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.
170 items
1953
November 12, 1953
1955
January 16, 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 15, 1955
August 15, 1955
August 15, 1955
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
April 16, 1956
April 17, 1956
May 16, 1956
July 5, 1956
July 9, 1956
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 5, 1957
August 30, 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 5, 1957
Funds Limit Port Authority Operation
Many a commuter leader, watching rail service deteriorate from year to year, has sometimes bitterly asked: “Why can’t the Port of New York Authority take over and give us a workable rapid-transit system? The Port Au…
September 5, 1957
Rapid Transit Loop Opposed By Merchants
Jersey City, NJ – The Jersey City Merchants Council today claimed that the Page plan for a rapid transit loop into New York is a threat to the entire business community of Jersey City. A Council transit study commit…
September 12, 1957
September 14, 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 14, 1957
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 7, 1958
January 23, 1958
January 31, 1958
March 4, 1958
March 23, 1958
April 21, 1958
September 10, 1958
September 10, 1958
September 10, 1958
October 8, 1958
October 12, 1958
Regional Council Checking Housing
Inventory of 22 Counties Started as Part of Drive for Congress Funds By CHARLES G. BENNETT The Metropolitan Regional Council is preparing to throw its influence behind demands on Congress for extensive housing funds…
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 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 12, 1958
New Jersey’s Careful Plans To Stop Trying
Senator Jones's (R., Bergen) comment that the public hearing is a good weapon with which to kill legislation is acceptable within his specifically intended context. He refers to the hearing scheduled in Assembly com…
November 18, 1958
Rockefeller Bids For 3-State Talk
He Will Seek Early Parlay With Meyner And Ribicoff CARACAS, Venezuela, Nov. 17–Nelson A. Rockefeller, Governor-elect of New York, said today that he would seek an early meeting with Gov, Robert B. Meyner of New Jers…
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…
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 4, 1958
1959
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 13, 1959
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…
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 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…
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…
1960
January 28, 1960
February 7, 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…
October 5, 1960
Once More Unto The Breach!
Despite the agreement of the three metropolitan-region Governors and Mayor Wagner to create a new interstate committee to well, after all these years to--study and report on the crisis in transportation, they don't…
1961
April 18, 1961
June 17, 1961
June 29, 1961
1962
June 7, 1962
1963
February 19, 1963
May 10, 1963
May 10, 1963
May 10, 1963
September 11, 1963
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
January 12, 1964
April 6, 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…
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
February 16, 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…
April 27, 1965
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 12, 1965
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
1966
December 12, 1966
1967
January 4, 1967
Let LIRR Agency Run Subways, Triborough Agency, Rocky Asks
Albany—Gov. Rockefeller proposed today that the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation Authority, which runs the Long Island Rail Road, be expanded into a superagency that also would run the New York City subways, som…
September 11, 1967
September 12, 1967
September 13, 1967
September 13, 1967
September 14, 1967
September 14, 1967
September 15, 1967
September 15, 1967
1969
April 4, 1969
1971
August 14, 1971
September 10, 1971
November 12, 1971
December 17, 1971
December 28, 1971
1972
April 9, 1972
April 16, 1972
Transit Series: Port Authority Function
Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus. – Shakespeare In New York State the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is engaged in a $1 billion effort to revive and modernize all available commuter…
April 23, 1972
Transit Series: State Lags On Priorities
Transit Series: State Lags On Priorities The Sunday News April 23, 1972 "It is impossible in this day and age to build enough highways to carry all of New Jersey's Metropolitan traffic load." said a master plan publ…
April 30, 1972
Integrated Commuter Rail System Plotted
For more than 30 years experts recognized the need to modernize and reorganize last century's commuter and rapid transit railroads in the New York City metropolitan region but a realistic, foresighted plan was never…
1973
January 29, 1973
July 16, 1973
1974
February 7, 1974
February 7, 1974
June 16, 1974
A Blueprint for Unified Mass Transit
The Institute for Public Transportation has conceived a bold and imaginative plan to create the largest and most efficient mass transit system in the United States. The proposed network of rails, buses and subways w…
June 20, 1974
Port Authority is Best Agency for Mass Transit
A new and exciting era of mass transit for the New York metropolitan area has been made possible by legislative action broadening the public transportation role of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Legi…
1975
February 5, 1975
September 27, 1975
October 6, 1975
October 17, 1975
1976
January 22, 1976
February 16, 1976
May 19, 1976
August 25, 1976
November 2, 1976
November 2, 1976
December 5, 1976
1977
January 26, 1977
June 6, 1977
July 19, 1977
1978
June 2, 1978
August 22, 1978
November 10, 1978
1979
March 27, 1979
How Will We Straighten Out The Tri-State Transport Mess?
By MICHAEL J. McMANUS This column is being published in cooperation with the League of Women Voters' "Tri-State Town Meeting" project. The public policy choices summarized below will be debated in a broadcast at 10…
April 27, 1979
June 21, 1979
Who Should Be Making Decisions on Metropolitan Issues?
