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Liam Blank

Regional governance timeline

Attempts to govern the New York region’s transit as one system, as newspapers reported them: 118 events from 1921 to 2016, each linked to its source article.

Data
110 articles in the newspaper archive, published 1952 to 2016
Coverage
New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut; events dated 1921 to 2016
Updated

  1. 1921

    1. 1921Plan or study

      Jenny’s “belt and loop” plan is turned down

      Engineer L. Alfred Jenny proposed a loop rapid-transit line from the Hackensack Meadows under the Hudson to about 57th Street, down Manhattan, and back through Jersey City, with transfer stations wherever it crossed a New Jersey railroad. The New York–New Jersey Port and Harbor Development Commission turned it down. Jenny kept offering variations for 30 years.

      Source

  2. 1922

    1. 1922Agency

      New Jersey creates the North Jersey Transit Commission

      The Legislature set up the commission to study the transit problem. It took a traffic census in 1924 and warned in its 1926 report that New Jersey “must give immediate and thoughtful consideration to the transit problem.”

      Sources

  3. 1927

    1. 1927Plan or study

      First engineering plan for a Manhattan–North Jersey transit loop

      The North Jersey Transit Commission published an engineering plan for a loop rapid-transit system connecting Manhattan with the North Jersey railroads.

      Source

  4. 1928

    1. 1928Agency

      Port Authority and New Jersey form the Suburban Transit Engineering Board

      The Port of New York Authority and the North Jersey Transit Commission organized the board with railroad officials and the Westchester Planning Committee to coordinate plans for an area-wide solution.

      Sources

  5. 1930

    1. March 31, 1930Plan or study

      Suburban Transit Engineering Board reports, then disbands

      After spending more than $220,000 on studies, the board produced another loop plan but adopted no program, and disbanded. The North Jersey Transit Commission ended the same year with a warning that the highway projects under way would not meet all the area’s needs.

      Sources

  6. 1935

    1. 1935Plan or study

      Regional Plan Association: cars cannot replace commuter rail

      The association’s 1935 report said: “Motor vehicles cannot supplant rail facilities as a means of commuter transportation between New Jersey and Manhattan.” The North Jersey Transit Committee, formed the same year, backed a transit plan by consulting engineer L. Alfred Jenny of Dumont.

      Source

  7. 1937

    1. March 1937Plan or study

      Port Authority proposes a new tunnel at 51st Street, then lets it drop

      Ordered in 1936 to make a new study, the Port Authority proposed a suburban rapid transit system for northern New Jersey that carried the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad from 33rd Street to 51st Street and across to New Jersey through a new tunnel. Its report said good rapid transit could add millions of dollars in property values. The New Jersey Legislature directed another study; in 1939 the Authority asked for more time, “and nothing more was heard of the proposal.”

      Two articles date the plan to 1937; The Jersey Journal’s 1966 account gives 1938.

      Sources

  8. 1940

    1. 1940Legislation

      New Jersey railroad-authority bill dies

      New Jersey legislators considered a bill to create a railroad authority. The proposal died when the Legislature adjourned.

      Source

  9. 1948

    1. 1948Plan or study

      Driscoll suggests a Hackensack meadows transfer terminal

      Governor Alfred E. Driscoll suggested that commuter railroads share a terminal in the Hackensack meadows where riders could transfer to a rapid-transit line into Manhattan.

      Source

  10. 1952

    1. 1952Plan or study

      New Jersey planning commission calls for a metropolitan transit authority

      The New Jersey Regional Planning Commission, headed by State Senator David Van Alstyne of Englewood, recommended that a metropolitan rapid transit authority be created and report to the 1953 Legislature. Its report also recommended a new rail tunnel connecting North Jersey with Manhattan at about Forty-fifth Street.

      Sources

    2. August 1, 1952Agency

      Driscoll names New Jersey’s Metropolitan Rapid Transit Commission

      Governor Driscoll appointed the commission’s members, among them Senator Van Alstyne. The legislation creating it provided $50,000 for studies of transit improvements. New York had set up a separate commission of its own.

      Sources

  11. 1953

    1. August 11, 1953Debate

      City planning commissioner accuses New York’s transit commission of inertia

      Goodhue Livingston Jr. criticized the New York commission for “dragging its feet” and said it had been stymied by Governor Dewey. The commission’s vice chairman acknowledged that no staff had been hired; New York had given its commission $10,000 and New Jersey $20,000.

      Source

    2. Reported December 1, 1953Debate

      Twin commissions hold hearings; the Times asks whether to subsidize railroads

      Hearings before the New York Metropolitan Rapid Transit Commission, with New Jersey’s commission sitting in, renewed interest in seeing the region’s mass transportation needs whole. A New York Times editorial called the question of subsidizing commuter railroads the first to decide.

      Source

  12. 1954

    1. June 1954Agency

      The two state commissions become one bi-state commission

      After the separate commissions issued almost identical reports, both Legislatures adopted their recommendation and the New York–New Jersey Metropolitan Rapid Transit Commission came into existence, with $50,000 from each state. Its vice chairman dated this to June 1954; a 1955 New York Times editorial gives June 14, 1953.

      Sources

  13. 1955

    1. January 13, 1955Funding

      Port Authority agrees to pay for the commission’s study

      A memorandum of understanding between the Port Authority and the Metropolitan Rapid Transit Commission was made public. The Authority would furnish up to $500,000 for engineers to study rail rapid transit between New Jersey and New York. The memorandum urged a “constitutionally sound, financially practicable and politically feasible plan of meeting deficits.”

      Sources

    2. Reported August 2, 1955Funding

      Meyner agrees to fund New Jersey’s share of the study

      Governor Meyner announced he would approve a $150,000 appropriation for the commission. With $150,000 approved by New York and $500,000 available from the Port Authority, the Times wrote, “an inquiry of respectable thoroughness should be possible.” Meyner also named a new set of New Jersey members.

      Source

    3. Reported August 25, 1955Debate

      Monmouth County asks to be included in the study

      The Monmouth County Planning Board adopted a resolution urging the commission to include the county in its study of New York–New Jersey transit problems, citing its growth in year-round commuter traffic.

      Source

    4. Reported October 5, 1955Plan or study

      Railroad men propose a $1.5 billion aerial transit system

      Henry K. Norton, chairman of the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railroad, presented the commission with a plan for rapid transit lines from the tri-state suburbs running on overhead tracks in New York. Real estate operator William Zeckendorf objected that the city would not stand for another elevated railroad.

      Source

  14. 1956

    1. 1956Agency

      Metropolitan Regional Council formed

      Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. created the council, a voluntary association of the top elected officials of the counties and major cities of the tri-state region, to discuss shared problems such as regional traffic control and water and air pollution. New York City paid most of its $50,000-a-year cost.

      Sources

    2. August 24, 1956Plan or study

      Queens Chamber of Commerce schedules its 12-point transit program

      The chamber announced it would present its program to the commission on September 10. Three points, including a new East River tunnel at 76th Street, were already in engineering studies the commission had authorized.

