Re: (erielack) FW: Lackawanna Cutoff (fwd)

[Lederer73_@_aol.com]

This always comes up.
And its always the same old story.. Odlly enough, when I talk to insiders  at 
NJT they all tell me, it will happen at some point, but not now, and not  
soon.
After so many years of waiting, it seems to always be a 3-4 year interest  
cycle.. It was supposed to be done in 1996 (this was the earliest I had heard)  
then done in 99, then 2002, then 2003, then 2004, then 2007, now I have heard  
2009... 
 The most rediculous part is the "studies"... How many millions and  millions 
of dollars does it take to basically figure out how to cut back  vegetation 
and lay ties and rail on a, for the most part, straight flat  shot thru the 
woods that already has hundreds of thousands of tons of ballast  still on it? 
How many hundreds of thousands does it take to make sure enviornmentally,  it 
will not hurt the occasional buzzard that might want to make a nest on the  
property, or that a nearby Soccer mom's $8 cup of Latte dosent get polluted 
with  nearby diesel fumes from the trains.
      Of course realistically, the line does need  work on the bridges and 
drainage issues, but this is all well known, documented  and studied to death 
over and over. Every few years, another million is  needed to do a new survey to 
update the old survey, that updates the one prior,  and so on... 
Theres also ALOT of opposition in Byram, and other places. 
I used to think it was really coming back, and got tired of thinking  
positive about it after so many years. Thinking negatively isint good either, so  now 
im just neutral. It will come back to service, sometime most definately, but  
who knows when. 
Its all politics.. 
 
- -Pat L

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