Who would pay for a railroad that crossed the Hudson?
A regional rail plan reached the state legislatures. Why did the new transit district never exist?
Explore the caseRegional governance timeline
THE HISTORY OF DECISIONS NEW YORK · NEW JERSEY · CONNECTICUT
Follow the decisions that shaped a divided transportation region.
Regional transportation institutions took shape through agreements and disagreements over money, jurisdiction, representation and operating control. This chronology follows those decisions across New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, with links to the reporting and records behind them.
Begin with a historical conflict below, or use the complete timeline to trace events by date. The companion newspaper archive preserves the reports themselves. Event dates describe when something happened; publication dates describe when its sources appeared.
THREE PATHS INTO THE RECORD
Start with a consequential question.
Read the history, follow dated turning points, then examine the original evidence.
How did a regional planning commission lose its region?
Why could eleven affirmative votes fail to approve a regional plan—and how did the commission disappear?
Explore the caseWhat did a through train at Penn Station actually prove?
What did the football train demonstrate about coordinating railroads—and what remained untested?
Explore the caseArticles and other sources, arranged by publication date. Undated items appear separately.
188 items
1952
March 3, 1952
Planners Back Transit Study
RPA endorses the New York and New Jersey bills creating a metropolitan rapid-transit commission. Paul Windels argues that highway improvements cannot solve congestion without comparable rail investment and a region-…
1953
August 12, 1953
State Transit Unit Accused Of Inertia
The Metropolitan Rapid Transit Commission was sharply criticized yesterday by City Planning Commissioner Goodhue Livingston Jr. for "dragging its feet." Mr. Livingston indicated that the transit agency, set up by th…
December 1, 1953
Regional Planning
The hearings held before the New York Metropolitan Rapid Transit Commission, with a twin commission from New Jersey sitting in, renewed interest in the desirability of seeing the region's mass transportation needs w…
1955
February 21, 1955
Transit: There Is A History
Editor, Bergen Evening Record. Dear Sir: In your section entitled “Voice of the People” of the Saturday edition, February 12, there was a very interesting letter by a Mr. Walter Zullig Jr. of Maywood. In my opinion,…
February 24, 1955
August 2, 1955
Studying Rapid Transit
Governor Meyner's announcement that he will approve a $150,000 appropriation for the Metropolitan Rapid Transit Commission apparently clears the way at last for the completion of a well-financed study of New York-Ne…
August 25, 1955
Monmouth County Planning Board
The Monmouth County Planning Board has announced that it has adopted a resolution on the recommendation of their railroad transportation advisory committee, headed by Irving Feist of Shrewsbury, urging the newly-cre…
October 5, 1955
The New Transit Plan: Thinking Big
It is difficult with only brief opportunity for reflection to grasp the whole significance of the proposed aerial rapid transit plan for the Metropolitan Area. It is big: it is revolutionary; whether it would work i…
1956
March 3, 1956
May 16, 1956
July 5, 1956
August 24, 1956
12 Point Program For Queens Submitted To Transit Committee
The Queens Chamber of Commerce will present its 12-point Queens Transit Program, designed to meet the boough’s requirements for the next 50 years, to the Metropolitan Rapid Transit Commission on Sept. 10th, accordin…
October 10, 1956
Narrowing Down The Transit Question
Neither the proposal for a regional transportation authority nor the proposal for community-supported rapid transit is new. Indeed, it seems almost a foregone conclusion that the Metropolitan Rapid Transit Commissio…
October 10, 1956
Rapid Transit Costs Cut, Real Estate Board Told