      Source

    3. October 9, 1956Debate

      Commissioner says towns will share the bill, and it will be smaller than feared

      John A. Kervick of the commission told the Jersey City Real Estate Board that rail transit everywhere requires some public support, but that the commission expected a proposal costing “no way near the fantastic estimates of a billion and upward.” Co-chairman Charles H. Tuttle warned the same day that only a strong interstate body could keep a transportation policy going.

      Source

    4. Reported October 10, 1956Debate

      Erie Railroad president backs a regional authority and community-supported transit

      Paul W. Johnston told the Bergen County Chamber of Commerce that commuter railroads should be paid for unprofitable service as utilities are, with any excess cost spread among the municipalities that benefit. The Record concluded that the choice in rail commuter service “seems to be abandonment or subsidy.”

      Source

  15. 1957

    1. 1957Plan or study

      Consultant finds the Port Authority financially unable to take on transit

      William Miller’s 135-page financing study for the commission found that the two states could legally authorize the Port Authority to undertake rail rapid transit, but that the Authority’s lack of taxing power and its self-supporting policy “deprive the Port Authority of competence to undertake such a project.” He recommended a Metropolitan Rapid Transit District.

      Source

    2. May 1957Plan or study

      The Page report: a $400 million loop and a new Metropolitan District

      Project director Arthur W. Page recommended two new Hudson River tunnels, at about Fifty-ninth Street and at the Battery, carrying a rail loop that would connect New Jersey’s commuter lines with Manhattan over BMT subway tracks. A new bi-state district with a 32-member council would run it and assess counties for an estimated $12 million annual deficit.

      Sources

    3. June 3, 1957Debate

      Bergen County leaders hear the loop plan

      About 100 county leaders in Teaneck heard the commission’s executive director outline the plan. Bergen’s share of the deficit would be $1.84 million a year, the largest of any county. Formal hearings were set to begin June 18 in Newark.

      Source

    4. August 1957Debate

      Federal court keeps Hudson ferries running

      The Interstate Commerce Commission granted requests to discontinue Hudson River ferry lines used by riders on three railroads serving Bergen County. A federal court order kept the ferries going pending a final decision.

      Source

    5. September 5, 1957Debate

      Jersey City merchants oppose the loop

      The Jersey City Merchants Council called the Page plan a threat to the city’s business community. It objected to Hudson County paying about $1,560,000 a year toward the deficit and said a loop into Manhattan would bypass Hudson County shopping centers.

      Source

    6. September 10, 1957Debate

      Final round of hearings on the loop plan opens

      The commission opened hearings in Newark on what The Record called “the nineteenth New York area transportation survey since the early 1920s,” moving to New York on September 17. Critics, including Representative Frank C. Osmers Jr. and engineer L. Alfred Jenny, pressed lower-cost alternatives.

      Sources

    7. September 22, 1957Debate

      Moses attacks the bi-state agency; the Port Authority refuses the job

      At the Arden House conference on metropolitan problems, Robert Moses said that if any agency was needed to unify rapid transit it should be the Port Authority, and called the railroads “a busted, lazy and backward private enterprise.” The Port Authority’s executive director rejected the idea at once, saying transit would wreck the Authority’s credit.

      Source

    8. October 29, 1957Debate

      New York Board of Trade holds a symposium on the loop

      The panel included the chairman of the New York City Transit Authority, the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad’s trustee, and the president of the Central Railroad of New Jersey. Morris Pesin of the Jersey City Merchants Council planned to ask “what Jersey is going to get out of it.”

      Source

    9. October 30, 1957Debate

      Senator Jones calls rapid transit the priority for 1958

      State Senator Walter H. Jones of Bergen County pledged to support a workable program after the commission’s final report, but hoped it would not carry “a $12 million deficit millstone around its neck.”

      Source

    10. December 22, 1957Debate

      Revised $500 million loop meets near-unanimous criticism

      The commission’s modified plan dropped the BMT tracks for a new subway up Fifth and Madison Avenues and routed the line through Journal Square, raising the cost by $100 million and the annual deficit to $14.5 million. Critics called it “disappointing,” “wasteful,” and “monstrous.” New York’s attorney general said a constitutional amendment might be needed.

      Sources

  16. 1958

    1. January 1958Plan or study

      Metropolitan Rapid Transit Commission delivers its final report

      After three years and more than $1 million of study, the commission recommended a $500 million loop and, as its one legislative proposal, a bi-state transit district to plan and negotiate a system. It concluded that a coordinated, modernized system of transit by rail and bus between New York and New Jersey was essential.

      The archive dates the two reports of this event to January 1959. Articles from February, November, and December 1958 describe the final report as already delivered, so it is placed here in January 1958.

      Sources

    2. January 27, 1958Legislation

      Transit district bills introduced in Trenton and Albany

      Senator Walter H. Jones introduced a bill to create a Metropolitan Transit District with a 32-member council, 16 from each state, and $150,000 a year from each state for five years. An identical bill was introduced in the New York Legislature the same day. Any plan would need approval from both Legislatures.

      Sources

    3. February 10, 1958Legislation

      Hudson County Democrats stall the district bill

      Democrats delayed a Senate vote on the Jones bill. Senator William F. Kelly of Hudson said: “I shall not let the Page report erase Hudson County from the map and run a loop around it instead of through it.” Jones replied that the new agency was meant to produce a plan more acceptable to the public.

      Source

    4. April 24, 1958Legislation

      Harriman signs New York’s transit district bill over Wagner’s objection

      Governor Harriman approved New York’s participation in the bi-state district. Mayor Wagner, as chairman of the Metropolitan Regional Council, had urged more study. “I do not believe we should wait for another year,” Harriman said. The district still needed New Jersey’s approval and ratification by Congress.

      Source

    5. Reported June 13, 1958Debate

      Metropolitan Regional Council urges New Jersey to reject the district

      The council of elected officials voted unanimously to oppose the bill. The Times called it a “curious subversion of stated purpose.” The council’s secretary, Maxwell Lehman, answered that members wanted a tri-state approach that included Westchester and Fairfield from the start and did not separate transit from traffic, and that the council had authorized itself to draft a new measure.

      Sources

    6. June 14, 1958Legislation

      Trenton leaders block the district until at least 1959

      Most legislators from the North and Central Jersey counties that would join the district, apart from Bergen, opposed it, reasoning that any commuter rail service would run a deficit their constituents would pay. Assemblyman William V. Musto of Hudson introduced a bill to make the Port Authority take on the task instead.

      Source

    7. June 16, 1958Legislation

      New Jersey Senate passes the district bill

      The Senate passed the Jones bill, S-50. Opponents later said the necessary eleventh vote came from Senator Sido Ridolfi of Mercer County, and that seven of the eleven senators in favor represented counties that would bear none of the deficit.

      Sources

    8. October 11, 1958Plan or study

      Regional Council begins a 22-county housing inventory

      The council’s Committee on Housing and Redevelopment started updating housing data last collated in 1950, when 10.2 percent of the region’s housing units were sub-standard, as part of a push for federal housing funds.

      Source

    9. October 17, 1958Debate

      H&M trustee blames the Port Authority and offers a cheaper plan

      Herman T. Stichman, trustee of the bankrupt Hudson & Manhattan Railroad, told a Bergen County group that the Port Authority “has never concerned itself with the rail transportation problems of the metropolitan area.” He said connecting Erie and Susquehanna trains to the tubes and subways could be done for less than $100,000,000.

