PA Governor Threatens Rail Shutdown

"Rendell is holding up passage of the Delaware River Port Authority's 2006 budget in an effort to prod New Jersey into approving the long-stalled project to deepen the channel from 40 to 45 feet. He says it is vital to the region's port economy; South Jersey leaders view it as too expensive and with questionable merit.

This week, Rendell, who also chairs the agency, said that if the impasse continued, he would be willing to allow a PATCO shutdown by simply withholding funding that the South Jersey-to-Center City rail line receives from tolls on the DRPA's four bridges."The South Jersey leadership will never permit PATCO to close," the head of the state's delegation, Jeffrey L. Nash, told New Jersey commissioners at a meeting he called Friday morning in an attempt to see the budget pass. But because no one from Pennsylvania attended, the meeting could not be formally convened."