As a Westchester, NY resident, I am delighted with Governor Christie! His decision to kill ARC just increased my property value! Now all those people looking for homes in NJ Transit communities will give-up and move to a Metro North community!

Too bad the RPA report uses the same flawed methodology that NJT has apparently used to sell so-called improvements to an unsuspecting public in the past. If they dropped the bogus ‘initial wait time’ element that attempts to factor in the benefit of additional rush-hour trains, I would bet that the estimated time savings would probably be far lower.

I’m still waiting for my promised travel time savings from Montclair to NY, NJT! How much was spent on the Montclair Connection project again, and for what? I used to be able to get to work faster via Hoboken and PATH before Midtown Direct, and the long-suffering passengers living west of Montclair really got screwed. If you’re wondering why more NJT customers don’t support ARC, TSTC, here’s your answer: NJT’s poor track record in delivering on previous promises doesn’t exactly put us in the mood to gamble with billions of tax dollars on what will inevitably amount to half-measures.

I hate to say it, but after having been a long-time advocate of ARC, I too see no way NJ taxpayers should fund the project. It will never be done on time or budget. The promised “time savings” from Midtown Direct NEVER materialized for me either. In fact, an express train to Hoboken and PATH can get me to 32nd and 6th faster than many Midtown Direct trains and walking. FORGET the schedules – they are meaningless. Is a one seat ride better? Absolutely, but maybe let PANYNJ spent more on getting me across the Hudson, whether through an improved and expanded PATH or ferries. Here’s another bottom line – I commute to NYC and give NY State my tax dollars. Why in the world would we subsidize that? To raise house values? Please..

Since Gov Christie is anti-rail and has no plans to complete the tunnel since one is already in use there was a suggestion in the Octiber 14 NY Post by ex-NYC Transportation Commissioner Sam Swartz of using the NJ Funds to complete a similar 1923 plan by the B&O to link St George, SI with Brooklyn. Unlike the NJ Plan the B&O Plan was a tunnel to be used by Both their SIRT Trains and Freight trains as well. This would have allowed B&O to operate through freigtr service from Elizabethport/Jersey City to Statin Island and brooklyn and SIRT trains into Brooklyn

The new plan today would be to construct a tunnel from Clifton, SI into Brooklyn and connect with the present R Line or the comming Second Avenue Subway at Hanover Square.

This would complete the link to NJ as MTA already operates the S89 Route to and from St Geotge and Bayonne, NJ and connect with NJ Transit Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Line

The time-saving calculations also fail to factor in the conversion of express trains to locals that inevitably seems to follow Midtown Direct implementation.

If I had any faith that NJT could actually deliver the level of service they promise for ARC, I might give them the benefit of the doubt on what seems to me to be an incredibly short-sighted project. Running inbound trains on time on their own pieces of railroad, and getting them to the Corridor for their scheduled slot into NY, would be a start. So would not being delayed at Penn Station by NJT equipment problems 3-4 times a week (“door light, check the doors!”). Even with their own private tunnel into NY, I can’t see those problems going away. I almost want to see ARC built that way, just to see what NJT does when they can’t point fingers at Amtrak for their lousy service.

It may be Christie knows more about transportation planning than he’s given credit for. It was Christie who badgered the Port Authority into buying the Greenville Yards in Jersey City with the aim of restoring high-volume lighter service from Manhattan for the first time in years. And Fast: by 2013. This will get a large number of trucks off the Hudson crossings and save considerable man hours, and do it quite cheaply.

It may also be that Christie was behind getting Port Authority to buy the Bayonne Military Ocean Terminal located in the finest natural harbor in the world. This move was essential, as we have been diverting traffic to the St. Laurence and other ports by avioding using New York Harbor. These are about the only things the Port authority has done planning-wise in the past thirty years that are right. But NJ Transit is worse:

The latest environmental document on the Rube Goldberg Connecting Loop says top speed will be 30 mph. But that’s on the straight part. It’ll be considerably slower on the curves, especially the one right by the NE Corridor where it enters the line. What are they gonna do, put a stop sign?

Then every train’s got to stop at Lautenberg Sta. anyway – or run by the platforms a low speed – unless they get platform barriers which is another half billion. Likely they’ll stop, because trains from Bergen-Main and Pascack are never full like the ones on the NEC are by the time they leave Lautenberg.

Given the slowness of the loop (quite aside from the fact that it’s a ludicrous idea) it should be possible to walk just as quickly in the station at certain times, and others you’ll still have to make up for time lost getting to some kind of connection from 20 stories down in NY. The connecting loop will have devastating effects on both Lautenberg and Hoboken stations, but schedules will remain essentially the same.