On Friday, May 9, 2014 4:05:24 PM UTC-4, Jishnu Mukerji wrote:   
      
   > Looking at the attendance at the RPA, it would appear that if anything at   
   all happens regarding Gateway, it will happen in spite of New Jersey, and not   
   due to New Jersey. Which is unfortunate.    
      
   Thanks for posting this information.  Interesting read.   
      
   In my humble opinion, the outlook is gloomy because everyone is broke.  New   
   Jersey's bond rating is bad and faces deficits.  I think its transportation   
   trust fund is broke--a cheap gasoline tax doesn't help, but there is zero   
   political will to raise it.     
   Likewise, the Fed trust fund is also broke, and the Feds too are broke.  There   
   have been media articles about the desperate need for repairs to the   
   Interstate system with no money to do it.  Heck, just cleaning up and   
   repairing after Sandy has been    
   costly.   
      
   As the article mentioned, there are various stakeholders who won't cooperate.    
   (Heck, remember the fury of the NJ Legislature over building a maintenance   
   yard in Morrisville, PA?  It took ten years to build the yard.)   
      
   Sometimes I think we'd be better off it there was a single Pennsylvania   
   Railroad owning its NYC infrastructure (including the LIRR), and receiving   
   subsidies.  It seems many service problems are exacerbated on account of the   
   in-fighting between the    
   various NEC operators.   
      
   Another potential troublesome issue is climate change and the resultant nasty   
   storms that are enormously expensive.  Aside from Sandy, this past winter was   
   a bitch, and we had Irene and other severe storms.  Will we have another Sandy   
   in only ten years?     
   (We just had flooding near Philadelphia from heavy rains, and SEPTA suffered   
   damages).   
      
   Also, should we bite the bullet and suffer from some North River Tunnel   
   closures now to do some serious repair--so the corrosion mentioned in the   
   report does not get worse?  Not a total shutdown, but maybe a compromise to   
   lengthen the existing work    
   window.  Perhaps during certain off peak hours we could run trains to Hoboken   
   and use ferries or express buses with dedicated lanes.  Or, maybe terminate   
   off peak trains at Secaucus and use express buses with dedicated lanes.   
      
   --- SoupGate/W32 v1.03   
    * Origin: LiveWire BBS -=*=- UseNet FTN Gateway (1:2320/1)