To the Editor:

I applaud your recent front-page photo of Blair Hall, where, you note, the Dinky once stopped. On June 25, Henry Posner III, chair of Railroad Development Corporation (RDC), addressed the Transportation Research Forum in Newark. RDC owns — and has owned — railroads from Malawi to Iowa (the former Rock Island Line). Mr. Posner (Princeton ’77) titled his talk “Worth More Dead than Alive? Lessons in Railroading from Guatemala, Estonia and … New Jersey” (see www.rrdc.com/speech_nwk_TRF_062514_print.pdf).

In Guatemala, an abandoned railroad, restored by RDC, was virtually appropriated by the government for its real estate value. After operations subsequently ceased, tracks and bridges were pilfered and sold for scrap. The lesson: Guatemala had then what Posner called “a Culture of Impunity.”

In Estonia, RDC acquired interest in a former state-owned railroad but was forced to sell it back after the government expropriated access to the main line. The lesson? Another “Culture of Impunity”!

Princeton’s Dinky station, Posner noted, was listed on the New Jersey Register of Historic Sites in Spring 1984. That October, with railroads in trouble, NJ Transit sold the station property to Princeton University for $900,000, reserving the easement and operating rights. The contract let the University move the terminus southward (a provision never submitted for NJDEP approval). And, in 1988, the terminus was moved, to the southern half of the platform.

In 2006 — quoting Posner’s transcript — “the University received its largest-ever gift from Peter Lewis” and began talking “about how it would really, really, really be helpful to make it easier to drive to the campus … and then Governor Chris Christie is elected and becomes a Trustee at Princeton.” Suddenly, “there are discussions about how funding for the Dinky might be at risk” without “some serious cooperation.” Even NJ Transit “argues that the University has the right to move the station, etc. The Governor writes letters of support.” One letter claims relocating the station will increase ridership. “Well,” Posner says, “nobody who knows anything about transportation is going to argue that moving a station away from the market will increase ridership.”

Indeed, Posner notes, Dinky ridership fell 13 percent while ridership on the Northeast Corridor increased 10 percent.

NJ Transit then petitions “the NJ State Office of Historic Preservation seeking approval to prematurely abandon its easement,” Posner continues. “Not surprisingly, the various New Jersey agencies involved including the Historic Sites Council (HSC) all agree.”

Meanwhile, in August 2011, RNC “offer[s] to partner with the borough to condemn the station through eminent domain in order to keep the footprint in place.” Borough Council demurs. “The University claims that it will indemnify NJT to put the station back if there is an unfavorable legal development.” But “who could have predicted that ‘Bridgegate’ would come along? Now … the entire process by which decisions are made in New Jersey is brought into question.”

In New Jersey too, Posner concludes, “the fix is in.” Save the Dinky, Inc., which has applied for 501(c)3 status, doesn’t agree. Its legal efforts are ongoing. Please visit www.savethedinky.org to help.

ANNE WALDRON NEUMANN

Alexander Street