Rahway Valley/SIRY Reactivation Out Of Money?

The money is almost all spent, the project isnt done, and now their trying to find more funds, but so far nobody wants to put up more money.

-->After spending nearly $10 million repairing two rail lines through central Union County, railroad officials say that without another $10 million to $15 million, the project cannot be completed.

Whether the project has reached the end of the line, no one is saying. But none of the potential funding agencies gave any indication last week that more money will be forthcoming.

Utilizing $7.5 million provided by the state Department of Transportation in 2003, Union County contracted with the Morristown & Erie Railway to revitalize two long-unused rail freight routes through the center of the county, the Staten Island Railroad and the Rahway Valley Line.

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/union/ind ... xml&coll=1

The M&E cant do this project on their own, they recently laid some track and mechanical people off, and more layoffs may still come...

LOL, What a big waste of money then!!!! Typical NJ politics at it's best.... I wonder how many other pork barrell projects they spent money on that COULD HAVE gone towards the Rahway Valley restoration project... You love to be the bearer of bad news don't you Sirsonic????????

Not all that much of a waste. I do have to say that what's gotten done is far more than certainly I personally thought would ever happen; and the M&E won't give up their ability to move around hopper cars for Tosco that quickly.

Sounds to me like more political grandstanding. The Summit mayor simply does not want those RVRR bridges going back up (fear of NIMBYs) and you can bet that "tranquil" Springfield won't want trains crossing Meisel Avenue or Mountain Avenue either.

The old Springfield Station is occupied by an insurance firm and its parking lot.

It's been clear for at least the past two years that the money secured would not -- repeat, would not -- be sufficient for restoring the entire Summit-Cranford-Linden route of the Rahway Valley Railway.

We suppose one can fault the Morristown & Erie Railway for not advertising that (and thus giving psychological aid to its extreme adversaries), but neither has the railroad, to NJ-ARP's knowledge, said anything directly to the contrary.

NJ-ARP, during the past two years, has been at work attempting to secure additional funding to complete Cranford-to Summit. We're far from the lead player on this matter.