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.
58 items
1957
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…
1958
December 3, 1958
Remedy For Confusion: Regional Groups Defined
December 3, 1958 Any one who tries to understand metro problems in the New York City area runs into an alphabet soup of initials and nicknames given to agencies or groups working toward goals that sometimes appear t…
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…
1959
January 9, 1959
Official Agency To Plan Growth Of Region Urged
Report Asks Legal Status For Metropolitan Council As Goverment Adviser A proposal that the Metropolitan Regional Council receive “full and effective” legal status was put before the Regional Plan Association yesterd…
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…
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…
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…
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…
1967
July 27, 1967
Regional Council's Revival
After several years of desuetude, the Metropolitan Regional Council is showing encouraging signs of revival. It fell victim several years ago to parochial fears and jealousy in the suburbs of New York City, which le…
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…
December 29, 1972
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…
1976
April 29, 1976
August 25, 1976
1977
March 2, 1977
July 10, 1977
September 30, 1977
1978
January 29, 1978
August 22, 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…
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…
1980
August 7, 1980
August 28, 1980
1981
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…
May 17, 1981
Move To Quit Tri-State Group Could Be Costly
HARTFORD CONNECTICUT'S move to withdraw from the Tristate Regional Planning Commission could end up costing the state more money than it would save. But aside from the symbolic effects of Connecticut severing its pl…
May 28, 1981
1982
February 3, 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…
1994
October 26, 1994
NJ DOT and Campaign Works Toward Collaborative Planning Process
In an October 26 meeting with NJ DOT Commissioner Frank Wilson and top NJ DOT staff, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, Rutgers Environmental Law Clinic and NJPIRG took steps toward developing a collaborative tr…
November 2, 1994
Airport Rail Right-of-way Tour Led by RPA
Tri-State Campaign members toured proposed sites of the Port Authority's airport rail project in Jamaica Center and in Woodside, Queens, Monday, Oct. 31. Returning to Regional Plan Assn's office for an afternoon mee…
November 2, 1994
New Jersey Transit Restores Train Service to Closed Stations on Boonton line
New Jersey Transit restored commuter train service to Hackettstown and Mount Olive Monday, Oct. 31, extending the reach of its Boonton line by nine miles and two stations. The last commuter rail service seen in Hack…
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
Meeting Spurs Road Pricing Discussion
"Cautious but interested" was the reaction of leading NYC environmental justice activists to Tri-State Transportation Campaign board member Charles Komanoff's discussion of road pricing at the annual meeting of the…
November 2, 1994
TSTC Writes to NYS DOT on Failure of Cross-Westchester Collaboration
The Tri-State Transportation Campaign is preparing a letter to NY State Transportation Commissioner John Egan to express its disappointment and disturbance over a recent letter Egan wrote to the Environmental Defens…
November 9, 1994
CT Route 6 Collaborative Update
The Route 6 collaborative planning effort in Connecticut has narrowed the options that will go into the project's draft environmental impact statement to three upgrades to the existing roadway alignment, at least on…
November 9, 1994
Franklin Ave Shuttle Site of Leafletting Action
In a Halloween Day protest, Franklin Avenue Shuttle riders and NYC transit advocates called on the MTA to save the shuttle by restoring funding for construction. Handing out leaflets that said Don't Make a Ghost of…
November 9, 1994
EIS Comments Topic of PA Airport Rail Letter to TSTC
Port Authority Airport Access Director Edward O'Sullivan wrote to the Tri-State Transportation Campaign in response to the October 19 issue of this bulletin, clarifying that it was the Federal Aviation Administratio…
November 9, 1994
TSTC Members Meet With EPA Over TIP/SIP Conformity
On Tuesday, Nov. 8, Tri-State Transportation Campaign, Scenic Hudson, Rutgers Environmental Law Clinic and Brian Ketcham Engineering representatives met with US EPA's Region II Air Branch staff, including Conrad Sim…
November 16, 1994
NJ Transit Friendly Design/Planning Handbook Released
NJ Transit has released a new handbook for town officials, planners, developers and citizens on how to make communities and developments transit friendly. NJ Transit director Shirley DeLibero said that the book is d…
November 16, 1994
Environmental Council of Stamford Organizing on Transportation Issues
Anew transportation advocacy coalition is emerging in southwestern Connecticut. Presently known as the Connecticut Transportation Futures Coalition, citizens groups led by the Environmental Council of Stamford (ECOS…
November 16, 1994
Bratton Says No Savings With Police Merger
A November 15 MTA Board meeting to discuss Mayor Giuliani's proposal to merge the NYC Transit Police into the NYPD saw vociferous opposition expressed by representatives of transit police and transit workers unions…
November 30, 1994
MTA Board Removes Franklin Ave Shuttle From Capital Plan
The MTA Board voted November 22 to remove the reconstruction of Brooklyn's Franklin Avenue Shuttle from its Third Capital Plan. The Board was pressed hard on funding the decrepit Shuttle's rehabilitation by Brooklyn…
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 7, 1994
Rail on Goethals Bridge Subject of Meeting
At the December 7 Goethals Interagency and Public Interest Working Group meeting, Goethals Bridge Twin Project Manager Dennis Vignola announced that the Port Authority study of the feasibility of rail transit over t…
December 7, 1994
Connecticut Transportation Control Measures Study Almost Complete
The Connecticut Fund for the Environment's Transportation Control Measures Study is nearly complete. This study, undertaken in partnership with the United Illuminating Company, the Connecticut Dept. of Environmental…
December 7, 1994
NYMTC Committee Considers Candidates for Downstate MIS
On December 1, 1994, the NY Metropolitan Transportation Council's (NYMTC) Program, Finance and Administration Committee met and adopted a list of candidates for downstate major investment studies. The adoption of th…
December 7, 1994
STPP Hosts ISTEA Reauthorization Strategy Meeting in Washington
The Surface Transportation Policy Project (STPP) hosted a meeting of transportation advocates from around the U.S. in Washington on December 5. The gathering had been organized some time ago as a strategy discussion…
December 7, 1994
Franklin Av Shuttle Subject of NYC Transit Budget Review
Although the MTA Board removed Franklin Avenue Shuttle reconstruction from the Third Capital plan, it passed a mandate to the Transit Authority to review its capital budget to see if any funding for shuttle reconstr…
December 14, 1994
Environmental Justice Alliance, NRDC Attend Chicago Conference
Representatives of the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance and NRDC attended the Transportation, Environmental Justice and Social Equity Conference in Chicago November 16 and 17. The conference highlighted…
December 22, 1994
U.K. Dept. of Transport Study Says Roads Create Traffic Capacity
A major review of British evidence on the generation of additional motor vehicle traffic by new road construction was released Dec 19. It concluded that in many cases, roads do generate traffic and recommends method…
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…
2022
June 25, 2022
August 26, 2022
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