Without a presentation to Red Bank residents or the mayor and council of Red Bank on the impact of the Monmouth-Ocean-Middlesex or "MOM" train rail line, state representatives have agreed on a train route to Manchester to Red Bank. Fortunately, our Board of Chosen Freeholders has opposed this proposal. Recently, there was an editorial in a local daily newspaper pleading not to derail the MOM line urging New Jersey Transit to go ahead with MOM. The editorial described Red Bank as a train town.

Red Bank is not a train town but one of the most successful suburban centers in New Jersey.

Mitigating traffic delays are a continuing problem being considered by the Red Bank Council, county and the state. A 20-percent increase in train traffic in Red Bank would exacerbate current conditions. Promises of money to mitigate traffic, promises to improve Broad Street, and promises to construct a parking deck are promises that extra train traffic will cause for Red Bank. We do not need a MOM line built on promises that are not in the best interest of the residents of Red Bank or the surrounding communities. A train line based on promises in the interest of few is only a train wreck waiting to happen.

The newspaper editorial further mentions that the greatest users of this line are the Ocean County residents bound for New York, and does nothing for either Western Monmouth County or Middlesex County residents where development and population increases have occurred.

Monmouth County residents will not be served by this new line as there will be traffic-clogged streets in the surrounding communities of Red Bank. Forty-five trains run from Red Bank to New York each day and 43 go from New York to Red Bank. How many of us have sat on Route 35 or the local streets waiting for five or 10 minutes for a train to pass?

The damage caused by the Manchester to Red Bank line would be far in excess of any benefits, promises or opportunities to the residents of Red Bank and surrounding communities, as well as those commuters from Ocean County.

We do not need a train line that is a poor mass transit option, which will significantly increase highway traffic in Red Bank, and does nothing to meet the need of western Monmouth County or Middlesex County residents traveling to North Jersey and New York. Should the MOM line be approved, the only thing that is certain is that all of us will be sitting in traffic.
Michael R. DuPont
Red Bank councilman