Christie delayed good commuting news for well over 5 years

The lead story in The Record today delivered good news to commuters, whether they ride NJ Transit trains, above, or NJ Transit buses, below. Rail users can only speculate how their lives were made more miserable after Governor Christie cancelled the original Hudson River rail tunnels project in October 2010.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Reading The Record today, North Jersey residents must feel they've died and gone to commuting heaven.

NJ Transit rail riders will not only be getting new Hudson River rail tunnels, but those on the Main-Bergen and Pascack Valley lines finally will enjoy that coveted one-seat ride directly into Manhattan (A-1).

And NJ Transit bus riders will get a bigger and better Manhattan bus terminal that, hopefully, will put an end to rush-hour delays on the trip home to Bergen, Hudson and Passaic counties (A-3).

Christie curse

No thanks to Governor Christie, who killed the original Hudson River rail tunnels in October 2010 so he could divert the funds to bridge and road repairs, preserving his inflexible pledge not to raise taxes or fees of any kind.

And no thanks to The Record's editors and transportation reporters, who have been car-oriented more years than mass-transit users care to remember.

Take Road Warrior John Cichowski, who today waxes poetic over walkers and bikers who use the George Washington Bridge walkway, a distinct minority (L-1).

In more than a dozen years of writing his ditzy column, Cichowski has successfully avoided reporting on the quality of the commute -- by bus, rail or car -- and gone off on tangents that keep his ass firmly planted in front of a computer more than 99% of the time.

Local news

You know the news judgment at The Record stinks when a story about New Jersey Chief Justice Stuart Rabner revisiting Passaic city, where he grew up, is buried in Local today.

Rabner reunited with teacher Sheila Graham Woodson, his former classmate at Passaic High School, and the story runs with priceless photos of the pair on Thursday night and in the 1978 high school yearbook (L-6).

Not only that, but he said he intended to visit his mother, who "still lives in Passaic in the same house where he grew up."

Dinner, gas, tolls

If I ever find myself near Nyack, N.Y., in the mood for a good meal, I might drop into Communal Kitchen (BL-14).

But why would I or any reader make the trip in rush hour traffic -- to a restaurant that serves only dinner, and is 23.7 miles away from Hackensack via the Garden State Parkway?

What me worry, says Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung, who gives the destination restaurant 3 out of 4 stars today.

Ung not only gets paid to eat out, she gets reimbursed for meals on at least two visits --including all those artery clogging desserts she obsesses over -- as well as gas and tolls. 

Readers don't, so she should spend more time finding good places near where most of us live, not in another state.