Dear friends of Regional Rail:
 
The next regular monthly meeting of the Regional Rail Working Group will
be:
 
Wednesday, August 16, 2006  6-8pm (meeting will start promptly at 6pm)
Conference Room, NYPD Downtown Center 104 Washington Street (just north
of Rector Street),  Lower Manhattan. 
 
This will be our last meeting before the exhibit and program on Regional
Rail to be held at the Municipal Art Society's Urban Center, September 7,
2006 through November 8, 2006. The Municipal Art Society is well
respected civic organization that is concerned with improving the civic
realm in New York City. It led the battle to save Grand Central Terminal
and is championing efforts to rebuild Penn Station.
 
This is a major landmark event for the RRWG.  MAS has given us the main
gallery to fill with the concepts and proposals that we have been
developing over the past five years.  We will spend a goodly amount of
time polsihing off details about this event.
 
Other agenda items for Wednesday's meeting will include a quick update on
each of our key initiatives:
 
1. Risk assessment of Deep Cavern Sterminal stations
2. Penn Station Metro-Hub
3. Rockaway Cut-off -- some interesting new developments!
4. Penn Station-Grand Central connection
5. Lower Manhattan Access
 
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 Penn
Station Metro-Hub plan sets the stage for doing this.  Subsequent steps
are access to Lower Manhattan and the Penn Station-Grand Central link.
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 
 
Plan to attend the next meeting on August 16, 2006.
 
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.rrwg.org