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| Train service plan chugs along |
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By SETH AUGENSTEIN
saugenstein@njherald.com
ANDOVER TOWNSHIP — The train is coming.
Engineering work has begun on the Lackawanna Cutoff, an extension of New Jersey Transit rail service to Andover Township. When, and if, completed, it will be the first passenger train connection to Sussex County since the 1960s.
The first segment to Andover is the 7.3-mile stretch of the total 88 miles of the cutoff between Port Morris and Scranton, Pa., planned for an existing rail bed. To connect Andover to Port Morris will cost about $36.6 million in state and federal money. The full, 88-mile connection to Scranton will cost $551 million.
David Behrend, spokesman for the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority, said the project received a finding of no significant impact letter from the Federal Transportation Administration in September.
Behrend said New Jersey Transit is doing engineering work and designs for the rail line. No further specifics were available.
The project was first unveiled last summer, and received mixed reviews from environmental activists, rail enthusiasts, and members of the general public. Some have said it would provide a vital link to New York City, others said it would add to development sprawl.
The first stretch connecting Andover to Port Morris’s Montclair-Boonton and Morris and Essex lines would get the project started and give it momentum, various officials have said, describing the connection to Andover as a “toehold” which would enable construction of the rest of the project, segment by segment. As the line nears Pennsylvania, New Jersey would seek money from the Keystone State, and much of the project would be done in a piecemeal style.?
Created: 2/14/2009 | Updated: 2/15/2009
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