Jersey City, Oct. 10 – Towns and cities of the New York-New Jersey Metropolitan Area will have to pay part of the bill for a new rapid-transit system, but they may find that the bill will be far less than they expec…
1957
May 23, 1957
June 4, 1957
Rapid Transit Loop Expensive But Officials Say It’s Needed
Teaneck - It looks expensive, but we really need it. This was just about the sentiment of 100 County leaders and other interested persons as they listened intently at the Town House to an outline of the proposed rap…
August 20, 1957
September 4, 1957
Q. And A. On Transit, The Orphan Of Growth
The man in the photograph looks impatient. Why shouldn’t he? People in Northeast New Jersey have been waiting for rapid transit – speedy mass trail transportation in modern coaches from community to community and di…
September 4, 1957
Rapid Transit: Groups Didn’t Overlook This
Rapid Transit: Groups Didn’t Overlook This The Public Just Forgot In Excitement Over New Highways The Record September 4, 1957 Thousands Spent Rapid transit has been called the forgotten plan of the New York City ar…
September 5, 1957
Geography Also Stands In Transit Riders’ Way
To Jersey commuters who must beg entry every day, Manhattan may often seem to be a citadel with a moat and too few drawbridges. The Dead End True, the Hudson River is spanned at the north end of New York by the Geor…
September 16, 1957
September 19, 1957
September 23, 1957
Rapid Transit Plan Assailed
HARRIMAN (AP) — Robert Moses has attacked a proposal for a new bi-state agency to set up a unified rapid transit system between New York City and New Jersey. Moses told the regional conference on metropolitan areas…
October 9, 1957
October 11, 1957
Symposium To Discuss Transit Plan
A symposium on the Metropolitan Rapid Transit Commission’s report on the proposed $400,000,000 transit loop will be held at noon Oct. 29 in the grand ballroom of the Sheraton-Astor Hotel, New York. It will be under…
October 30, 1957
Jones Labels Rapid Transit Priority Work
Hackensack – State Senator Walter H. Jones said today a positive and workable program for providing northern New Jersey with a rapid-transit system must be a priority project of the 1958 Legislative session. The Rep…
December 23, 1957
Proposed Subway To Jersey Scored
The reaction to a new proposal for a Manhattan-New Jersey subway loop was almost unanimously unfavorable yesterday. The $500,000,000 plan is scheduled to be recommended this week by the Metropolitan Rapid Transit Co…
1958
January 2, 1958
If Not This, What?
The Metropolitan Rapid Transit Commission is reported to be considering a plan notably different from one presented its project director, Arthur W. Page. The new plan is said to follow Mr. Page's idea for a loop sys…
January 6, 1958
January 29, 1958
The Longest Journey Begins With A Step
Amid the Monday hullabaloo of highly localized political immediacies Senator Jones (R., Bergen) introduced legislation to create a metropolitan transit district. A similar but not identical bill was introduced by ni…
March 4, 1958
October 19, 1958
Transit Plan Block Laid To Authority
The Port of New York Authority is the major blockade in the path of the type of rapid transit system that is of vital importance to the metropolitan area and New York City itself. This point was underscored again an…
October 24, 1958
Misleading Information Against Transit Bill
IT should not be necessary to have to say this again, but in a letter to Governor Meyner and the Legislature released today the Metropolitan Rapid Transit Commission carefully emphasizes that: "The transit district…
October 24, 1958
October 30, 1958
Fares, Finances and Frustration in New York City Transit
* The views expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect the position of the New York City Administration. To the question: "why live in the City?" Robert M. Haig, former President of the National Tax Associ…
November 7, 1958
Pesin Warns Transit District Means ‘Loop’ About Hudson’s Neck
