the placement of a commuter railroad station, currently proposed near the Amwell Road railroad crossing.
We’re not sure where else a station could go it does need to be alongside the tracks and ideally, near a major road but a bigger question we have is if the line will ever be activated.
Apparently, the township also wants to know.
Talks of reopening the old West Trenton Line, commuter rail service between the Raritan line in Bridgewater and Ewing, with connections to Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority service to Philadelphia, have been underway for more than a decade.
Tuesday, the Township Committee approved a resolution in support of a county study of the service’s feasibility which one supposes may come to a different conclusion than NJ Transit’s studies on the need for rail service here.
NJ Transit says studies they’ve done just don’t find enough demand to justify the costs of starting up service.
It could be, of course, that opening rail service from the Raritan line to Trenton and beyond is like widening Route 206 sort of a "build it and they will come" situation.
Many residents are wondering, also, if NJ Transit service launch another residential building boom in Hillsborough. And, would rail service reduce or draw more traffic to Amwell Road?
These are some questions the township also needs to answer for the public.
Many people already commute from the Somerville station and would undoubtedly appreciate service closer to their homes.
But it takes a lot more riders than that to justify the expense of rail service which may be a price Hillsborough is not really ready to pay.
Just as we are preparing to enjoy the benefits of a "Main Street" to be made possible by the elimination of commuter traffic on Route 206 thanks to the bypass, should we be adding traffic back in with a train station?
We don’t know, but we hope any study of the service will consider not only the gains in convenience and service, but the costs in development and traffic.