Residents want answers on freight rail plan

BY JASON JETT
STAR-LEDGER STAFF
After a 15-year hiatus, is freight train service returning to tracks that cut through residential neighborhoods of eight towns in Union County?

State transportation officials and a railroad executive say yes, but the county administration insists the project can be stopped.

Yesterday, residents and municipal officials in several towns that would be affected said they do not know whom to believe.

"The county keeps telling us that it's not going to happen without our consent, but they (railroad workers) are laying track in our town," Roselle Mayor Joseph Croteau said.  - See Roselle Area Map>

Kenilworth Mayor Michael Tripodi, an attorney, said his interpretation of the contract signed by the county and Morristown & Erie Railway is that there is no provision for derailing the project.  - See Kenilworth Area Map>

Seeking definitive answers from county officials, some 50 members of the Kenilworth ad hoc group, "Stop the Train," will attend the county freeholder meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday.

One member is JoAnn Dillon, who faces the prospect of freight trains passing on one side of her house after living the past 30 years with the din of the Garden State Parkway on the other.

"Why is it, that with all our politicians, no one knew about this?" she asked. "What are they trying to hide? Why was there no public forum on this?

"While the tracks were abandoned, homes, apartments 'and stores have been built at close proximity," added the resident of Faitoute Avenue m Kenilworth. "Has anyone really thought of this?"

Dillon said trains have not used tracks near her home, since the mid-1980s, when there was one locomotive and car a day.

The resident said she fears the potential of heavy freight traffic in order for the service to be profitable.

Arlene Murphy of Roselle remains perplexed after receiving sharply contrasting scenarios about the railroad on successive days late last month.

First came a letter from county Freeholder Nicholas Scutari in which he told residents of Roselle, Roselle Park, Kenilworth and Springfield "there is no intention of starting rail service along these lines in your community." - See Scutari Letter>

The next morning there was a knock on her door from Teamsters engaged in protracted labor talks with the ConocoPhillips refinery in neighboring Linden. - Full Story>

Some two weeks before ratifying a four-year contract Friday, 50 members of Teamsters Local 877 went door to door in Roselle and Linden seeking to direct public outrage over the rail proposal at the refinery. Union members asked Murphy to sign a petition opposing an rail reactivation, and handed her leaflets urging residents to demand answers from the refinery.

Tosco Inc., the former owner of the refinery between the New Jersey Turnpike and Routes 1&9, entered an agreement with Union County in July 2001 to reactivate a portion of the old Staten Island Railroad on the complex.

To accommodate a polypropylene plant to open at the refinery in 2003, the county also signed a contract in May with Morristown & Erie to extend the rail reactivation through Linden and Roselle and into Cranford. The reactivation is to extend north and west through Roselle Park, Kenilworth, Union, Springfield and Summit by 2005.

ConocoPhillips said last week that because of objections from Roselle officials, the company is not actively pursuing its proposal to ship goods by rail through that borough. Company spokesman Michael Karlovich added, "The rail service was proposed by the county to help lift the economy of Roselle by servicing businesses there."

He said trains in and out of the refinery would transport only polypropylene, which he called inert plastic beads used for manufacturing film, carpet, cases for telephones, computers and televisions and auto dashboards and bumpers.

Tosco was purchased by Phillips Petroleum Co. in 2001. ConocoPhillips was formed Aug. 28 by the merger of Philips and Conoco Inc. Karlovich said there have been no talks with Roselle since Mayor Croteau and Business Administrator Vincent Beulluscio raised objections in January.

Gordon Fuller, CEO of the Morristown-based railroad, said Morristown & Erie is moving forward with the reactivation whether ConocoPhillips uses the rail service or not. Other businesses along the rail lines are being recruited, he said.

Sebastian D'Elia, spokesman for the county administration, said the county still has "no intentions" of reactivating the tracks in Roselle, Roselle Park, Kenilworth, and Springfield. Governing bodies. in those towns have adopted resolutions opposing a reactivation.