I would love to see the storied Cut off restored to service, and I think it will, hopefully sooner, rather than later, and once it is restored, I think it will be used for passegner service, along with through freight operation....
BUT, why should NJT spend a DIME if there aren't going to be any stops in NJ??? Let PA spend the money on it, as its a service that is gonig to be used exclusively by PA passegners. And if the cut off, with no NJ stops, is going to be built with any NJ funds, it shoudl NOT come out of NJT's budget anyway, but rather NJDOT's budget for highway improvements. Its sole purpose would be to ease congestion I80, similar to adding another lane, etc. Even if it only had 1 stop in NJ, the DOT should still pay for a large portion of restoration and rebuilding out of their highway budget. I don't see two stops in addition to Dover being too unreasonable, actually sort of serving the area that the line passes through....(only PA residents can ride the train, all NWNJ residents must drive and still deal with the traffic that will remain on I80 and other roads - thats a kick in the ass.....)
NJT has a lot of other projects in the pipeline that are starving for the money and resources that the cut off would take while building it and operating it, that could be put to use to build a line to actually serve NEW JERSEY residents. If PA wants it so bad, NJT should stand their ground and point out that this project is going to mainly serve PA residents, and a building and operating agreement that fairly reflects that. I honestly think that is what NJT is currently doing, and if they are, I give them credit for not letting them get stepped on, like so often happens.
Thats my penny and a half!
On the RR, "believe nothing you hear and only half of what you see"
John, aka "JTGSHU" passed away on August 26, 2013. We honor his memory and his devotion to railroading at railroad.net.