Hold this thought

New Jersey Senate committee approves transit agency consolidation:

Should SEPTA and PATCO combine their commuter rail operations? Would North Jersey commuters be better served if PATH trains were run by NJ Transit or New York City’s MTA?

A plan to consider such mergers cleared a New Jersey Senate panel this week.

…

The resolution proposes the six commission members (two each appointed by the governor, Senate president, and Assembly speaker) would have 18 months to report their findings to the Legislature.

“We would question who is merging with whom. NJT/PATH? NJT/PATCO? PATCO/SEPTA? NJT/MTA?” Les Wolff, director of the New Jersey Association of Rail Passengers, said in an e-mail.

If the lawmakers want to expand rail service in the state, Wolff said, there are already a number of proposals, including one to restore commuter rail service between Camden and Glassboro. But a lack of money has kept all the expansion proposals on the shelf, he said.

This is the third time such consolidation legislation has been introduced in the state Senate; in each of the last two biennial legislative sessions, the measure was unanimously approved by the Senate but died in the Assembly.

I have 20+ posts in my draft folder, but this is something that’s in the news now that I want to come back to.

So, yes. Hang on to this one.