      Source

    10. October 24, 1958Debate

      Commission tells Meyner the bill commits no one to the loop

      In a letter to the Governor and Legislature, the commission said the transit district act “does one thing only—it creates a public agency, based on local representation, to develop and to negotiate such a public plan.” The Herald News noted that Congress had since given the Interstate Commerce Commission jurisdiction over railroad passenger service, and the ICC was letting railroads curtail it.

      Source

    11. October 30, 1958Debate

      New York City official doubts the city should subsidize the loop

      Lyle C. Fitch, First Deputy City Administrator, told the National Tax Association that the only clear benefit of the half-billion-dollar loop would be to its users, who should pay the entire bill. He called transportation “a region-wide problem” needing coordination of agencies and pooled revenues. He spoke for himself, not the city administration.

      Source

    12. November 4, 1958Debate

      Jersey City votes against the district bill

      The Jersey City Commission adopted a resolution opposing the bill. Morris Pesin of the Jersey City Merchants Council called the loop “a noose around the neck of Jersey City” and urged the Assembly to compel the Port Authority to connect New Jersey’s railroads to the Hudson & Manhattan tubes instead.

      Source

    13. November 17, 1958Debate

      Rockefeller seeks a three-governor meeting on commuter transportation

      Governor-elect Nelson A. Rockefeller said he would seek an early meeting with Governors Meyner and Ribicoff. “Something has got to be done about transit and transportation before the end of the year,” he said. Meyner said he would be “delighted” to join, and that he was willing to amend the district bill to meet objections.

      Sources

    14. November 18, 1958Debate

      Commission director: the Port Authority will never take on transit

      Frank H. Simon told the Hackensack Area Development Association that “you and I will not in our lifetimes see them take on rapid transit projects.” He called a comprehensive regional agency the desirable ultimate, but said anyone attempting it “would be like Don Quixote attacking the windmill.”

      Sources

    15. November 24, 1958Debate

      Six-hour Assembly hearing: Tobin says the Authority has “not one dime”

      Port Authority executive director Austin J. Tobin argued for more than two hours that the Authority could not spend on transit and submitted a 46-page memorandum. The Assembly’s economist, Dr. Salomon J. Flink, countered in a 57-page report that the Authority could set aside earnings to cover part of a transit deficit. The commission’s co-chairmen asked for action; the Regional Council asked for a tri-state approach.

      Sources

    16. November 26, 1958Debate

      Regional Council’s hearings on its own future draw little notice in New Jersey

      About 20 people attended a Newark hearing on how to tackle metropolitan problems; Newark was the only New Jersey municipality to send an official. The council, elected officials who had met informally for more than two years, was weighing whether to seek formal status, and a committee under Columbia’s Wallace Sayre was to report on January 13.

      Sources

    17. December 8, 1958Legislation

      Rewritten district bill dies in the New Jersey Assembly

      After two public hearings the bill was rewritten as a ten-member agency appointed by the two governors, with any property tax for deficits expressly barred. It reached the floor but lacked the votes. The Lehigh Valley and the Lackawanna then said they would seek to abandon most of their passenger services.

      Sources

    18. December 12, 1958Debate

      Regional Council takes up the commuter problem as the Erie’s last ferry sails

      Jersey City Mayor Witkowski, who had led the council’s opposition to the district, called its traffic and transportation committee together: “Having played a large role in the defeat of the transit district, I feel it is up to the regional council to offer constructive plans.” Senator Clifford P. Case called for a Senate investigation of efforts to rid railroads of commuter service.

      Source

  17. 1959

    1. January 8, 1959Plan or study

      Sayre committee: give the Metropolitan Regional Council legal status

      A Regional Plan Association committee of eight headed by Columbia’s Wallace S. Sayre urged that the voluntary council be established by identical statutes in the three states and a compact approved by Congress, with a small full-time secretariat. “The present mass transportation crisis,” it said, “is but a foretaste of the difficulties which will soon and increasingly press upon the region.”

      Sources

    2. Reported January 19, 1959Plan or study

      Lance proposes a state railroad agency for a job no one wants

      With the commission preparing to go out of business, the Port Authority opposed, and the counties unwilling to be taxed, Senator Wesley L. Lance proposed a state Division of Railroad Transportation to act as a “catalyst agent.” He said the Port Authority should underwrite part of any deficit: “When we speak of rapid transit, we are speaking about a deficit operation.”

      Sources

    3. February 10, 1959Debate

      Three governors meet on the commuter crisis

      Governors Rockefeller, Meyner, and Ribicoff held a transit conference and heard railroads, labor, communities, and the Port Authority. Senator Walter H. Jones called it “a black day for New Jersey commuters and for the growth of regional concepts,” saying the governors of New York and Connecticut had washed their hands of the commuter problem.

      Source

    4. February 16, 1959Legislation

      New Jersey passes a district bill and creates a rail division

      The Senate passed the Assembly’s bi-state transit district bill 12 to 1, with most abstainers calling it futile, and the Assembly voted 53 to 3 for a State Division of Railroad Transportation in the Highway Department. A bill to hand the problem to the Port Authority stayed in committee. In Albany the Senate voted 56 to 1 for an Office of Transportation in the governor’s executive department.

      Source

    5. March 12, 1959Legislation

      Meyner signs the bi-state agency bill

      Governor Meyner signed the bill setting up a bi-state rapid transit agency. Two weeks later New York passed a different version, and New Jersey had to amend its law to match.

      Sources

    6. March 24, 1959Funding

      Port Authority declines to fund a Jersey Central–Hudson tubes link

      Asked by Senator Lance whether the Authority might help pay for a connection between the Jersey Central and the Hudson & Manhattan, estimated at $15 to $40 million, Austin J. Tobin replied that it was legally impossible to contribute from present revenues or reserves.

      Sources

    7. April 6, 1959Debate

      Plainfield asks Meyner to veto Port Authority projects until commuting is solved

      The Plainfield Common Council voted unanimously for the resolution despite a letter from Tobin warning that involvement in the rail crisis “could well lead to the destruction of the Port Authority as a useful agent.” The sponsor answered that “the Port Authority was created to do this job.”

      Sources

    8. April 13, 1959Legislation

      Assembly accepts New York’s two-member agency

      By 39 to 15 the Assembly approved a New York–New Jersey Transportation Agency with one member from each state and $25,000 from each, and by 36 to 16 let the Port Authority borrow $20 million from New York State to buy coaches for lease to three New York railroads. Opponents said the car program was meant to preclude a larger Port Authority role. Assemblyman Musto asked who Austin Tobin was “to tell us they can’t do it,” adding: “We created the Port Authority.”

      Sources

    9. April 21, 1959Debate

      Meyner cool to a five-million-dollar regional study

      Governor Meyner and Highway Commissioner Dwight R. G. Palmer were cool to the Regional Plan Association’s proposal for a three-year study of metropolitan transportation. “There are so many agencies now, I would like to see some of them start producing before we hire any more,” Palmer said.

