New Jersey Boondoggles

I'm a regular rider on New Jersey Transit's Main/Bergen line. The service is generally acceptable and most of the trains are on time, though the new cars have fewer seats than the older cars. The crews are more likely than not provide updates should there be delays. However, the parking situation at many of the stations in North Jersey is completely unacceptable.

A parking garage was contemplated for Ridgewood, but nothing has come of it or the planned refurbishment of the station that would have included high level platforms to speed entry and exit from the trains.

In River Edge, the train station lost parking spots, which means that fewer people are likely to take the trains into New York City. If people don't think that they can find parking near the train stations, they're less likely to use the trains.

That means more people are going to drive into NYC, increasing the traffic and congestion at the bridges and tunnels and increasing gas usage.

Instead of focusing on the parking needs for the train and bus ridership, the boondoggle that is Secaucus Junction was built at a cost of $450 million, which was several magnitudes of cost higher than initially proposed. And that station doesn't even have parking facilities.

And as bad as the situation is at many North Jersey stations, the situation is even worse on the Northeast Corridor, where stations like Edison have a multiyear wait for a handful of spots. If people want to do the right thing and commute by train, they're thwarted by the lack of parking.

Fix the parking situation, and you make the train and bus systems more attractive for customers.