by KYW's David Madden
Hours after a pair of public hearings into proposed bridge toll and fare hikes (see related story), the Delaware River Port Authority took reporters on a tour of the Patco train maintenance facility in Lindenwold, NJ to demonstrate how some of the public’s money is being spent.
Imagine your local automatic car wash -- only a lot bigger. The 121-car Patco train fleet not only gets spruced up here, but inspected regularly.
And keeping that fleet up and running isn’t easy, since most of the parts on these 40-year-old cars are no longer commercially made. That's a challenge, says Patco general manager Bob Box:
"We actually make some of the parts here. We rebuild some of the parts. Motors, we actually do send out to be rebuilt."
He says that over the next six years the entire system will be upgraded, with new equipment inside existing shells, costing about half of what new cars would and saving $180 million.
Delaware River Port Authority CEO John Matheussen concedes that there’s some anger over the plan to increase bridge tolls and Patco fares. But in a lot of cases, like this one, he says, the work can’t be put off.
(File photo)
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