      Source

    10. July 6, 1959Legislation

      House consents to the New York–New Jersey Transportation Agency

      The House unanimously passed a resolution granting Congressional consent to the compact. The agency was to prepare an interim and a long-range plan for commuter transportation across the Hudson, with recommendations due in June 1961.

      Sources

    11. Reported July 13, 1959Funding

      New Jersey proposes Turnpike surplus funds for rail service

      The state’s Division of Rail Transportation proposed using $30 to $40 million in New Jersey Turnpike reserves, and annual sums after that, to help railroads pay their taxes and to lend for modernization. The plan needed approval from the Legislature, the voters, and two-thirds of turnpike bondholders. The Republican state chairman called it “half-baked.”

      Source

    12. September 9, 1959Legislation

      Senate approves the bi-state agency compact

      The Senate gave unanimous consent, adding amendments that required Congressional approval of the agency’s long-range plan and of any change in the compact. The resolution went to President Eisenhower.

      Sources

    13. November 1959Funding

      New Jersey voters reject Turnpike money for railroads

      In a statewide referendum, New Jersey residents turned down the proposal to divert surplus New Jersey Turnpike Authority revenues to railroad assistance. The state began a railroad subsidy program in 1960.

      Source

  18. 1960

    1. Reported February 20, 1960Debate

      Regional Plan Association backs a Tri-State Transportation Agency

      The association endorsed the Metropolitan Regional Council’s effort, through Mayor Wagner, to establish an agency representing the three states, New York City, and the council. It said the bi-state agency, “while in being is not yet in operation,” could be enlarged or replaced, and urged applying for federal highway planning funds for a comprehensive study.

      Source

    2. April 1960Plan or study

      New Jersey’s rail division sides with the Port Authority

      In a report to Governor Meyner the Division of Railroad Transportation wrote: “The Port of New York Authority should not, in our opinion, be handed New Jersey’s rail transportation problem.” The Authority’s 1960 budget, retiring $30 million more debt than required, sharpened critics’ demands that it enter commuter rail.

      Source

    3. August 1960Agency

      Three governors create the Tri-State Transportation Committee

      The governors of Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey, with Mayor Wagner, agreed to create an interstate committee to study and report on the transportation crisis. The Record asked whether the states that created the Port Authority could not “devise another interstate agency to do for the commuter what interstate effort has done for the airline, the trucker, the shipper by water, the passenger motorist.”

      A March 1961 article says the governors created the committee “in August,” and an October 1960 editorial describes their agreement. Articles from 1964 onward date the committee to 1961; one gives August 1961.

      Sources

    4. August 15, 1960Plan or study

      Bingham proposes a $317 million tri-state rail network

      Colonel S. H. Bingham, a former executive director of the New York City Transit Authority, sent the three governors a plan for a tri-state agency to run a high-speed system built from linked existing lines, at a maximum of $317 million against at least $915 million for an entirely new system. A month later Newsday reported it had been “greeted with silence and apathy.”

      Sources

    5. September 22, 1960Debate

      Long Island Rail Road president calls for a tri-state authority

      Thomas M. Goodfellow told the Municipal Forum of New York that a three-state authority with the power and resources to plan and coordinate all commuter travel was the only solution. “Rail commuter service must be recognized and treated for what it is—a public service,” he said.

      Source

  19. 1961

    1. March 23, 1961Legislation

      Connecticut moves to turn the committee into a commission by compact

      Governor John N. Dempsey urged the General Assembly to give priority to a Tri-State Transportation Commission compact, with identical bills to be introduced in New York and New Jersey. A key provision would allow commuter service on the New Haven and New York Central to be run under cooperative arrangements with the states.

      Source

  20. 1962

    1. 1962Legislation

      Port Authority takes the Hudson tubes, with a covenant against further rail deficits

      The two states had the Port Authority take over the bankrupt Hudson & Manhattan Railroad, now PATH, alongside the World Trade Center. The statute included a covenant that further deficit financing of railroad projects would be undertaken only within set financial limits, which the Authority read as 10 percent of its General Reserve Fund.

      Sources

  21. 1963

    1. Reported April 7, 1963Debate

      Regional Council survives an anti-“metro” campaign

      As the council sought formal membership agreements, the Westchester Board of Supervisors voted 26 to 7 against joining and Suffolk also refused. The council’s secretary said “hate literature” was being circulated. Mayor Wagner and Westchester’s county executive defended it as a voluntary agency; the latter said, “If it weren’t for the council, New Haven Railroad probably wouldn’t be operating today.”

      Source

    2. May 7, 1963Funding

      Dempsey ties $1 million for the New Haven to the tri-state compact

      Governor Dempsey proposed $1 million in state aid to the bankrupt New Haven railroad, available only if Connecticut’s Legislature approved the Tri-State Transportation Commission compact. New York had approved the compact; Connecticut’s Senate had passed it and its House had sent it to committee. Connecticut would bear 10 percent of administrative costs and the other two states 45 percent each.

      Source

    3. June 8, 1963Debate

      Congressional hearing hears fears of “big government”

      At a joint Senate–House subcommittee hearing in New York, Arthur M. Cromarty of Suffolk County called himself “an outspoken foe of the Metropolitan Regional Council,” and two New Jersey county officials warned of a weakening of home rule. About 50 opponents from New Jersey counties attended.

      Source

    4. July 1, 1963Legislation

      Connecticut joins the tri-state compact and creates its own transportation authority

      Governor Dempsey signed bills creating the Tri-State Transportation Commission and the Connecticut Transportation Authority, the latter with $1 million for operations and a $2 million bond issue to subsidize or take over New Haven commuter service. New York had approved the compact; New Jersey had not.

      Source

    5. October 15, 1963Debate

      Survey finds residents willing to pay for regional planning

      At the Regional Plan Association’s conference, a survey of 5,600 residents showed nearly two-thirds of those outside the city approving a metropolitan planning agency with limited enforcement powers. The Long Island Rail Road’s president complained that after three years “nothing has been done, but we’re still talking about the same things”; William J. Ronan, the Tri-State committee’s chairman, replied that “a great deal has been done.”

      Source

  22. 1964

    1. Reported April 1, 1964Legislation

      New Jersey Senate blocks the tri-state compact a second time

      The Tri-State Transportation Committee had 587 employees and a budget totaling about $8.3 million since 1961, but existed by what one lawmaker called “a gentlemen’s agreement between the governors.” A version amended on February 5 to keep New Jersey out of any New Haven rescue passed in New York; New Jersey’s Senate Republicans rejected it, the majority leader warning of a super-agency able to control land use and condemn property.

      Sources

    2. July 1964Legislation

      Federal mass transit act signed as New Jersey’s compact bill fails

      President Johnson signed Senator Harrison A. Williams’s mass transit bill, providing $375 million over three years for transit equipment on a two-thirds federal basis. In Trenton, Senate Bill 222 for a Tri-State Transportation Compact failed. “I’m not opposed to a Tri-State Commission,” said Assemblyman J. Edward Crabiel. “But I am opposed to an operating one.”

