Suit Filed Against University, NJ Transit Over Proposed Dinky Move

Four Princeton residents--members of “Save the Dinky”--have filed suit against Princeton University, Trustees of Princeton University and NJ Transit, claiming there is no legal basis to move the Dinky train station.

“Plaintiffs respectfully request a Declaratory Judgment that the University may not engage in any further relocation of the Princeton Branch terminus and that it be permanently enjoined from doing so,” reads part of the lawsuit filed Monday, Oct. 3, in Superior Court of New Jersey, Chancery Division.

The plaintiffs are Anne Waldron Neumann, Walter Neumann, Rodney Fisk and Republican Borough Council Candidate Peter Marks. Princeton attorney Bruce Afram represents the plaintiffs.

The Dinky, which runs between Princeton Borough on University Place and the Princeton Junction train station in West Windsor, has been running since May 29, 1865. It takes four minutes for the train to travel 2.7 miles and is popular among daily commuters to New York, university students and residents.

The lawsuit argues that the university has no right to move the Dinky based on an Oct. 30, 1984, agreement between Princeton University and NJ Transit.

That’s when NJ Transit sold the station land to the university to preserve the Dinky. The agreement stated that the university could move the Dinky terminus south “coincident with the location of the minimum reservation of platform space,” or 170 feet of station platform, the lawsuit claims.

In 1987, the suit claims, the university moved the terminus south while retaining that 170 feet buffer.

Now the university proposes to move the Dinky again, this time approximately 500 feet south. University officials have filed preliminary papers with the Princeton Regional Planning Board showing this move.

The suit argues that this relocation is contrary to the 1984 agreement because there is no space to permit a relocation “coincident” with the “minimum reservation” of 170 feet of platform.

Plaintiffs seek a court judgment to say the public has an easement to enter and exit the current Dinky train in Princeton Borough and existing station platform.

The university is not permitted to move or remove the existing platform and must maintain the existing station facilities located immediately next to the existing terminus, 170 feet from the end of the platform, the lawsuit claims.

The plaintiffs seek reimbursement of attorney’s fees and the cost of the suit.