When the New Jersey State Legislature reconvenes on Monday, the General Assembly will have before it a bill by Sen. Walter Jones (GOP-Bergen)--backed by the Metropolitan Rapid Transit Commission and passed by the Se…
November 18, 1958
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 Comm…
November 25, 1958
Ask Assembly To Act On Transit Problems
Trenton – New York and New Jersey cochairman of the Metropolitan Rapid Transit Commission stood side by side in the State Assembly Chamber yesterday and asked for action instead of everlasting talk on the Metropolit…
November 25, 1958
Rapid-Transit Query Posed
Trenton – Can the Port of New York Authority, the operator of tunnels, bridges, airports, and other high-priced facilities be made to plan and operate a metropolitan rapid-transit system, too? In a battle of reports…
December 3, 1958
Government For A Metropolis: Bergen Ignores The Debating
Mayors and taxpayers in Bergen say they have their own troubles. Metro? That’s somebody else’s headache. Staggering Statistics Metro is a nickname for metropolitan government – not quite State level, but something m…
December 8, 1958
Bi-State Rail Bill Killed In Jersey
Proposal for Transit Area Will Be Offered Again TRENTON, N.J. — Legislation to establish a New York-New Jersey transit district died tonight in an Assembly committee after being completely rewritten. Thus it finally…
December 12, 1958
Council To Study Transit
Jersey City Mayor Witkowski has called the traffic and transportation committee of the Metropolitan Regional Council into session to consider new commuter plans in the wake of Assembly failure to approve a metropoli…
1959
January 6, 1959
Bi-State Transit District Proposed Commission, in Final Report, Also Urges Commuter 'Loop'
New York — (AP) — The Metropolitan Rapid Transit Commission has recommended the creation of a bi-state Metropolitan Transit District to implement any general transit plan for the New York-New Jersey area. In its fin…
January 9, 1959
$500,000,000 Rail Loop Linking Jersey-Manhattan Now Urged
NEW YORK CITY — The Metropolitan Rapid Transit Commission (MRTC) Monday recommended to the governors of New York and New Jersey the construction of a 500-million-dollar rail loop system to speed commuter traffic and…
January 9, 1959
Text of Report Urging Full Legal Status for the Metropolitan Regional Council
Following is the text of a report on the future of the Metropolitan Regional Council, made public yesterday by the Special Committee on Metropolitan Governmental Affairs of the Regional Plan Association: Findings an…
January 19, 1959
Crisis in New Jersey: Improving Commuter Service A Must, But No One Wants Job
By Frederic Cassin (First of a series on the rail commuter crisis) Preserving and improving commuter transit service in New Jersey is one of the more pressing problems facing the state these days. Most everyone agre…
January 19, 1959
Lance's Proposed State Agency To Deal with Commuter Issue
By Frederic Cassin (Second of a series on the rail commuter crisis) A new approach to the transit crisis—the creation of a state railroad agency—has been proposed to the new Legislature by Senator Wesley L. Lance (R…
February 17, 1959
Two Transit Bills Get N.J. Approval
Trenton, Feb. 17 — State Highway Commissioner Dwight R. G. Palmer announced yesterday that he was already laying the groundwork for what he called the first step toward solution of the transit problem. He said he ha…
February 17, 1959
Rockefeller Sets Up Transportation Unit
Rockefeller Sets Up Transportation Unit Albany, N. Y., Feb. 17 (AP) — Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller was expected to win final approval today of his plea for an agency to battle transportation problems. The Senate a…
March 27, 1959
New Bill Needed on Transit Plan
New Bill Needed on Transit Plan New York Measure On Agency Differs From Jersey's Bergen Evening Record March 27, 1959 Trenton, Mar. 27 — The State Legislature will have to draft and adopt a new transit-district bill…
April 2, 1959
We Must Keep Riding!
