Rapid Transit Bill Passage Is Urged

Paramus – North Jersey transportation problems won’t be solved with vague talk about a giant new authority or by hopes that the Port of New York Authority will take on the job, said a Metropolitan Rapid Transit Commission official today.

M. R. T. C. Executive Director Frank H. Simon, in a speech prepared for a meeting of the Hackensack Area Development Association, said State Assembly passage of a rapid transit district bill is the only sensible action that can be taken now.

He said; “Opponents claim the Port Authority should develop and finance rapid transit improvements. Whether this is legal and feasible is being explored by the Assembly Committee on Federal and Interstate Relations, and it would serve no useful purpose for me to debate here the merits or demerits of the proposal.”

But, he added, “I am sufficiently aware of the Port Authority's position to realize that, regardless of the merits, you and I will not in our lifetimes see them take on rapid transit projects. And, being practical men, we must look elsewhere if we want to see any constructive accomplishments in transit.”

The Assembly Committee to which Simon referred is holding a public hearing in Trenton Monday to discuss the bill recommended by the M. R. T. C. and another bill that would require the Port Authority to plan a rapid transit system and make recommendations to the legislature.

The M. R. T. C. bill, already passed in New York and in the Jersey Senate, would establish a district, or agency, to make the recommendations to the Legislatures. Simon emphasized today that the bill does not tie counties or communities to any particular plan or deficit sharing plan.

He calls this a practical step now instead of waiting for Utopia.

He said: “The desirable ultimate is a comprehensive regional public agency for the coordinated development of all phases of ground transportation in the region--by automobile, by buses and trucks, by railroads and rapid transit systems, and it would have to include traffic and parking. But any crusader attempting to establish such an agency would be like Don Quixote attacking the windmill. Think of the strongholds to be conquered--the Port Authority, the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, the New York Thruway Authority, the various parkway authorities, the municipal, county and state highway departments and a host of others. Think of the financial structures that would have to be revised.”

Good mass transit, he said, is of urgent importance to cities like Hackensack, small towns, and New York City itself. Simon reminded his audience that the M. R. T. C. bill makes provision for eventual inclusion of Connecticut in the district.