Passenger Trains > $1.25M study for NJT "MOM Line" approved (US DOT)

April 24 news blurb from RAILWAY TRACK & STRUCTURES Magazine:
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U.S. DOT OK’s 
$1.25-million for study of NJ Transit MOM Line

New Jersey Transit will receive a $1.25 million for its proposed Monmouth, Ocean, Middlesex Passenger Rail Line, said New Jersey Congressmen Chris Smith and Jim Saxton. 





The MOM Passenger Rail Line is expected to relieve traffic congestion in the region, the fastest growing area in central New Jersey. The MOM Line would extend passenger rail service from New York City, Newark and other urban areas of North Jersey into Central New Jersey, according to state and local planners. 




In March, Smith and Saxton asked New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine to reconsider his plan to eliminate the Middlesex portion of the MOM Passenger Rail Line. Smith and Saxton helped authorize the project in 2005 legislation that allowed them to seek appropriations over six years. 





The final potential stop of the MOM Line would be Lakehurst Borough, which is home to a U.S. Navy base, the Lakehurst Naval Air Engineering Station, the largest employer in Ocean County.

The MOM is following the same trajectory as the Lackawanna Cut-Off project.

Congressmen supporting the project get a grant here, a study there, an environmental summary now and then. Enough to create a few jobs for engineering firms and keep hope alive. NJ Transit has no current plans to lay an inch of ttrack on the line, and no money to do it. Even if they want to, which they don't.

The Lackawanna project has been getting a steady stream of federal pork since 1992, and they aren't any closer to running trains from Port Morris to Slateford than they were in 1992. I suspect this will be petty much the same as long as Smith and Saxton have enough seniority to gain an earmark or two.

They could get the Red Bank line from Lakehurst to Red Bank via the North Jersey Coast Line up and running very easily. Tracks in place and Monmouth and Ocean counties + NJT would be right behind the project. But until all parties come together on the true MOM route - linking Lakehurst to Monmouth Junction via Farmingdale and out to the Northeast Corridor. The problem is no one can come to an agreement on the later route and the first route is not serving enough population centers. Plus on the later route, you'd have to do a build out and more of an overhaul to the rails etc. So it is really interesting, but they need to keep the study money flowing or else the project will slip further out of reach - that's the sad part of it. The other sad part is, New Jersey bought up a lot of ROW from the "fallen flag" railroads if you will (i.e. Central RR of NJ, PRR, Reading, DL&W, Conrail etc.) back in the 1970s and now these ROW's lay dormant. The vision was proper in the 1970s - "perhaps some day we'll need commuter passenger trains or freight trains on these tracks" but NJ has gotten so badly developed, even development near the abandoned ROW that it is going to make it that much more difficult to try and reactivate the lines - if that ever comes to be. I think NJDOT has an obligation to almost erect some signage along rail routes they are currently studying for potential passenger rail reactivation. And it is just that - reactivating passenger rail service on lines that used to have it!