Assemblyman Alfred N. Beadleston's statement before the Eatontown Rotary Club that "New Jersey must keep riding," is one which all commuters know and believe, but one of which those who operate our railroads must be…
April 7, 1959
Council Urges Meyner To Prod Port Authority
Despite protestations by the Port of New York Authority that any involvement of the Authority in the New Jersey rail transit crisis “could well lead to the destruction of the Port Authority as a useful agent,” the P…
April 7, 1959
Port Authority Balks At Providing Any Funds
Solution of this state’s railroad commuter problem of rising fares and curtailed service, was tackled on three fronts yesterday while the Port of New York Authority, involved in each action, announced it would be im…
April 7, 1959
Bills Are Introduced On Bi-State Agency And Port Authority Plan Due on Monday
Trenton, Apr. 7 (AP)—The New Jersey Assembly will try next week to get in step with New York on the rapid transit problem. The two States have been dancing to the same music this year—a near avalanche of petitions t…
April 14, 1959
Assembly Approves N. Y. Transit Plan
Trenton, Apr. 14 — The State Assembly voted to go along with New York lawmakers’ changes in its bi-State approach to the rail-transit crisis following a bitter 45-minute debate yesterday. NO ALTERNATIVE Opponents at…
April 22, 1959
Meyner Asks Action, Not More Study
TRENTON (AP) – What’s needed in the transit crisis is action, not more study, says Gov. Robert B. Meyner. His highway commissioner Dwight R. G. Palmer agrees. Both men were cool at a news conference yesterday to a p…
June 4, 1959
Legislature’s Hits And Misses, A Study In Political Activity
Set up was a referendum on a $66,800,000 college construction board issue and enacted was a broad new college scholarship program. A State Division of Rail Transportation and a New York-New Jersey Transportation Age…
July 7, 1959
House Approves NY-Jersey Transit Agency
Washington – An agency formed by New York and New Jersey to deal with bi-state commuting problems won unanimous House approval yesterday. The easy passage of the measure in the House indicated that the Senate will g…
July 13, 1959
The Commuter Problem: Politics Again Is Biggest Bar To Solution of Transit Crisis
By James S. Brown State rail service has withered on the vine during two generations of political chicanery and gassy oratory and once again political wrangling appears the biggest stumbling block in efforts to solv…
August 5, 1959
September 10, 1959
Senate OKs Bi-State Unit On Transport
Washington – The Senate gave its unanimous approval yesterday to an agency formed by New York and New Jersey to deal with commuting problems in both states. One long-range effect of the action will be to provide new…
1960
January 26, 1960
January 28, 1960
February 7, 1960
February 20, 1960
Tri-State Transport Agency Regional Plan Group Backs
NEW YORK — The Regional Plan Association has endorsed the efforts of the Metropolitan Regional Council through its chairman, Mayor Robert F. Wagner, to establish a Tri-State Transportation Agency representing the st…
April 4, 1960
April 4, 1960
July 15, 1960
Port Authority Wants To Steer Clear Of Deficit-Ridden Railroads
The iron wheels of a dying railroad locomotive cry out, “Rapid Transit, Rapid Transit, Rapid Transit,” as the old iron horse races down hill in America’s public transportation history. NO. 1 PROBLEM Charging past th…
August 16, 1960
New R.R. Commuter Plan Offered For Area Relief
New York, Aug. 16 (AP) — A new railroad commuter plan has been offered to relieve the mounting traffic congestion besetting the New York Metropolitan Area. UNIFIED SERVICE The plan calls for a Tri-State agency to se…
September 23, 1960
LIRR Head Bids For Tri-State Transport Unit
By Francis Wood New York—Thomas M. Goodfellow, president of the Long Island Rail Road, said yesterday that creation of a tri-state transportation authority with the power and resources to plan and coordinate all com…
1961
March 7, 1961
March 9, 1961
March 22, 1961
June 17, 1961
June 29, 1961
July 1, 1961
August 30, 1961
September 1, 1961
It Appears To Be A Declaration Of War
Record editorial responds to the three governors’ new transportation initiative, emphasizing their declared preference for action over further study and the need to address the metropolitan area’s divided transporta…
October 19, 1961
1962
March 27, 1962
November 15, 1962
1963
March 2, 1963
April 7, 1963
Regional Council Surviving Attack
Leaders Expect 22-County Group to Continue By MERRILL FOLSOM The controversial Metropolitan Regional Council seems to be surviving as a second-level advisory group despite a recent groundswell of opposition. Leaders…
April 30, 1963
April 30, 1963
April 30, 1963
April 30, 1963
May 7, 1963
Dempsey Asks $1 Million Aid for Railroad
