Dear friends of Regional Rail:

The next meeting of the Regional Rail Working Group (RRWG) will be held
on Wednesday, March 24, 2010, 6-8pm (meeting will start promptly at 6pm)
Conference Room, NYPD Downtown Center 104 Washington Street (just north
of Rector Street), Lower Manhattan.

I would also urge you to attend the next Auto-Free New York meeting,
which will be held on Tuesday, March 23, 2010, 6-8pm, at the same
location. Our guest speaker will be the newly elected Councilmember
Margaret Chin, who will discuss transportation issues affecting Lower
Manhattan. For those of you who have ideas about Regional Rail and the
redevelopment of Lower Manhattan, this would be a good time to bring them
forward.

At the RRWG meeting discussion will center on recent efforts by regional
rail advocates to persuade new leadership in Trenton to have NJ Transit
drop its dead end deep cavern terminal station 175 feet below 34th Street
and to advance ARC Penn Station First -- a plan for connecting the new
Hudson River passenger rail tunnels directly into existing tracks and
platforms at Moynihan/Penn Station.

Time permitting, there will be progress reports on other RRWG
initiatives:

1. moving forward on the Penn Station Metro-Hub plan
2. Upper Level Loop Alternative for LIRR East Side Access
3. Restoring Rockaway Cutoff for one-seat ride to JFK Airport
4. Lower Manhattan Access
5. Regional Rail Freight and Intercity Rail Passenger issues

The purpose of the working group is to develop and advance plans for
converting the region's commuter rail lines into a regional rail system,
with fast, frequent service and affordable, integrated fares. The group
also considers changes to rapid transit and light rail transit that are
"regional" in scale.

Regional Rail issues are discussed on our website:www.rrwg.org

The Working Group includes:

Empire State Passengers Association
NJ Association of Railroad Passengers
Lackawanna Coalition
Five Towns Rural Transit, Inc.
Committee for Better Transit
Institute for Rational Urban Mobility
Sane Aviation for Everyone, Inc. (SAFE) (our newest participant)


See you on March 23, 2010 and March 24, 2010

geo

George Haikalis
Chair, Regional Rail Working Group
One Washington Square Village, Suite 5D
New York, NY 10012 phone: 212-475-3394

geo@irum.org     www.irum.org    www.auto-free.org      
www.vision42.org     www.rrwg.org