Plenty of transit nerds I know thought that ARC was a pretty bad project, relative to the platonic ideal. I never quite understood the complaints (nothing is perfect, the flaws didn't seem so bad), but I accept that there are people who have greater transit nerd-fu than I do. Still, whatever the merits of the criticisms, there was a plan. It was in place. There was money for a giant mass transit project, something which is almost impossible to achieve these days. And then Christie killed it.
The transit nerds argued that a better project will be just around the corner. And, you know, maybe it will! But it's 2015! Not there yet! And maybe the Hudson tunnels will collapse, in which case the region is totally fucked.
