Regional governance timeline

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.

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.

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.

The Joint Committee of Municipal Groups of Northern New Jersey publicly opposed creation of a separate transit authority. Counsel Augustus S. Dreier argued that the Port Authority’s existing revenues and coordinated control of rail and road facilities offered a way to sustain commuter service without new local taxation.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

The Division of Railroad Transportation proposed $6 million a year in state service contracts, consolidation of Shore passenger service under the Pennsylvania Railroad, and rerouting Jersey Central trains through Newark. It asked the Port Authority to buy 90 H&M cars for $8.55 million and lease them to the railroad, while placing H&M under bi-state control. The report opposed handing the Port Authority New Jersey’s entire rail problem; longer-term proposals included extending rapid transit and integrating services.

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.

In its third interim report, Tri-State described a $256,000 New Brunswick park-and-ride station, a proposed Manhattan–Idlewild rail-and-limousine connection, and a study of express buses on the West Shore railroad right-of-way. The busway proposal would preserve freight tracks and serve Bergen and Rockland passengers through local pickups and express running. The committee also outlined a major household and vehicle travel survey to support long-range planning.

New York created the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation Authority to take responsibility for the Long Island Rail Road and other commuter services. William J. Ronan, Governor Rockefeller’s secretary and chairman of the Tri-State committee, became its chairman. The authority purchased the LIRR from the Pennsylvania Railroad in early 1966, giving the state an operating body alongside the region’s planning commission.

Tri-State recommended a regional network of 32 publicly owned airports for growing business and private aviation. The plan combined primary and secondary fields with Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark, and called for about $38 million in additional public investment. It proposed greater federal and state contributions while leaving county and municipal governments as airport owners, applying regional coordination to a transportation field beyond commuter rail.

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.

Governor Nelson Rockefeller signed legislation to expand the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation Authority into the Metropolitan Transportation Authority the following March. William Ronan would chair the larger board and, by virtue of that position, the city transit system and Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority. The law brought rail, subway and toll facilities under common policy direction while retaining operating organizations and leaving the bi-state Port Authority outside the new structure.

State Senator Ned Parsekian proposed a rail hub near East Rutherford with radial and circumferential routes serving North Jersey, Rockland, New York City and major airports. He called for a joint planning and financing task force and substantial federal and state support. His proposal emphasized trips between suburbs as well as commuting to Manhattan, arguing that a regional network should follow people’s destinations across state and municipal boundaries.

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.

The Port Authority raised passenger-car bridge and tunnel tolls by 50 cents, projecting $36.6 million in additional annual revenue. It said the money would support airport rail links, direct Manhattan access for Erie Lackawanna trains and expansion of the Manhattan bus terminal, while Morris County officials demanded a fuller public explanation of the increases.

Tri-State’s Public Policy Toward Aviation report argued that road access, rather than runway demand alone, would constrain the region’s major airports. It proposed expanding suburban airports and identified Stewart Airport in Newburgh as the main facility capable of relieving the larger airports across the full range of destinations.

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.”