Dear friends of Regional Rail:

The next regular monthly meeting of the Regional Rail Working Group
(RRWG) will be held on Wednesday, October 28, 2009, 6-8pm (meeting will
start promptly at 6pm) Conference Room, NYPD Downtown Center 104
Washington Street (just north of Rector Street), Lower Manhattan.

Please note, that the evening before, Tuesday, October 27, 2009 6-8pm,
Auto-Free New York will hold its regular meeting at the same location.
The program may be of interest to Regional Rail advocates:

"Putting 'planning' in the NYC Planning Commission"
Tom Angotti, Professor of Urban Studies and Planning, Hunter College



At the RRWG meeting we will summarize our advocacy effort to halt NJ
Transit's deep cavern dead end terminal station 175 feet below 34th
Street and 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. Rockaway Cut-off - one-seat ride Midtown Manhattan-Aqueduct Racino-JFK
Airport and Rockaway Peninsula
3. regional rail equipment compatibility issues
4. Upper Level Loop Alternative for LIRR East Side Access
5. Lower Manhattan Access
6. Light Rail in the Lincoln Tunnel
7. 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

On the website please note read comments presented at NYCDCP hearing on
Hudson Yards rezoning --click on "current projects" and then "West
Midtown Manhattan Opportunities"

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)

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