By Sean Ruppert, Staff Writer
The governor’s announcement Sunday that he was derailing a proposed high-speed rail line through Monmouth Junction has local officials jumping with joy.
Gov. Jon Corzine announced Sunday that a study on a commuter rail line that would have taken commuters to New York, will not include a route through South Brunswick.
”This is the Monmouth-Ocean line, not the Monmouth-Ocean- Middlesex line. I don’t think we need to burden Middlesex County with this,” Gov. Corzine said. “I just want to make that clear, this will be the MO line, not the MOM line.”
The governor’s statement was a relief for South Brunswick Mayor Frank Gambatese.
”I am really pleased. As far as the governor is concerned it is the MO line, because he is dropping the Middlesex,” Mayor Gambatese said. “This line would have affected the quality of life for a lot of people in this area. It will be nice to be able to go to sleep knowing we won’t have to fight this in the morning.”
The announcement came during a town hall meeting at East Brunswick High School to discuss the governor’s plan to restructure state debt by leasing the state’s toll roads to a proposed nonprofit agency that would borrow against future tolls. The plan also calls for toll increases of 50 percent in 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022.
A Monmouth-Ocean rail study has been included in the governor’s previous 11 presentations, a reference that appeared to be about the so-called MOM line. On Feb. 4, the Asbury Park Press and The Home News Tribune published a report claiming the state was ready to commit $250 million for a study and engineering work on the MOM line, a report that officials with the state Department of Transportation would not confirm to the South Brunswick Post.
On Sunday, however, Gov. Corzine said the line will not run through Middlesex County.
The state had been considering three routes for a high-speed commuter line, known as the Monmouth-Ocean-Middlesex transportation study area. All of the routes were to start in Lakewood and eventually connect with the Northeast Corridor line.
The Monmouth Junction option would have headed north to Freehold and west through Monroe, Jamesburg and South Brunswick, where it would connect with the Northeast Corridor line. The other two options – one heading north to Red Bank, the other running through Freehold into Matawan – link with the North Jersey Coast line, which connects with the Northeast Corridor line in Woodbridge.
The Freeholder boards of Monmouth and Ocean endorsed the Monmouth Junction route and the line is supported by state legislators from both counties and the New Jersey Rail Passengers Association.
The Middlesex County Board of Chosen Freeholders and the councils in Jamesburg, Monroe and South Brunswick all officially oppose the line.
The announcement by the governor was good news to many local officials, who had expressed displeasure in the past about having to spend time and money fighting the line.
”It was very good news for us in Monroe Township, as well as those in South Brunswick and Jamesburg,” said Monroe Mayor Richard Pucci. “We just didn’t want something that would impact our area when the majority of the ridership would have been those in Monmouth and Ocean counties. It would not have been fair to our area.”
Jamesburg Mayor Tony LaMantia agreed.
”That’s the best thing we have heard in a long time. Hopefully Monmouth and Ocean counties will sit up and realize that they have to take care of their own problems,” he said.
