Corrections or additions?
(This article was published in U.S. 1 Newspaper on December 2, 1998.
All rights reserved.)
Between the LInes
If you were looking at the New York Times New Jersey
section the other day (Sunday, November 22) you might have noticed the
lengthy feature on the crowding of commuter trains leading from New
Jersey into midtown Manhattan.
We read the Times piece and found it both fascinating and also vaguely
familiar. That’s because U.S. 1 printed a similar story 11 years ago
(September 23, 1987) in which Robert Saxon outlined most of the same
issues that contributed to the crowding back then and that pretty much
guaranteed that the crowding would only get worse. Saxon wrote about
the inherent limitations of the rail system, including the simple fact
that only so many cars can be squeezed onto the tracks between
Princeton and midtown at any given time. And that the obvious solution
of converting the present cars to double deckers (what a great idea)
wasn’t so obvious after all. There’s a tunnel under the Hudson River
that’s more like a funnel — one lane in each direction — and it will
not accommodate the double deckers. The Times reported that officials
from New Jersey and New York are contemplating a second tunnel. It
would require $5 billion in funding and at least a decade to build.
Saxon’s U.S. 1 story obviously did not offer much relief for the
harried commuters of central New Jersey. And Craig Terry’s cover
photograph for that story captured the commuting agony. It focussed on
a single weary businessmen, with a blur of frenetic travelers
disembarking from the train.
Years after that photo was published a man appeared at the U.S. 1
office and asked if he could obtain a back issue of the paper, the one
about commuting. He was our cover subject and he reported that shortly
after our story he had suffered a heart attack and given up commuting
forever. The photograph was a reminder of just what an ordeal the
commuter had endured.
In this issue Bob Saxon writes again for U.S. 1 — this time about
things that are working and that promise to get even better with time.
Saxon, along with senior editor Barbara Fox and correspondent
Christopher Mario, visited the R&D labs of the greater Princeton
business community recently, and returned with reports on developments
in the area of video imaging and display (see page 53).
Princeton, still known as the birthplace of color television, is now a
hotbed of another generation of video and imaging breakthroughs. We
can’t begin to guess what this research will lead to in the next 11
years. But we are sure that we will keep all of you posted on the
developments. Stay focussed.
Kids Places
Several readers noted that we omitted the contact information for the
children’s discovery center we profiled in last week’s issue. In fact,
a desktop publishing error resulted in the following list to be
omitted:
08520. 609-371-6150; fax, 609-371-6151. Cost on weekends is $7.99 per
person for both children and adults.
Philadelphia. Open daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., $6.95 for adults and
children ages one and over. 215-963-0667. Interactive holiday exhibit
boxes through January 4, and the original John Wanamaker’s Rocket
Express monorail.
Lane, East Brunswick. Open Tuesday to Sunday from 9:30 to 5:30 p.m.,
$6.50 for everyone older than 18 months. 732-254-3770.
Corrections or additions?
This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com
— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
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