Staff and volunteers with the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, Regional Plan Association, NJ Future, and Environment New Jersey gave out thousands of leaflets today, asking commuters to call Gov. Christie’s office or send him a letter through www.WeNeedARC.com to tell him they support the Access to the Region’s Core project. The ARC rail tunnel between New Jersey and NYC would significantly increase rail capacity between the states, drive future economic growth, shorten commute times, reduce air pollution and road congestion, and increase property values in New Jersey.
“We must tell Governor Christie how important ARC is to New Jersey’s future,” TSTC’s Kate Slevin said in a release. “If the governor stops the project now, the costs to New Jersey’s residents, economy, and environment will be felt for generations.”
The groups leafleted at Maplewood, Newark Penn Station, Princeton Junction, and Secaucus and brought oversized postcards addressed to the governor, describing the benefits of ARC, and concluding “We Need ARC!”
The postcards, now covered with signatures, will be delivered to Trenton on Thursday. The groups also placed ads in several New Jersey papers which warned that “Cancelling the new Hudson river rail tunnel will dig an even bigger hole for New Jersey.”
Several elected officials appeared with the groups to support the tunnel, including State Assemblymembers Albert Coutinho, Linda Greenstein, and Mila Jasey; Newark City Councilman Augusto Amador, and West Windsor Mayor Shing-Fu Hsieh.
Gov. Christie is expected to make a decision on the future of the ARC project by the end of this week. In the meantime, NJ residents can e-mail the governor at www.WeNeedARC.com.
Photos (from top): NJ Future, Tri-State Transportation Campaign.
[…] Commuters, Workers, and Electeds Rally To Save ARC Tunnel (Transpo Nation, MTR) […]
They have all bought into the badly designed plan which has a longer tunnel than needed so that the line could avoid Weehawken, It does nothing to ease the potential problem of one or both of the current tunnels being shut down for whatever reason. The 12 million dollar dual modes are an unknown quantity because they are the first of their kind. The only thing going for them is that the Bombardier French AGC dual mode 25KV AC/diesel-electric multiple unit cars seem to be working well but who knows if the technology scales up? There are alternatives that serve the current Penn Station. There are things that can be done to improve the passenger flow.
It seems as if New York area transportation planning is designed to maximize cost while minimizing benefit. I would have killed the current ARC plan and seriously looked at whether NJT rail staff are capable of planning and running the system.
[…] Groups to Gov. Christie: New Jersey Needs ARC! by Tri-State Transportation Campaign Yesterday’s leafleting for the Access to the Region’s Core rail tunnel between NYC and New Jersey was not the only […]
[…] Also today, representatives from Tri-State, the Regional Plan Association, Environment New Jersey, and NJ Future delivered thousands of messages in support of the tunnel to Trenton from http://www.WeNeedARC.com, written petitions, letters, and the giant postcards from Tuesday’s station leafleting. […]
We do need Access to the Regions Core- Northeast Corridor, the Lackawanna Cutoff and other NJT lines need the 2 additional tunnels / tracks to Penn Station – not to way below Macy’s basement.
I wondered how this got so messed up, then I found that the PANYNJ was all over it. Their the agency that had only one mission – to build a freight tunnel to NYC from Jersey. After several decades, we have some horrible airports, the train to the train to the plane at one NYC airport, no mass transit to the 2nd NYC airport, a Trade Center that was not properly built (IMHO) and is now a sign of NYC’s surrender to terrorism.
Its time to get some true transportation experts to redo this properly!
If the Governor cancels the ARC project, the project sponsors will be required to repay the Federal funds thus far invested in the project. New Jersey’s share of this probably runs well into the hundreds of millions.