Bloomberg Reactivates The Staten Island Railroad

Mayor Bloomberg brought New York City one step closer to the successful realization of the Solid Waste Management Plan by reactivating the Staten Island Railroad yesterday. According to the terms of the Waste Management Plan, which the City Council passed in 2006, the city must decrease dependence upon trucks for waste transport through the use of barge and rail systems. The plan aims to relieve traffic congestion, reduce air pollution, and decrease citywide fuel consumption. The Staten Island Railroad, which has been inactive since 1991, is an eight-mile stretch of track that will connect the Staten Island Waste Transfer Station to the national rail freight network. At the transfer station, waste will be loaded onto flatbed rail cars and then hauled to a landfill in South Carolina.