Meet The Candidates: How Can Public Transportation In Mahwah Be Improved?

MAHWAH, N.J. — Editor's note: The following is the final entry in a six-part series regarding this year's mayoral candidates: Incumbent William Laforet and challengers John Roth and Jonathan Wong. Each candidate was asked six questions and wrote as much as they wanted in response to those questions.

Question: How can public transportation be improved in town and how can such a thing be financed?

William Laforet, incumbent

Mahwah is fortunate to have access to both bus and train service to NYC and beyond. I will be focused on upgrading our local bus shelters and advocating for a “one seat” train trip to NYC.

Additionally, we have received grants for three new senior transport vans at no cost to taxpayers and our Access Transportation department will continue to provide necessary transportation for our seniors to shopping doctors’ appointments and other destinations. I am also very committed to seeing a Mahwah Bike Path be implemented over my next four years.

John Roth, challenger

Mahwah already has good access to mass transit i.e. NJ Transit trains and buses for commuters. These are community resources that benefit all residents and are funded by the state. The Township provides limited access transportation for qualified seniors to assist with transportation for doctor's’ appointments and other necessary trips where a resident does not have access to private transportation.

I am hopeful we can expand the Township’s access transportation to serve more of our seniors. Many live on fixed incomes and need help, not only for urgent appointments, but to participate in more of our communities activities. To fund this we need to more aggressively pursue available Federal and State grants and where appropriate reach out to our many resident businesses who already so willingly and generously support our community. Sharing the service with an adjacent municipality might be an area to explore and pursued when fit is right and the economics work for both in the partnership.

Jonathan Wong, challenger

We need to advocate for expansion of the County para-transit system as well as working with the State and other municipalities to increase the frequency of bus and train services through our community.

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