• LC Members Assist New Riders

    The Lackawanna Coalition realizes that many people are nervous about taking public transportation, and yet for the March to End Fossil Fuels on Sunday, Sept. 17, both for practical reasons (a number of streets near the march route will be closed off, meaning close parking is also less available than usual) and for environmental reasons…

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  • Report from the Chair, Sept./Oct. 2023

    A lot has been written about NJ Transit’s decision to sell its headquarters building and move to the expensive Gateway building, so there is no point in belaboring it here. If in fact it was a well-reasoned decision, then the board shot itself in the foot by not revealing more details and the justification. We…

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  • Coalition Calls for Saving Kingsland Station

    The Lackawanna Coalition passed a resolution at its July meeting that calls on New Jersey Transit to save the Kingsland station, located on Ridge Road in Lyndhurst. The agency has proposed enlarging parking facilities and making other improvements at the Lyndhurst Station; the next station going toward Suffern, but the 2021 proposal under consideration called…

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  • RUN for Better Trains and a Better Environment

    Coalition Chairperson Sally Jane Gellert came to rail advocacy through the environmental movement. She participated in the first Earth Day, back in 1970, when she was in high school. Today, she is one of a number of advocates for trains and rail transit who appreciate the connection between rail and a cleaner environment, but many…

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  • Museum for a Day

    NJ Transit recently donated an ALP-44 electric locomotive (No. 4424) to the United Railroad Historical Society of New Jersey. Although this is not a terribly old rail car, it is historic in that it represents both the first electric locomotives purchased new by the state of New Jersey and the first time the agency had…

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  • TigerTrain: A Recent Proposal for the Princeton Dinky

    At its June 26 meeting, the Lackawanna Coalition learned about a plan for the Princeton Dinky, the short branch that NJ Transit runs as a shuttle between Princeton Junction on the Northeast Corridor (NEC) line and the vicinity of the Princeton University campus, first suggested in May 2021, but ignored by decision-makers. The proposal comes…

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  • NJ Transit Accessibility Forum

    Semiannual accessibility forum is becoming a routine matter at NJ Transit—but not so routine that publicity can be neglected. The latest was on Tuesday, June 27, the day after our June meeting, and attendance was dismal or worse. A few folks attended remotely by Zoom, another handful or two in person in Newark. We had…

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  • Report from the Chair

    Summer has started with hot weather and the occasional storm, bringing a few downed trees to disrupt our travel. NJ Transit unveiled the beginning of its sustainability plan, and even as we are glad to see such a document from the agency, we note that it’s “broad strokes”/conceptual, and we need more and better from…

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  • Coach USA Cuts Newark Buses

    We are a rail organization. However, we know that riders often connect to rail through their local bus (or in a more sustainable world with better schedules, they would do so), and bus connections to Newark rail stations are tangential to our immediate purview. We have followed the Newark NewBus plan, which ignored contract lines…

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  • No Changes for NJT Budget; $12M for Private Bus Carriers

    New Jersey’s budget for Fiscal 2024, which starts on July 1st, was approved on the last day of June. This year’s budget approval process was not long and drawn out with government shutdown looming. Although there were debates over certain items, e.g., the tax rebate for seniors, the Legislature passed the budget on time. At…

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