RR problem won’t go away

This week’s Independent contains no fewer than three stories about our local train stations.

Two deal with problems that are near and dear to the hearts of the many residents who commute to Manhattan and have to fight daily for a train station parking spot and/or are at the bottom of a years-long waiting list for a prized parking permit.

In Hazlet that waiting list is seven years long. Of course, Hazlet also has metered parking and lots of nearby streets where desperate commuters have taken to parking.

Middletown and Hazlet are both working to resolve critical parking problems at their train station, problems that do not have easy solutions.

Middletown has taken the lead in what seems like a logical option, establishing satellite parking and shuttling commuters back and forth, but Hazlet officials say that option is too costly.

Hazlet will be getting help from NJ Transit, which is hoping to expand parking and make other improvements at the Hazlet station.

That won’t happen any too soon for residents who live near the train station and who are complaining that commuters have taken over their streets.

This is a problem that is not going to go away and probably will grow worse as time goes on unless the communities and NJ Transit are able to come up with some reasonable solutions.

Matawan and Aberdeen also have to deal with commuter parking problems. Right now, however, Matawan is eyeing a concierge service for train riders.

Imagine, if you are lucky enough to have a permit or to commute early enough to get a metered parking spot, you would be able to use the concierge service to take care of daily chores you would sooner forget about.

Promoters like the Aberdeen-Matawan station because of its high ridership and the fact that a large majority of the riders come from outside the Matawan-Aberdeen community.

It sounds like an idea worth trying.

But, more importantly, NJ Transit and the four station towns should put their heads together to solve the parking problems before they get completely out of control.