Group wary of train station and the possible negative affects it could bring to the community.
By: Joseph Harvie
A citizens group calling itself Concerned Citizens Against a Rail Station is forming to oppose a potential rail station near Route 1 between Major Road and Deans Lane.
In addition, the group says a survey being authorized by the township is flawed and not likely to produce information useful to the township.
The group’s organizers, Henderson Road residents Frank Chrinko and Lew Schwartz, say the train station would increase congestion on local roads, bring crime and attract more development in the township. Henderson Road is one block over and at one point runs parallel to Deans Lane.
The group formed in response to a survey of township residents being conducted by the Township Council that Mr. Chrinko and Mr. Schwartz say is flawed because it is not a scientific sampling.
The survey, which was mailed to residents this week and is available at the township Web site (www.sbtnj.com/data/survey_transit/index.asp), asks about residents’ commuting habits: where respondents work, how they get to work and typical travel times. It also asks whether respondents are aware that the township is considering a station, how strongly they would support a rail station and why. It also asks respondents how frequently they would use the station and for what reasons.
The results will be compiled by the Greater Mercer Transportation Management Association of Princeton, said township Public Affairs Coordinator Ron Schmalz.
The Greater Mercer TMA also conducted a voluntary study in 2000 to determine possible sites for a park-and-ride facility, interest in a shuttle service, a rail station and other commuter preferences. The study cost the township approximately $5,000 and began in April 2000. Results were issued in October 2001.
Mayor Frank Gambatese said Wednesday that the new survey was put together as the first step in attempting to gauge the public’s opinion on a train station.
"They are 42,000 people in South Brunswick now," he said. "We have a real transportation problem in town and we want to be able to at least give the people an opportunity to have input as to whether or not they want a train station or not."
He said there will be several other steps taken before the township decides if a station is needed. The Township Council has accepted a $75,000 grant that will be used to study the proposed station along the Northeast Corridor line between Deans Lane and Sand Hills Road.
"We have a grant we received and that grant requires us to have public hearings," Mayor Gambatese said. "We are so far from a decision on whether it is good or bad for the town."
Mr. Chrinko, who was mayor in the 1960s, said he was concerned about the survey because it is too short and does not ask the kinds of questions that need to be asked.
"First of all it is very brief," Mr. Chrinko said. "It has one significant question and that that is ‘are you in favor of a rail station?’ "
He said it did not define what a rail station would look like in South Brunswick, how it would serve the township or how it would affect the township.
Mr. Chrinko, who commuted to New York for 23 years, said the survey is not scientific. It is available on the Internet and will be mailed to every household in the township, he said. This will not create a true sample of people who would use the rail station, he said.
"The people who commute would be the most likely to respond because they have a vested interest in the station," Mr. Chrinko said. "No one else but township residents are being polled. How about people from the region, and the region could be a 15- or 20-mile radius. They would be very important because most people using this rail station would be from outside South Brunswick."
Mr. Chrinko said the station was not needed and that it would be a detriment to the community.
"These stations, they all have an element of crime," Mr. Chrinko said. "Parking lots of that size attract an awful lot of crime."
Mr. Chrinko said if the train station is built in the area being discussed it would generate traffic not only from within the town but from the west and especially the east of the township.
"(Traffic) circulation comes from every direction," Mr. Chrinko said. "That doesn’t even include traffic from the east of the township from the Jamesburg and East Brunswick areas that will affect each of those country roads like Fresh Ponds Road and Deans Rhode Hall Road."
Mr. Chrinko said the train station also would make the land around it more desirable to developers. He said it happens around most train stations including Metropark in Edison.
"There are no less than three Garden State Parkway exits immediately adjacent to Metropark, and even with three exits, the Metropark complex is jammed with traffic every single morning," Mr. Chrinko said. "That is not because of the rail station it is because of the development around the station."