By MICHAEL J. McMANUS This is the last of a series of columns to be published as part of a “Tri-State Town Meeting” sponsored by the League of Women Voters. The issues in this column will be debated at 10 p.m. tonig…
July 21, 1979
Regional Local Government Has Been Silenced
By Evan Liblet To the Editor: The Metropolitan Regional Council, the region's one and only association of local governments, became a thing of the past early this week when it was forced to discontinue operation due…
August 25, 1979
New ‘Metro’ Lines Prompt Mixed Reaction in Jersey
By PAUL OVERBERG A staff report issued last week by a group studying the future of the powerful Tri-State Regional Planning Commission recommended that the agency drop half of its 100-municipality jurisdiction, incl…
1981
January 11, 1981
February 22, 1981
Tri-State Council is Formed
NEW YORK - Fifteen leading business officials from the states of Connecticut, New Jersey and New York, including the three states' economic development commissioners, have formed a Tri-State Council to seek common a…
March 22, 1981
Tri-State: 'New Directions'
THE Tri-State Regional Planning Commission, a planning organization for New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, drew renewed attention recently after a blue-ribbon task force, appointed by the Governors of the three s…
June 4, 1981
December 16, 1981
December 17, 1981
Task Force Suggests Scrapping Tri-State Regional Plan Commission
The governors’ task force recommends abolishing Tri-State, auditing and settling its accounts, and designing a new regional planning and policy-analysis framework. The article details its criticisms of accountabilit…
1982
February 10, 1982
1985
December 20, 1985
Coming by Trolley: A Waterfront Transit Revolution
EARLY IN the century, Henry Ford ignited a revolution by lowering auto prices to within reach of middle-class families. That revolution led to another when those families and their cars moved to the suburbs. That, i…
1989
April 21, 1989
1991
October 29, 1991
1994
October 26, 1994
Officials Win One-Year Road Widening Moratorium
They had to destroy the town to save it (from traffic congestion). WNBC 11:00 O'Clock News for Oct. 23 featured town officials from North Plainfield, NJ who had recently won a one year moratorium on action by the NJ…
November 2, 1994
NYC DOT Establishes Gowanus Construction Acceleration Task Force
For its Gowanus Expressway reconstruction project, the New York State DOT recently established a new "Construction Acceleration Task Force" consisting of state highway planners, Brooklyn elected officials and some b…
November 2, 1994
Long Island Railroad Gets a "C" From Riders
The Long Island Railroad received overall "C" grades from its riders in the LIRR Commuter's Council annual survey for the eighth consecutive year. Last year, 49% of riders said the railroad was improving: this year,…
November 16, 1994
Pataki's Likely Transit Cuts
The election of George Pataki to the State House in Albany will likely put additional financial pressure on NYC transit systems. Mayor Giuliani's announced 1994-95 cuts in New York City's contribution to Transit Aut…
November 30, 1994
Transit Advocates Critical of Specific Fare Deal Provisions
Concerns over the specifics of the MTA's recently proposed Fare Deal program cited by transit advocates: ¢ The $74.25 price of a monthly pass requires riders to use the subway 55 times a month to break even with the…
November 30, 1994
SI Disputes MTA Toll Plans
The MTA's proposed financing of monthly subway and bus passes and an end to two- and three-fare zones not only relies on transit fare increases to $1.35 in July, 1995 and to $1.50 in 1997, but also on increasing MTA…
November 30, 1994
NY Commuter Rail Parking Guidelines and Issues
NY State Dept. of Transportation and Long Island Railroad guidelines dictate a need for more commuter rail station parking if usage of existing spaces is greater than 80%. Daily usage of the 34,748 parking spaces at…
December 14, 1994
NYCDOT, Counties Grapple With Employee Commute Program
City and county agencies grappling with the recent Clean Air Act employer commute option (ECO) program filing deadline relate a swamp of confusing classification and information problems, jurisdictional questions an…
December 14, 1994
Giuliani Calls for Metro-North, LIRR Connections to Downtown
Contained in a forthcoming Giuliani Administration announcement of tax breaks and zoning changes designed to boost the economy of slumping downtown Manhattan are calls for initial steps to connect Long Island Railro…
December 14, 1994
Molinari Lashes PA over $1 PATH Fare in Face of Verrazano Toll Hike
Staten Island Borough President Guy Molinari lashed the Port Authority of NY and NJ and its PATH train service following announcements of a likely 1996 Port Authority bridge and tunnel toll increase last week. Molin…
December 22, 1994
Pataki May Make MTA Chair Position Part-Time
The Daily News reported December 19 that the Pataki transition team may make the job of MTA Chair part-time. The move would give the 17-member MTA board more authority over the downstate NY transit system, and widen…
December 22, 1994
MTA Board Delays Budget Over Fare Deal
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority board decided yesterday to delay the adoption of its operating budget. The board heard Republican members challenge the wisdom of voting in favor of a $5 billion budget that…
December 22, 1994
NJPIRG, ATU Distribute Flyers Against Possible Fare Hike in Trust Fund Plan
NJPIRG and the Amalgamated Transit Union distributed over 50,000 anti-fare hike fliers December 20 on NJ Transit buses. The leaflet says Governor Whitman is considering raising transit fares as part of the Administr…
1995
February 9, 1995
1996
February 15, 1996
Remaking The Region: Port Authority, MTA Would Become New Regional Transit Authority
By DOUGLAS FEIDEN The Port Authority and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority should be dismantled to make the city’s giant transportation system leaner and meaner. That’s a cornerstone of a 25-year master plan…
1998
November 23, 1998
2003
December 12, 2003
2015
June 1, 2015
There is no Moses on the road to Secaucus
By ALFRED P. DOBLIN TWO WEEKS ago, I attended one of NJ Transit’s public forums on its proposed rate hike. The average increase is expected to be 9 percent. The forum I attended was inside the so-called Secaucus Tra…
2016
September 6, 2016
Is Tri-State Transportation Too Big to Plan?
By Stephen Miller A new federal rule could unify the New York region’s jumble of official transportation plans into a single vision for the entire metropolitan area. But some planning advocates worry the Obama admin…
October 15, 2016
New Hope for New Rail Tunnels
Funding could be in place in two years for project under Hudson, official says. Federal financing could be in place in two years to build two new rail tunnels under the Hudson River that would augment the crumbling…
2017
December 4, 2017
2018
April 29, 2018
2021
November 4, 2021
2022
October 9, 2022
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