Governor Proposes New State Funds for Bankrupt Carrier LINKED TO PACT Money Would Hinge on Assembly Approval of Tri-State Commission HARTFORD, May 7 — (AP) Gov. John N. Dempsey announced today that he would submit l…
May 10, 1963
May 10, 1963
May 18, 1963
May 27, 1963
July 2, 1963
Two Railroad Aid Bills Are Signed by Dempsey
Gov. Dempsey signed into law Monday two measures designed to keep commuter service operating on the bankrupt New Haven Railroad. By a stroke of his pen, Gov. Dempsey brought into being two new agencies ... the Tri-S…
October 16, 1963
Tri-State Area Is Willing to Pay for Planning
By RALPH SODA NEW YORK — A survey of people in the 6,900-square-mile tri-state metropolitan area shows they favor regional planning to preserve their cities, protect their pleasant suburbs and improve transportation…
1964
January 12, 1964
March 5, 1964
April 1, 1964
Tri-State Transpo Unit Fights For Standing: Has No Teeth
By BOB DUBILL TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Behind a cloud of controversy and confusion, a three-state agency created by a gentlemen’s agreement among three governors is trying to unsnarl the New York metropolitan area’s per…
April 23, 1964
May 23, 1964
July 12, 1964
Friction Keeps Transit Wheels Screeching
That promotional thing which puts this suburban area “at the edge of the crowd” – meaning the New York metropolitan region – “but not in it” is misleading in its insular smugness. The fact is that tens of thousands…
August 9, 1964
October 4, 1964
The Regional Approach
Westbury—The $3,135,000 a year fare increase requested by the Long Island Rail Road again, demonstrates that Nassau’s mass transportation system is inadequate, archaic, uncoordinated and overpriced. Despite ten year…
1965
January 17, 1965
New England Scene
By Charles J. Stokes The plight of the New Haven calls for a drastic solution. But what solution? And, quite frankly, who pays for it? Just how bad the plight is can be judged from the fact that probably no major fa…
February 16, 1965
March 10, 1965
March 15, 1965
N.J. Called Key Area In Tri-State Rail Plans
NEW YORK (AP)—The Regional Plan Association made a new plea yesterday for interstate action to avert a railroad commuter crisis. The voluntary planning group submitted a 12-point memorandum to government and railroa…
March 24, 1965
April 13, 1965
A Nervous First Step On A Long Journey
In signing a bill to confer official status on the Tri-State Transportation Committee Governor Hughes had this to say: I consider the enactment of this inter-State compact, modest though it is in some respects, to b…
June 12, 1965
All Rockin', No Rollin' In Commuter Explosion
Commuter—one who spends his life In riding to and from his wife; A man who shaves and takes a train And then rides back to shave again. Absurd perhaps, but this little ditty by Elwyn Brooks White reveals a dismal as…
July 14, 1965
States Dragged Feet On Meeting Rail Crisis
It took World War II to arouse enough worldwide cooperation to set up the United Nations. Only with the past few years, despite more than a decade of mounting congestion and forewarnings of a general collapse of com…
December 2, 1965
December 27, 1965
Bill Is Set on Transit Agencies For 3 States; Merger Sought
New York—State Sen. Thomas J. Mackell (D-Queens) said yesterday he will prefile a bill in the Legislature that would consolidate the functions of eight state and interstate transportation agencies. Mackell, chairman…
1966
January 20, 1966
U.S. Tie to Transportation Unit Urged
Washington—Nassau County Executive Nickerson urged Vice President Humphrey yesterday to give his support to a tri-state transportation authority that would handle the metropolitan area’s transportation systems. Nick…
February 28, 1966
May 19, 1966
Urge Tri-State Plan on Transit
The three governors unveil Tri-State’s twenty-year, $10 billion transportation blueprint. William Ronan links coordinated planning to possible unified operations and financing, while Connecticut and New Jersey repre…
May 19, 1966
May 20, 1966
A Bold Transit Remedy
It is an imaginative, daring plan distilled from a four-year continuing study of the transit problems of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, an urbanized swath of increasing congestion. The program will test the w…
May 21, 1966
August 22, 1966
New 'Master Plan'? Rail Transit Studies: They Come and Go
TRENTON—Hudson County and other North Jersey commuters needn't hold their collective breath while awaiting the results of new mass rail transit studies urged upon the Port of New York Authority by Gov. Hughes. For a…
1967
January 4, 1967
Jetport Study Set; Calverton Use Opposed
New York—The chairman of the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation Authority said yesterday that his group will begin a study of jetport sites in the metropolitan area, but at the same time, operators of Suffolk's Ca…
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