By Robert Barchi

Legislation is quickly heading to Gov. Phil Murphy's desk that would dedicate $10 million to NJ Transit for initial planning for a light rail that would connect East Brunswick, New Brunswick, Piscataway and South Plainfield. This marks an important transportation investment in central New Jersey that will benefit the region for decades to come.

Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex, played an important role in including funding for the light-rail study. That shows a new and commendable commitment from leaders in Trenton to serious and consistent investments in mass transit that for too long have been lacking. Senate President Steve Sweeney, D-Gloucester, who sponsored one of the bills naming Transportation Trust Fund priorities, has been equally engaged in expanding light rail from Rutgers-Camden to Glassboro.

A light rail linking key parts of Middlesex County has the potential to bring enormous improvements to our environment, our regional economy and to the quality of life for the hundreds of thousands of commuters, workers, students and others who traverse the central Middlesex County corridors that include Route 18, Interstate 287 and countless county roads and bridges.

Chronic underfunding of New Jersey's transportation system has left the state with a rail system known for its delays and overcrowding, a road system where 1 in 11 of the bridges in New Jersey are in a state of dismal disrepair, and congested state highways that are connected to local roads that just can't handle the load.

For many years, starting with the visionary inception of NJ Transit in the 1970s, our state led the country in supporting and improving its transportation system, particularly its commuter and light-rail lines. The state was a center of commerce, respected for forward-thinking transportation policy and progress. New Jersey's workforce became mobile enough to grow. Benefits accrued to businesses big and small from this mobility -- including Rutgers University, which is the second-largest public employer in the state.

Unfortunately, New Jersey lost its way along that continuum of progress by affirmatively choosing to underfund the same system that delivered it to prosperity. The system today that so benefited New Jersey for decades is starving for investment and planning.

The new transportation capital plan is a good next step because the results of years of transit disinvestment are clear to all who seek to traverse the state, whether by road or rail. Traffic jams and gridlock contribute to air pollution as cars idle in endless delays. Trips that were once only a second thought are now major undertakings. Frustration abounds and tempers flare. The system that was once the envy of the nation is now an impediment to progress.

Managing mass transit is not easy. It takes continual planning, constant focus and it takes sustained investment. I know: Rutgers runs the second-largest mass transit system in the state. Moving students and staff around our campuses is fundamental to our mission -- when the buses don't run, our students can't learn. Over the past five years, we have made it our priority to invest in increasing the capacity and efficiency of the system that carries 90,000 riders every day. We have improved the flow of vehicles, pedestrians and bicycles along roads across the university and we've made them safer.

On a grand scale, New Jersey needs leaders in Trenton who are willing to do the same for mobility, both regionally and across the state. Let's acknowledge that the mobility of New Jersey's workforce is the lifeblood of progress, of economic vibrancy and of a better economic future for us all. New Jersey needs political leaders who are willing to make similar investments to improve the transportation system.

The region and the state have sorely needed a commitment to our mass-transit and transportation infrastructure. New Jersey's legislative leaders have taken a major step in the right direction.

Robert Barchi is the president of Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.

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