The Secaucus Transfer, aka the Frank R. Lautenberg Secaucus Junction Station, aka the Secaucus Boondoggle, continues to live down to the boondoggle moniker.
The massive transit project, linking all but one of NJ Transit's rail lines together, cost hundreds of millions more than originally projected, and serves a mere fraction of what was hoped for. The biggest shortcoming was the project failed to include any parking.
A 4,280-space garage and a 1,094-space parking lot were finally proposed, and approvals were finally granted by the Meadowlands Commission.
Now, we've got affordable housing groups and Norfolk Southern challenging the approval. The affordable housing group wants to use that land for affordable housing, and Norfolk Southern has challenged the plan because they want the land to expand their rail operations.
What does this all mean? Taxpayers continue to get soaked because they're paying for a white elephant in the underutilized Secaucus Transfer, and drivers stuck in traffic have no other alternatives because they lack the parking to even consider taking the train into Manhattan. The entire NJ Transit system lacks parking for riders, and towns don't encourage parking for mass transit either.
Any additional parking for mass transit would be a boon to the system, but as always, NJ Transit has found a way to screw things up.
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