In response to the Monmouth- Ocean-Middlesex (MOM) passenger rail project article (“Federal Dollars to Fund Rail Study,” Sept. 1), I wrote a prolight rail letter to the editor in support of MOM passenger rail service in July 2000 while I was a resident of Middlesex County.
Now over 10 years later, we still don’t have passenger rail service on idle railroad tracks, yet we are once again planning to spend a small fortune just to study it.
Passenger rail service on these tracks is not new. A book about Lakewood, published by Arcadia Publishing, shows passengers, trains and the Lakewood railroad station more than 70 years ago. The reason trains make so much sense is because there is so much road congestion in New Jersey, yet there are hundreds of miles of railroad tracks which have no passenger usage.
Using these tracks would make sense since many commuters would only have to drive a short distance to catch a train, thus taking many cars and buses off our roads, thus helping other drivers and the environment.
In addition, rail travel is safer than car/bus travel, and adding train lines could bring commerce to many sleeping towns.
The issue is now funding. New Jersey Transit should be spending its time convincing federal and state officials of the cost/benefit of additional train service instead of making more expensive studies.
Bob Ahlers
Lakewood