      Source

    3. Reported October 4, 1964Debate

      Congressional candidate calls for a tri-state authority to run commuter railroads

      Responding to a Long Island Rail Road fare request, Liberal Party candidate Stanley J. Levy called for public ownership of the railroad and a Tri-State Transportation Authority, “similar to the Port of New York Authority,” to operate the region’s commuter lines and integrate them with the city’s system.

      Source

  23. 1965

    1. 1965Agency

      New York creates the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation Authority

      New York founded the authority to operate the Long Island Rail Road after the state bought the line from the Pennsylvania Railroad. William J. Ronan, Governor Rockefeller’s secretary and chairman of the Tri-State committee, was named its chairman.

      Sources

    2. Reported January 17, 1965Debate

      “The New Haven’s problem is not really its own”

      A Bridgeport Post columnist argued that the bankrupt railroad’s plight was part of a larger problem of treating transport as a unit, and that “a Tri-State Transportation Authority for the New York Region makes sense.”

      Source

    3. March 14, 1965Plan or study

      Regional Plan Association urges one public corporation for all commuter rail

      In a 12-point memorandum the association recommended that the three states establish a public corporation to maintain, modernize, and consolidate all rail commuter service, with the states bearing current deficits. Its president said any faltering of New Jersey’s railroads “would have several times the effect” of the New Haven’s.

      Source

    4. Reported April 13, 1965Legislation

      Hughes signs a planning-only Tri-State compact

      Governor Hughes signed a bill giving the Tri-State Transportation Committee official status, calling the compact “modest though it is in some respects.” The commission could apply for and receive federal planning funds but had no operating, condemnation, or land-use powers. “For once New Jersey is a leader instead of a dragger in regional activity,” The Record wrote.

      Sources

    5. Reported June 12, 1965Debate

      Erie Lackawanna says it will seek to abandon commuter service

      The railroad announced that unless it was relieved of the financial burden, it would file to abandon commuter service at the end of 1965. Its newest commuter cars dated from the 1930s. “The commuter situation,” a New Jersey rail planner said, “has been studied to death. All it needs is money.”

      Source

    6. Reported June 23, 1965Legislation

      Rockefeller signs: the Tri-State Transportation Commission becomes law

      Signing New York’s act, Governor Rockefeller noted that similar laws had twice been enacted there “only to fail of passage elsewhere,” and that enactment by New Jersey and Connecticut meant “organized transportation planning on a regional basis can go forward.” The commission would survey, plan, and recommend, continuing the work of the governors’ committee.

      Sources

    7. December 26, 1965Legislation

      Bill would merge eight transportation agencies

      State Senator Thomas J. Mackell of Queens said he would prefile a bill to consolidate eight state and interstate agencies, among them the Port Authority, the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, and the Tri-State commission, leading to a Tri-State Metropolitan Transportation Authority. It would need passage in all three states.

      Source

  24. 1966

    1. January 19, 1966Debate

      Nassau executive asks Washington to back a tri-state authority

      County Executive Nickerson urged Vice President Humphrey to support a tri-state transportation authority with power to make and enforce decisions. He praised the Tri-State commission as a step forward but said its “limited authority” kept it from putting projects to work.

      Source

    2. Reported May 20, 1966Plan or study

      Tri-State commission submits a $20 billion program

      Distilled from a four-year study, the 20-year program covered suburban rail, rapid transit, and limited-access highways, with direct no-change service from each suburban line to mid-Manhattan as a goal. The same week Governor Hughes released a $300 million, 10-year program for New Jersey’s commuter railroads.

      Source

    3. Reported August 22, 1966Plan or study

      Hughes asks the Port Authority to study linking the Meadows railroads

      Governor Hughes proposed that the Port Authority study how to hook up the railroads crossing the Meadows, by physical connection or transfer stations. The Jersey Journal recounted 45 years of failed “master plans” and quoted Governor Dempsey on the Tri-State committee’s founding: “Today we are going to appoint a committee to study the study committees.”

      Source

  25. 1967

    1. January 3, 1967Plan or study

      Commuter authority to study a fourth jetport

      William J. Ronan said the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation Authority would study jetport sites at Governor Rockefeller’s request, citing Calverton in Suffolk County and planned 100-mile-per-hour Long Island Rail Road trains. Grumman, which leased the field, opposed its conversion.

      Source

    2. January 4, 1967Plan or study

      Rockefeller proposes a regional transportation superagency

      In his State of the State message the governor proposed expanding the commuter authority to be “responsible for unified regional policy direction and control of mass transportation in the New York metropolitan region,” taking in the New York City Transit Authority and Robert Moses’s Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority.

      Source

    3. Reported July 27, 1967Agency

      Metropolitan Regional Council revives under Lindsay

      After “several years of desuetude” and the defection of suburban members, the council had eight committees at work and a budget of $80,000, half from New York City, and had applied for a $210,000 federal grant. Its goal was to enlist every county and city in the region as a dues-paying member.

      Source

  26. 1968

    1. 1968Funding

      New Jersey voters approve transportation bonds

      After the state’s transportation department warned that the traffic situation “would be hopeless without rail commuter service,” the public approved a $640 million bond issue with $200 million reserved for mass transit. The money went largely to repairs and replacing old rolling stock.

      Source

  27. 1970

    1. March 1970Agency

      Two governors set up a three-man Inter-Agency Task Force

      Governors Cahill and Rockefeller established a task force of Austin J. Tobin of the Port Authority, William J. Ronan of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and John C. Kohl, New Jersey’s transportation commissioner.

      Source

  28. 1971

    1. February 1971Plan or study

      Port Authority agrees to survey a new Hudson rail tunnel

      After Governor Cahill threatened to veto the Authority’s Kennedy Airport rail link unless it did as much for New Jersey, the commissioners agreed to survey a rail tunnel under the Hudson at Weehawken, and rail access to Newark Airport, and to examine improving and operating Penn Station in Newark.

      Source

    2. March 1, 1971Plan or study

      Task force: use Penn Station’s tunnel now, build a new one for the long term

      Tobin, Ronan, and Kohl reported that connecting the Erie lines to the Penn Central at Harrison and Secaucus would give through service to Penn Station “possibly a decade sooner” than a new rail tunnel, but that “the long term needs of trans-Hudson travelers could best be met by a new rail tunnel into mid-Manhattan north of 42nd Street.”

      Sources

    3. March 1971Debate

      Tobin refuses open-ended transit deficits; Kheel sues

      Tobin told legislators from both states that the Port Authority could not enter mass transit on an unlimited deficit projection. Governor Cahill called it a “negative, defeatist attitude” and told New Jersey’s commissioners he regarded them as “the policy makers.” Theodore W. Kheel sued to void the 1962 covenant; the federal courts dismissed the case. Tobin retired in December.

      Source

  29. 1972

    1. March 21, 1972Plan or study

      New Jersey’s 20-year transportation plan arrives without priorities

      The Department of Transportation presented a master plan with an estimated $3.1 billion in transit improvements, including a Weehawken tunnel to be built “by others.” “We have seen neither a plan nor a program but many projects lumped together,” said the Ridgewood Transportation Committee’s chairman.

