Lackawanna Cutoff Passenger Service Restoration

I hope that wasn't NJT customer service you spoke to about this. haha. I'm sure you'd find out information before them. We've all heard the rumors. Sometimes they turn into reality and sometimes they don't. I guess we'll see this winter where they stand on the project. With the Southern Tier now re-opening for business, it is good to see trains running on more and more EL tracks. We'll see if the DLW side can also make a comeback.

Really? I suppose the surveying of the tunnel was just a rumor, just like the markings that are now there.

Dcell wrote:Really? I suppose the surveying of the tunnel was just a rumor, just like the markings that are now there.

and what makes you so sure that these markings aren't part of the project to begin with? Maybe they are getting ready to work on the tunnel anyway. And if i remember correctly, it was mentioned the tunnel was going to be worked on anyway to shore up loose and falling rocks. I never read anywhere that NJT wasn't going to do anything to the tunnel.

Those environmental wack jobs from the Sierra club and their other groups are the reasons why i now longer take them seriously. They make an issue out of nothing. Would they rather have more deer plowed down on 80 or 46 via the trucks and increased car traffic or have fuel saving trains help our area be a heck of alot more greener then 80 and 46 can do together!?! They have gone from respectable to being a terrorist organization in my opinion!!! BUILD THE DAMN THING ALREADY!!!!!! They are out of touch with what we in northern, NJ and PA have to put up with regarding the traffic 5 days a freakin week and wasting more gas so that Saudi Sheiks can add more to their flet of aircraft and other toys while we the working stiffs suffer.

Seriously, this state is broken. more delays

http://www.njherald.com/story/19541477/ ... -next-year

- It appears NJ Transit will lose another construction season as the agency moves toward bringing commuter rail service to Sussex County because it has run out of time to get necessary state permits to lay the final rails and build the Andover station.

Although the railbed is more than a century old, trees and brush have grown up along the track and there is heavy forest in the area where the station is to be built. That makes the area suitable summer habitat for the endangered Indiana bat, so clearing of trees from the land is limited to Nov. 1 to March 31.

I understand the importance of and am in favor of environmental regulation, but the train was there before the damned bat. Where did the bat summer in the days of the Phoebe Snow?

Again, you can thank the NJDEP for another lengthy delay!

I just can help thinking that Jeff Tittle from the Serria Club has his hands in this somewhere. I do agree we need to keep the Environment in our minds, but we do go way overboard. With all the trash and garbage that has been dumped over the years, how environmentally friendly is that? With an active Rail line that stuff stops. Plus with NJT maintaining the drainage ditches, you'll cut down on the breeding pools for insects.

but fewer mosquitoes means you'll cut into the bats' food.

Let's remember to include brief, fair-use quotes:

http://www.njherald.com/story/19541477/ ... -next-year

NEWTON -- It appears NJ Transit will lose another construction season as the agency moves toward bringing commuter rail service to Sussex County because it has run out of time to get necessary state permits to lay the final rails and build the Andover station.

While some track has already been laid along the Lackawanna Cutoff through Stanhope, Hopatcong and Byram, the final permits for the station have yet to be issued and site preparation will have to wait until November 2013, if the permits are issued.

On Wednesday, the Sussex County Board of Chosen Freeholders approved a letter in support of the project be sent to Bob Martin, commissioner

of the Department of Environmental Protection, asking him "to do all you can to expedite the issuance of the waiver and permits so that work can advance on this very important project."

Although the overall project, which follows old railroad beds from Port Morris in Morris County to Scranton, Pa., was declared to have no significant environmental impacts by

the Federal Railroad Administration, each segment of the project still needs appropriate state permits.

In the case of the last link from already-laid tracks in Byram to the Andover station, NJ Transit needs land use and freshwater permits and a Special Action Transition Area waiver. The waiver is needed because the station, adjacent to Roseville Road, comes within 150 feet of a state-classified stream.

If one extrapolates based on the current rate of progress, it might be possible to reach Scranton by the turn of the 22nd century!

Sussex Co. environment is worth protecting. Rail service to Andover to serve a handful of commuters is of little value when you consider the project's cost is pushing $100 million. $100 m for a 7-mile extension and less than 100 new daily riders. Now with daylighting the tunnel by Andover Station being needed, the cost is going to go wayyyy up.

dcell-typical nimby! It hasn't been determined that the tunnel will be daylighted. Can you provide some documentation to your claims? if not you are a posting on here as a typical lurker/flamer. Just post facts, like I did..with an article. The project is NOT dead and will happen to Andover. We all look forward to seeing your post documenting the price and confirmation that NJT will indeed be daylighting the tunnel

northjerseybuff wrote:dcell-typical nimby! It hasn't been determined that the tunnel will be daylighted. Can you provide some documentation to your claims? if not you are a posting on here as a typical lurker/flamer. Just post facts, like I did..with an article. The project is NOT dead and will happen to Andover. We all look forward to seeing your post documenting the price and confirmation that NJT will indeed be daylighting the tunnel

and plus, the article stated clearly why the construction is POSTPONED, not one thing was mentioned of the tunnel.

Matt Johnson wrote:If one extrapolates based on the current rate of progress, it might be possible to reach Scranton by the turn of the 22nd century!

Beam me up, newark.