Your weekly guide to heroic and villainous actions in tri-state transportation and development.
Winners
New Jersey Department of Transportation Commissioner Jim Simpson—This week, Commissioner Simpson called for greater federal investment in New Jersey’s ailing transit system. Washington isn’t the only place that can help, though: in the midst of the state’s budget season, Trenton legislators must work to get NJ Transit the funding it needs.
Congressman Jerry Nadler (D-NY)—While the Senate passed its transportation bill on Wednesday, the deeply flawed House version remains bogged down. Congressman Nadler has been a leader in the effort to restore funding for public transportation in the legislation and is a lead sponsor of amendments that would protect local decision-making and discourage bureaucracy at transit agencies.
MTA Chairman Joe Lhota—After the New York Senate passed a budget resolution that shorted the MTA $770 million in capital funding and denied a $7 billion increase in the agency’s bond cap, the MTA chief sent Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) a letter detailing the devastation that such cuts would cause. Upstate manufacturing, construction jobs, federal funding, and the entire transit system’s state of good repair are at stake.
New York State Senator Martin Dilan (D-Brooklyn)—At this week’s budget hearings, Senator Dilan said that any bonding authority or budget item related to the Tappan Zee Bridge replacement should come with a requirement that bus rapid transit be included.
Losers
New York Senate—Once again, suburban senators have led the charge against transit funding. The upper chamber’s recently-passed budget resolution threatens the health of the state’s largest transit system, and, in doing so, jeopardizes New York’s rebuilding economy—Crain’s Insider recently reported that the MTA’s 2005-2009 Capital Program generated 130,000 jobs.
New York State Thruway Authority Executive Director Tom Madison—Two weeks after the Thruway Authority put out a misleading press release about the Tappan Zee Bridge replacement project, its executive director wrote that putting transit on the bridge is an “unaffordable and impractical demand from mass transit advocates.” But the demand is being made by more than transit wonks: residents, elected officials, labor unions, environmentalists, and good government groups have all pointed out the economic, environmental, and mobility benefits that would come with transit in the I-287 corridor.