      Sources

    2. Reported April 30, 1972Plan or study

      Tri-State planners price the region’s transit needs at $16.4 billion

      Estimates by the Tri-State Regional Planning Commission through 1990 came to $12.2 billion for New York, $2.9 billion for New Jersey, and $256 million for Connecticut. Ridgewood’s newspapers proposed their own plan, starting with an Erie Lackawanna–Penn Central interchange at Secaucus for direct entry into Penn Station.

      Sources

    3. November 15, 1972Plan or study

      Cahill and Rockefeller announce $650 million in rail projects and repeal of the covenant

      The governors announced a program with $390 million on the New Jersey side: a PATH extension through Newark Airport to Plainfield, and Erie-Lackawanna connections to the Penn Central at Kearny and Secaucus for direct service to Penn Station. They agreed on legislation to repeal the 1962 covenant for future Port Authority bonds.

      Source

  30. 1974

    1. June 11, 1974Plan or study

      Institute proposes the Port Authority as the region’s single transit operator

      The Institute for Public Transportation proposed that the Tri-State Regional Planning Commission write a binding transportation master plan, with zoning review and power to withhold federal funds, and that an expanded Port Authority coordinate service across three states. “This would end the present practice of transit authorities writing their own plans,” its director said.

      Sources

    2. June 1974Legislation

      New York repeals the 1962 Port Authority covenant

      Governor Malcolm Wilson signed legislation repealing the covenant that barred the Authority from investing bondholder funds in “unprofitable” mass transit; New Jersey had already enacted it. A legal challenge by bondholders was expected. The repeal was said to open about $1 billion in bonding capacity for transit.

      Source

  31. 1978

    1. November 1978Funding

      Tri-State commission votes to cut off the Regional Council

      The Tri-State Regional Planning Commission, which supplied about half the Metropolitan Regional Council’s $500,000 budget, voted to end its support and continue payments only month to month. The council by then spent most of its effort on a closed-circuit television network linking local officials.

      Sources

  32. 1979

    1. March 27, 1979Debate

      League of Women Voters opens a “Tri-State Town Meeting” on transportation

      A televised series asked how the region’s transportation should be managed. A columnist wrote that the Tri-State commission’s staff had “presided over the disasters” of unfinished projects “with nary a public whisper,” because it was “a planning commission with no responsibility to implement.”

      Source

    2. Reported June 21, 1979Debate

      Tri-State won’t explain its Westway approval; 98 percent of participants want regional transit decisions

      The commission declined for a third meeting to explain how it approved Westway against its own plan. Connecticut passed laws letting towns petition to leave its jurisdiction, and the three governors appointed a 15-member task force. Of more than 2,500 Town Meeting participants, 98 percent wanted regional decision-making imposed on the splintered transportation agencies.

      Sources

    3. July 1979Agency

      Metropolitan Regional Council shuts down

      The council, the region’s only association of local governments, discontinued operation after losing its Tri-State funding. Its planning director wrote that “the voice of local government in this complex region of ours has been effectively silenced by governmental appointees.”

      Sources

    4. August 1979Plan or study

      Task force staff suggest halving Tri-State’s territory

      A staff report for the governors’ task force recommended dropping outer counties, including Somerset, Middlesex, Morris, Monmouth, and Passaic in New Jersey, on the ground that their economic ties to the New York core had weakened. “It flies in the face of every definition I have ever seen of the New York region,” said Middlesex County’s planning chairman.

      Source

  33. 1981

    1. Reported February 22, 1981Agency

      Tri-State forms a council of economic advisors

      Fifteen business officials from the three states, including the states’ economic development commissioners, formed a Tri-State Council of Economic Advisors to seek common approaches to interstate economic issues, among them deteriorated rail freight and passenger service.

      Source

    2. Reported March 22, 1981Plan or study

      Governors’ task force reports: “New Directions for Regional Planning”

      The 223-page report called for stronger commission leadership and a Tri-State Regional Forum to respond to communities. The panel’s director said one commissioner had never attended a meeting. The commission then had 220 employees, spent $14.7 million a year, three-quarters of it federal, and reviewed federal funding requests for 586 local governments.

      Source

    3. May 1981Funding

      Connecticut cuts its Tri-State contribution

      The Legislature’s Appropriations Committee deleted the $140,000 that would have been Connecticut’s share. New York and New Jersey began work to continue as a two-state commission. Tri-State’s director said withdrawal could cost Connecticut more than it saved.

      Sources

  34. 1982

    1. June 30, 1982Agency

      Tri-State Regional Planning Commission ends

      Connecticut’s withdrawal took effect and the commission, which for more than 20 years had been the conduit for about $3 billion in federal aid, was gone. The New York Metropolitan Transportation Council took its offices, serving New York City and five New York counties. “Without Tri-State there isn’t that kind of framework,” one planner said.

      Sources

  35. 1985

    1. Reported December 20, 1985Plan or study

      State panel proposes a Hudson waterfront trolley

      A New Jersey transportation panel proposed a high-speed commuter trolley line from a Meadowlands park-and-ride through a Weehawken tunnel and south along the waterfront to Hoboken, Exchange Place, and Jersey City, with a busway and limits on parking, at up to $850 million. The Regional Plan Association’s “River City” report called for a waterfront planning agency able to override local zoning.

      Source

  36. 1996

    1. Reported February 15, 1996Plan or study

      Regional Plan Association proposes replacing the Port Authority and the MTA

      The association’s 25-year plan called for folding the two agencies into a Regional Transportation Authority for New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, and for $25 billion in new rail lines. The Giuliani administration “expressed scant enthusiasm”; Port Authority executives said “melding them together will prove difficult.”

      Source

  37. 2010

    1. October 2010Plan or study

      Christie cancels the ARC tunnel

      Governor Chris Christie canceled the ARC trans-Hudson tunnel project, which had $3 billion in federal New Starts funding. A Record columnist later wrote that he “killed a trans-Hudson rail project without offering any alternative.”

      Sources

  38. 2015

    1. Reported June 1, 2015Debate

      Columnist: a tri-state transportation authority “is worth exploring”

      After an NJ Transit fare-increase forum at Secaucus, The Record’s Alfred P. Doblin wrote that “the current mass transit model is not working” and that big projects “could be funded more easily if the costs were shared across a wider area.”

      Source

    2. November 2015Funding

      Federal government and two states agree to fund Gateway

      A deal between the federal government, New York, and New Jersey to fund Amtrak’s Gateway Project was brokered. The project included two new Hudson tunnels, a Penn Station south annex, a second Portal Bridge, and a loop for Bergen County trains.

      Source

  39. 2016

    1. May 5, 2016Agency

      New York City names its first regional planning director

      The planning department chose Carolyn Grossman Meagher to run a regional planning office announced by Mayor de Blasio in April 2015, at first a two-person office. “There’s sort of a history, over and over, of the region realizing it has shared problems,” she said, “and then lacking the capacity and sustained momentum to continue to work together.”

      Source

    2. June 2016Legislation

      Federal rule would make the region’s planning bodies write one plan

      The U.S. Department of Transportation proposed requiring multiple metropolitan planning organizations in one region to merge or draft a unified plan. Since Tri-State’s end the New York region had splintered into as many as ten such organizations, none crossing a state line. Three associations of planning organizations asked that the proposal be withdrawn.

