Orange County, New Rochelle, Wesley Hills Join Push for TZB Transit

The calls for rapid transit on the Tappan Zee Bridge are coming from more places across the Hudson Valley. This week Orange County Executive Edward Diana joined his colleagues in Westchester and Rockland Counties to demand that bus rapid transit be built on the new Tappan Zee span. Local governments on both sides of the river, too, continue to sign on in support of new cross-county transit, which the Cuomo administration removed from the project, disregarding a decade of public planning.

"Better transit is essential to help relieve congestion, ensure mobility and enhance the economic vitality of our region," Diana told the Times-Record, adding that the removal of rapid bus service from the plans after ten years of consensus-building was "unacceptable."

Added Nancy Proyect, the president of the Orange County Citizens Foundation, "Building a new bridge without improving how we commute or conduct business is both penny- and pound-foolish." Orange County's support for Tappan Zee transit is particularly notable given that the bridge and the larger I-287 corridor do not run directly through the county.

At the same time, support for transit continues to grow in Westchester County. In New Rochelle, the seventh-largest city in New York, the City Council unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday affirming its support for Tappan Zee Transit, according to the Tri-State Transportation Campaign. Sponsored by Mayor Noam Bramson, the resolution calls for the state to build "dedicated public transportation infrastructure that is integrated into a regional mass transit system" on the new bridge.

The Village of Wesley Hills, located in Rockland County, also passed a resolution.

New Rochelle and Wesley Hills are just the latest local governments to pass resolutions in support of building transit infrastructure on the new Tappan Zee, joining Yonkers, Greenburgh, Dobbs Ferry, Croton-on-Hudson, Hastings-on-Hudson, and the 14 municipalities of the North Westchester Energy Action Consortium.