The Princeton Regional Planning Board will soon be voting to endorse NJ Transit’s plan to replace the train connecting Princeton and Princeton Junction with a Bus Rapid Transit system.
Recently, a member of railroad.net forums pointed our attention to a news article saying the Princeton Regional Planning Board will support a proposal to remove the Princeton Branch of the Northeast Corridor, maintained by New Jersey Transit. I want to start my opinion of this off with the following sentence: Princeton is and for a long time have been run and inhabited by idiots. The borough AND township, home to an Ivy League university, has a snobbish attitude, especially among the people I've met. They are not capable of rational decisions and should be horsewhipped.
Now that I have this bash off my head, I'd like to start getting to the topic. The Princeton Branch, also referred to as the Dinky (and has been for many years) is a 2.7 mile spur from Princeton Junction station for commuters and students to get off the Northeast Corridor and transfer to a short train to the lovely Princeton station. The Dinky has been used back into the 19th Century, started by the Pennsylvania Railroad on May 29, 1865. In that time, people have idolized the small train and even famous people, such as Albert Einstein, have ridden the train. The Dinky appeared in the TV sitcom Family Ties and even in a 1934 movie She Loves Me Not, starred by Bing Crosby. New Jersey Transit took over passenger service from Consolidated Rail Company (CONRAIL) in 1983 and continues to operate the service 27 years later. May 29, 2010 was the 145th anniversary of the Dinky and everyone I know hopes it will last for a long time, but as you're about to see, Princeton is trying to get rid of it.
The Princeton Regional Planning Board wants to endorse a proposal to have the 2.7 mile track removed and its train, along with the train station for a Bus Rapid Transit, in other words, a "fast" bus. Importantly, trains only run into red lights when they are block signals, yet the Dinky is trying to be replaced by something that is semi-unreliable, runs along city streets WITH red lights and is generally less useful. The idea to rectify the red lights is give the bus a power to change the light to green automatically, which I think causes MORE traffic dilemmas. The trains can go almost fluently from Princeton Station to Princeton Junction at West Windsor Station smoothly, while a bus which holds LESS people would have to follow this long turn-filled route from Princeton to Princeton Junction to transfer. First of all, the train at least leaves you on the platform and time to disembark for a waiting train. Secondly, if the bus is late, you've missed your train, what are you supposed to do? Especially if the train service is a half-hour and you know you'll be late for work? The dinky is reliable and it gets you there.
I want to say this now. Princeton is run by modern idiots who are trying to fix a service that is not broken, then I decree this curse on them: If you want to get tracks through a city/borough removed, fine. However, be prepared to feel the Passaic Curse, in which all the crime and low-class people will come to the city the train has helped prosper and ruin your Ivy League Yuppie status. I promise you it will happen. Not today, not tomorrow, but it will happen. I decree it. I don't care if these crimes burn the city down, you brought it upon yourself.
- Roadgeek Adam
(Completely rant free for one day)
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