      Source

    3. October 14, 2016Funding

      Schumer: Gateway financing could be in place in two years

      Senator Charles Schumer said federal financing for two new Hudson rail tunnels could be in place in two years, with construction beginning in 2019. The preliminary cost estimate was $23 billion. “We need the states of New York and New Jersey, working through the Port Authority, to come through,” said Senator Robert Menendez.

      Source

The 110 articles

Every article in the archive is cited by at least one entry above. Select a title to read it here.

List all 110 articles by date
  1. Transit Commission Named By DriscollThe New York Times, August 2, 1952 · cited in 2 entries
  2. State Transit Unit Accused Of InertiaThe New York Times, August 12, 1953 · cited in 1 entry
  3. Regional PlanningThe New York Times, December 1, 1953 · cited in 1 entry
  4. Transit: There Is A HistoryThe Record, February 21, 1955 · cited in 4 entries
  5. Studying Rapid TransitThe New York Times, August 2, 1955 · cited in 3 entries
  6. Monmouth County Planning BoardAllentown Messenger, August 25, 1955 · cited in 1 entry
  7. The New Transit Plan: Thinking BigThe Record, October 5, 1955 · cited in 1 entry
  8. 12 Point Program For Queens Submitted To Transit CommitteeBrooklyn Daily Eagle, August 24, 1956 · cited in 1 entry
  9. Narrowing Down The Transit QuestionThe Record, October 10, 1956 · cited in 1 entry
  10. Rapid Transit Costs Cut, Real Estate Board ToldThe Record, October 10, 1956 · cited in 1 entry
  11. Rapid Transit Loop Expensive But Officials Say It’s NeededBergen Evening Record, June 4, 1957 · cited in 2 entries
  12. Q. And A. On Transit, The Orphan Of GrowthThe Record, September 4, 1957 · cited in 13 entries
  13. Geography Also Stands In Transit Riders’ WayThe Record, September 5, 1957 · cited in 2 entries
  14. Funds Limit Port Authority OperationThe Record, September 5, 1957 · cited in 1 entry
  15. Rapid Transit Loop Opposed By MerchantsThe Record, September 5, 1957 · cited in 1 entry
  16. Rapid Transit Plan AssailedThe Central New Jersey Home News, September 23, 1957 · cited in 1 entry
  17. Symposium To Discuss Transit PlanJersey Journal, October 11, 1957 · cited in 1 entry
  18. Jones Labels Rapid Transit Priority WorkThe Record, October 30, 1957 · cited in 1 entry
  19. Proposed Subway To Jersey ScoredThe New York Times, December 23, 1957 · cited in 1 entry
  20. If Not This, What?Bernardsville News, January 2, 1958 · cited in 1 entry
  21. The Longest Journey Begins With A StepThe Record, January 29, 1958 · cited in 1 entry
  22. Rapid Transit Move Stalled by DemocratsThe Record, February 11, 1958 · cited in 2 entries
  23. Bi-State Transit Bill Is Signed Despite Mayor's Plea for StudyThe New York Times, April 24, 1958 · cited in 2 entries
  24. Anti-Metropolitan CounselThe New York Times, June 13, 1958 · cited in 1 entry
  25. Jersey Blocking Transit DistrictThe New York Times, June 15, 1958 · cited in 1 entry
  26. Metropolitan TransportThe New York Times, June 20, 1958 · cited in 1 entry
  27. Regional Council Checking HousingThe New York Times, October 12, 1958 · cited in 1 entry
  28. Transit Plan Block Laid To AuthorityThe Sunday News, October 19, 1958 · cited in 1 entry
  29. Misleading Information Against Transit BillThe Herald News, October 24, 1958 · cited in 1 entry
  30. Fares, Finances and Frustration in New York City TransitNational Tax Association, October 30, 1958 · cited in 1 entry
  31. Pesin Warns Transit District Means ‘Loop’ About Hudson’s NeckJersey Journal, November 7, 1958 · cited in 2 entries
  32. New Jersey’s Careful Plans To Stop TryingThe Record, November 12, 1958 · cited in 1 entry
  33. Rockefeller Bids For 3-State TalkThe New York Times, November 18, 1958 · cited in 1 entry
  34. Changes Suggested In Transit ProgramThe Record, November 18, 1958 · cited in 1 entry
  35. Rapid Transit Bill Passage Is UrgedThe Record, November 18, 1958 · cited in 1 entry
  36. Jersey Move Urged In Bi-State TransitThe New York Times, November 19, 1958 · cited in 2 entries
  37. Ask Assembly To Act On Transit ProblemsThe Record, November 25, 1958 · cited in 1 entry
  38. Rapid-Transit Query PosedThe Record, November 25, 1958 · cited in 1 entry
  39. Remedy For Confusion: Regional Groups DefinedPublication not recorded, December 3, 1958 · cited in 2 entries
  40. Government For A Metropolis: Bergen Ignores The DebatingThe Record, December 3, 1958 · cited in 1 entry
  41. Bi-State Rail Bill Killed In JerseyThe New York Times, December 8, 1958 · cited in 1 entry
  42. Council To Study TransitThe Jersey Journal, December 12, 1958 · cited in 1 entry
  43. Bi-State Transit District Proposed Commission, in Final Report, Also Urges Commuter 'Loop'The Courier News, January 6, 1959 · cited in 1 entry
  44. Official Agency To Plan Growth Of Region UrgedThe New York Times, January 9, 1959 · cited in 1 entry
  45. $500,000,000 Rail Loop Linking Jersey-Manhattan Now UrgedThe New York Times, January 9, 1959 · cited in 1 entry
  46. Text of Report Urging Full Legal Status for the Metropolitan Regional CouncilThe New York Times, January 9, 1959 · cited in 2 entries
  47. Crisis in New Jersey: Improving Commuter Service A Must, But No One Wants JobThe Courier News, January 19, 1959 · cited in 2 entries
  48. Lance's Proposed State Agency To Deal with Commuter IssueThe Courier News, January 19, 1959 · cited in 1 entry
  49. Two Transit Bills Get N.J. ApprovalBergen Evening Record, February 17, 1959 · cited in 3 entries
  50. We Must Keep Riding!The Daily Record, April 2, 1959 · cited in 1 entry
  51. Council Urges Meyner To Prod Port AuthorityThe Courier News, April 7, 1959 · cited in 1 entry
  52. Port Authority Balks At Providing Any FundsThe Courier News, April 7, 1959 · cited in 3 entries
  53. Bills Are Introduced On Bi-State Agency And Port Authority Plan Due on MondayThe Record, April 7, 1959 · cited in 3 entries
  54. Assembly Approves N. Y. Transit PlanThe Record, April 14, 1959 · cited in 1 entry
  55. Meyner Asks Action, Not More StudyAsbury Park Press, April 22, 1959 · cited in 1 entry
  56. Legislature’s Hits And Misses, A Study In Political ActivityThe Daily Register, June 4, 1959 · cited in 1 entry
  57. Legislature’s Hits and Misses, A Study In Political ActivityThe Record, July 7, 1959 · cited in 1 entry
