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(erielack) Re: Commuting and taxation

Gary R. Kazin
DL&W Milepost R35.7
Rockaway, New Jersey


- --- On Mon, 6/22/09, etmontgomery_@_verizon.net <etmontgomery@verizon.net> wrote:

> I would speculate that there maybe close to
> half, maybe more of the population that travels less than
> five miles to work. I've made sure I have done that
> through most of my professional life.

Maybe you managed this feat, but currently two-thirds of the adult population of Sussex County, NJ, leaves the county to go to work.  The average trip is 30 miles, with many going 40-70 miles to New York City.  There are only three routes out: NJ 15, NJ 23, and US 206.

There once was rail service...

> Commuter rail is difficult to operate in a cost-effective
> manner. It would be nice to float some tax free bonds to
> fund it, but they would never ever be paid off.

Yes, payment of bonds requires the service to earn revenue in excess of its costs.  Alternatively, the bonds are repaid from taxes.

> When Erie, Lackawanna, Pennsylvania, New York Central, CNJ,
> PRSL, and others handled enough freight to cover costs, they
> could absorb the commuter losses. It might have been a better
> idea for New Jersey and other states to offer tax reductions
> in return for operating the commuter trains than taxing the
> crap out of the companies and ultimately having to take over
> their operations.

I think this was why we ended up with Conrail operating the commuter service only until 1983, by which time public agencies (NJT, SEPTA, MBTA, Metro-North, MARC) took over.

> Thinking of Hudson County, I wonder how
> much they actually gained from taxing the railroads and
> ultimately chasing them out.

For many years, the railroads paid the vast majority of the school taxes in Hudson County.


      

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