By Pam Hersh Special Writer
Call me anything, even call me late for dinner, but please, please do not call me “bus.”
As a matter of fact, I think from now on I want to be known only as Dinky Hersh, named for the Princeton Dinky, which apparently is loved with far greater passion and is far more coveted than I ever have been or ever will be.
I came to this profound conclusion after spending about four hours listening to transit-for-Princeton presentations at the Sept. 25 Princeton Future Forum on Transit and at the Sept. 30 Princeton Regional Planning Board meeting.
Hundreds of people packed the Princeton Public Library’s community room (Princeton Future) and the Princeton Township municipal building’s meeting room (Planning Board) to consider several mass transit options for Princeton. Presenters tried to move the audience members to support bus rapid transit (BRT), or the Dinky shuttle train above ground, below ground, picking up ground to Palmer Square, or personal rapid transit (PRT), or light rail, or even a trolley system.
The hours of intense debate never would have occurred if someone simply wanted to ADD one of the above options to the Princeton transit scene. But the trigger for the brouhaha came when one transit proposal suggested eliminating the little train shuttle that runs between Princeton Borough and Princeton Junction and has the funky name “Dinky,” a term for a small locomotive, but colloquially meaning “small, of no consequence.”
Ninety percent (my guesstimate) of the people participating in these transit discussions were passionate Save- the-Dinky advocates — armed with buttons, T-shirts, slogans, and thousands of Web friends declaring their undying devotion.
No one would ever come out in droves to declare their love for me, even though the Dinky and I share some similar characteristics. I am little (sometimes referred to as being of “no consequence”). I am old, albeit younger than the Dinky’s 145 years. I, too, chug along. I am useful to some people most of the time, except when I break down — which occurs with about the same frequency as the Dinky breakdowns. I never make everyone happy. I do not have a funky name, but wear funky clothes and at one time possessed a “Dink” — the beanie hat worn by Douglass College first-year students.
My comments to some of my acquaintances in the audience — about how I love buses, use them frequently, sleep in them, work in them, polish my nails in them, appreciate their bargain fares — made people turn away from me in disgust as though I were a bus, “a fat, ugly, pollution- spewing entity,” in the words of one woman.
I enjoyed the intensely intellectual, well-researched and tech-savvy presentations — I felt as though I had completed a Ph.D. in transportation options. My enjoyment was tempered by sadness, however, and not just because I knew that the Dinky forever would trump me in the popularity category.
I also was distressed by the unfriendly comments about those who had the “gall” to suggest replacing the Dinky with a BRT system. I heard several people in the crowd questioning the motives of NJ Transit employees (“Don’t they have enough to do? Why can’t they leave well enough alone?”) And then there were the mumblings that former Borough Mayor Marvin Reed, who has been the prominent advocate for the BRT /Dinky elimination initiative, “is taking money from NJ Transit … . (he’s) on the NJ Transit payroll.”
NJ Transit to its credit has been working hard and spending considerable monetary resources on planning for a regional bus rapid transit system — an excellent proposal that could make a significant difference in the vehicular congestion in communities along the Route 1 Corridor. NJ Transit’s work has had the strong support of the state’s nonprofit land use and transportation advocacy groups, particularly the Greater Mercer Transportation Management Association, which inspired the NJ Transit BRT initiative several years ago when it funded its own analysis of BRT feasibility.
The NJ Transit proposal always included the Dinky connection as a crucial part of the larger BRT system. The idea was to keep the Dinky and supplement the service with BRT along the Dinky right of way. But NJ Transit, faced with the economic reality of severely limited resources to implement such a service, as well as some major infrastructure challenges in placing the BRT adjacent to the Dinky, was inspired to explore replacing the Dinky with BRT when Princeton University began planning for the redevelopment of the Dinky station area.
For his part, Marvin Reed looks at the BRT as an opportunity for increasing mass transit options throughout downtown Princeton. No matter what happens, no one should disparage the motivation of Marvin Reed, a pre- eminent public servant, who has done nothing other than try to figure out what is best for his community.
I wish the Dinky devotees would simply focus on figuring out how to make the “little train that could” live up to its potential — a train service that would satisfy the travel needs of all commuters, not just NYC commuters.
I propose a campaign to create a Dinky-Do-It-Right system — continuously running, at 10- to 15-minute intervals, from early morning to late at night, seven days a week, serving travelers going south with the same effectiveness as it would serves those going north.
To win support for this proposal, how about a good old-fashioned, grassroots advocacy campaign without PowerPoints and computers? Perhaps all we need is a flashy and funky Save-the- Dinky/Dinky-Do-It-Right Campaign BUS.
A longtime resident of Princeton, Pam Hersh is vice president for government and community affairs with Princeton HealthCare System. She is a former managing editor of The Princeton Packet.