  58. House Approves NY-Jersey Transit AgencyNewsday – Nassau Edition, July 7, 1959 · cited in 1 entry
  59. The Commuter Problem: Politics Again Is Biggest Bar To Solution of Transit CrisisAsbury Park Press, July 13, 1959 · cited in 1 entry
  60. Transit Agency Plan In Eisenhower’s HandsThe Courier News, September 10, 1959 · cited in 1 entry
  61. Senate OKs Bi-State Unit On TransportNewsday – Nassau Edition, September 10, 1959 · cited in 1 entry
  62. Tri-State Transport Agency Regional Plan Group BacksThe News, February 20, 1960 · cited in 1 entry
  63. Port Authority Wants To Steer Clear Of Deficit-Ridden RailroadsThe Record, July 15, 1960 · cited in 1 entry
  64. New R.R. Commuter Plan Offered For Area ReliefThe Record, August 16, 1960 · cited in 1 entry
  65. LIRR Head Bids For Tri-State Transport UnitNewsday, September 23, 1960 · cited in 2 entries
  66. Once More Unto The Breach!The Record, October 5, 1960 · cited in 1 entry
  67. Planning Group Supports Williams Transit ProposalThe Bayonne Times, March 23, 1961 · cited in 2 entries
  68. Regional Council Surviving AttackThe New York Times, April 7, 1963 · cited in 2 entries
  69. Dempsey Asks $1 Million Aid for RailroadThe Bridgeport Post, May 7, 1963 · cited in 1 entry
  70. Fears Expressed on Regional AidThe New York Times, June 9, 1963 · cited in 1 entry
  71. Two Railroad Aid Bills Are Signed by DempseyThe Hartford Courant, July 2, 1963 · cited in 1 entry
  72. Tri-State Area Is Willing to Pay for PlanningThe Daily Home News – New Brunswick, October 16, 1963 · cited in 1 entry
  73. Tri-State Transpo Unit Fights For Standing: Has No TeethThe Journal News, April 1, 1964 · cited in 1 entry
  74. Friction Keeps Transit Wheels ScreechingThe Sunday Home News, July 12, 1964 · cited in 1 entry
  75. The Regional ApproachNewsday, October 4, 1964 · cited in 1 entry
  76. New England SceneThe Bridgeport Post, January 17, 1965 · cited in 1 entry
  77. N.J. Called Key Area In Tri-State Rail PlansAsbury Park Press, March 15, 1965 · cited in 2 entries
  78. A Nervous First Step On A Long JourneyThe Record, April 13, 1965 · cited in 1 entry
  79. All Rockin', No Rollin' In Commuter ExplosionThe Record, June 12, 1965 · cited in 2 entries
  80. Tri-State Act Gets Praise At SigningThe Daily Item, June 23, 1965 · cited in 2 entries
  81. States Dragged Feet On Meeting Rail CrisisThe Morning Call, July 14, 1965 · cited in 4 entries
  82. Bill Is Set on Transit Agencies For 3 States; Merger SoughtNewsday, December 27, 1965 · cited in 1 entry
  83. U.S. Tie to Transportation Unit UrgedNewsday, January 20, 1966 · cited in 1 entry
  84. A Bold Transit RemedyThe Star-Ledger, May 20, 1966 · cited in 2 entries
  85. New 'Master Plan'? Rail Transit Studies: They Come and GoThe Jersey Journal, August 22, 1966 · cited in 6 entries
  86. Jetport Study Set; Calverton Use OpposedNewsday, January 4, 1967 · cited in 1 entry
  87. Let LIRR Agency Run Subways, Triborough Agency, Rocky AsksNewsday, January 4, 1967 · cited in 2 entries
  88. Regional Council's RevivalThe New York Times, July 27, 1967 · cited in 1 entry
  89. Transit Series: Port Authority FunctionThe Sunday News, April 16, 1972 · cited in 8 entries
  90. Integrated Commuter Rail System PlottedThe Sunday News, April 30, 1972 · cited in 3 entries
  91. Aux Armes CitoyensThe Sunday News, April 30, 1972 · cited in 2 entries
  92. What Commuters Can Expect Under PA PlanNew York Daily News, November 16, 1972 · cited in 2 entries
  93. ‘Revolutionary’ Plan to Debut Tuesday: Institute Puts P.A. at Tri-State Transit HelmThe Star-Ledger, June 9, 1974 · cited in 1 entry
  94. A Blueprint for Unified Mass TransitThe Star-Ledger, June 16, 1974 · cited in 1 entry
  95. Port Authority is Best Agency for Mass TransitThe Courier News, June 20, 1974 · cited in 3 entries
  96. How Will We Straighten Out The Tri-State Transport Mess?Asbury Park Press, March 27, 1979 · cited in 1 entry
  97. Municipal TV Hookup Falters as 2 Agencies ManeuverThe New York Times, April 29, 1979 · cited in 2 entries
  98. Who Should Be Making Decisions on Metropolitan Issues?Asbury Park Press, June 21, 1979 · cited in 1 entry
  99. Regional Local Government Has Been SilencedThe New York Times, July 21, 1979 · cited in 2 entries
  100. New ‘Metro’ Lines Prompt Mixed Reaction in JerseyCourier-News, August 25, 1979 · cited in 1 entry
  101. Tri-State Council is FormedThe Ridgewood News, February 22, 1981 · cited in 1 entry
  102. Tri-State: 'New Directions'The New York Times, March 22, 1981 · cited in 1 entry
  103. Move To Quit Tri-State Group Could Be CostlyThe New York Times, May 17, 1981 · cited in 1 entry
  104. Tri-State’s Demise Leaves Gap In PlanningThe New York Times, September 5, 1982 · cited in 2 entries
  105. Coming by Trolley: A Waterfront Transit RevolutionThe Record, December 20, 1985 · cited in 1 entry
  106. Remaking The Region: Port Authority, MTA Would Become New Regional Transit AuthorityThe Daily News, February 15, 1996 · cited in 1 entry
  107. There is no Moses on the road to SecaucusThe Record, June 1, 2015 · cited in 2 entries
  108. City Names Its First Regional Planning DirectorPOLITICO, May 6, 2016 · cited in 1 entry
  109. Is Tri-State Transportation Too Big to Plan?The Record, September 6, 2016 · cited in 4 entries
  110. New Hope for New Rail TunnelsThe Star-Ledger, October 15, 2016 · cited in 3 entries

From the newspaper archive

Open in the archive

How to read it

Events run in date order. Filter by type or by thread, or search. Each entry names the article or articles that report it; select a title to read the article on this page, or open it in the archive. An entry marked “Reported” takes its date from the article, because the article gives no date for the event.

Data and method

All 110 articles were read, and one entry was written for each event they report, with accounts of the same event merged. Event dates come from datelines and from words such as “yesterday” read against the publication date. Quotations are exact and were checked against the article text. The summaries are paraphrase. Full methods

Limits

The timeline shows only what the archived articles report. The archive is densest for 1957 to 1959 and thin after 1982, so a gap means few articles. Events before 1952 come from later retrospective pieces. Where articles disagree on a date, the entry says so. Publication names and dates are the archive’s.