Princeton Today: Temporary Dinky Station Now Closed

The temporary Dinky Station will be closed after Sun., Nov. 9. The new permanent station is slated to open Nov. 17.
The temporary Dinky Station is now closed. The new permanent station is slated to open Nov. 17.

DINKY REPLACED BY BUS THIS WEEK

The temporary Dinky train station on Alexander Road is closed this week. The new Princeton Dinky  Station is scheduled to open on Monday, Nov. 17. The new station connecting downtown Princeton to Princeton Junction will be located about 460 feet south of the former historic station buildings on University Place.

Train service between Princeton and Princeton Junction will be temporarily replaced by bus service from today until Sunday, Nov. 16. During the temporary closure of the Dinky, bus service will be provided by NJ Transit and Princeton University’s TigerPAWW shuttle. The TigerPaWW shuttle program will end when the new station opens. The Tiger PaWW bust stop in Princeton is located on College Road across from McCarter Theatre. The Princeton Junction bus stop is located near the taxi stand area on the Philadelphia side of the tracks.

The new transit plaza will include short-term parking for Wawa patrons and “kiss-and-ride” parking, a drop-off and pickup area for drivers, bike racks, a new bike rental program, bus stops for NJ Transit, the University-operated TigerTransit and the FreeB, and a taxi stand.

A new road has been constructed leading from Alexander Street to Princeton University’s West Garage. The new North Station Drive will have a traffic signal at the intersection with Alexander Street. Access to the parking garage will be restricted to Princeton University drivers on weekdays from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m., and open to the public in the evenings and on weekends.

The Wawa, which will open Nov. 21 without an interruption in service, will be open 24 hours a day and will have public restrooms. A planted “green roof” tops the new building.

BUSINESS HOURS ORDINANCE

The Princeton Council will vote tonight on whether to introduce an ordinance that restricts the operating hours for businesses in Princeton that are located in or near residential zones. The meeting will be held at  7 p.m. in the main meeting room at the municipal building, which is located at 400 Witherspoon Street.

The ordinance is targeted at one business, the future 7-Eleven that is slated to replace the former West Coast Video store at 259 Nassau Street. Princeton University businesses like the U Store would be exempt under the proposed ordinance.

Members of the business community, including the Princeton Merchants Association, oppose the move to limit hours of restaurant and retail shops. Many residents who live near the location of the new 7-Eleven support restricting the hours. They say their quality of life is lowered by the noise from  customers and truck deliveries late at night and early in the morning.

Businesses would not be allowed to operate between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m.

The public hearing for the ordinance is slated for Dec. 8.

WEATHER

Mostly sunny with a high of 60.

EVENTS TODAY

Israel’s Settler Colonial History – The Princeton University Department of Near Eastern Studies brown bag lunch series presents Shira Robinson of George Washington University at noon in Jones Hall, Room 202. Robinson will speak on “The Missing Link in Israel’s Settler Colonial History: Military Rule over the Palestinians Who Remained After 1948.” The event is free and open to the public.

Warsaw House: The Art of Necessary – Israeli writer Etgar Keret will give a talk “Warsaw House: The Art of Necessary” at 4:30 p.m. in East Pyne Hall, Room 010, at Princeton University. The event is free and open to the public.

Screening of  “Cowspiracy” – The environmental documentary “Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret” will be screened at 7:30 p.m. in Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall, at Princeton University. A discussion with directors Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn will follow. The event is free and open to the public.

Futures & Fairy Tales Book Tour Visits Princeton –  Young adult book authors Sarah Fine (author of Of Metal and Wishes), Phoebe North (author of Starbreak), Sara Raasch (author of Snow Like Ashes), and Princeton author Claire Legrand (author of Winterspell) will read from and discuss their books, take questions from the audience, and sign their books. Books will be for sale at the store. 7 p.m. at the MarketFair Barnes & Noble. Free.

Poets in the Library – Mark Doty reads from his work followed by an open-mic session at the Princeton Public Library. Doty’s “Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems” won the National Book Award for Poetry in 2008. The author of eight books of poems and four volumes of nonfiction prose, he’s received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. He is Distinguished Professor at Rutgers University, and lives in New York City. 7:30 p.m. Princeton Public Library Community Room. Free.

COMMUTE

An Elizabethtown Gas maintenance project along Hopewell-Pennington Road (Rt 654) and  Marshalls Corner (Rt 612) in Hopewell begins today. Work hours will be between 9 am and 3:30 p.m. Traffic will need to be alternated during parts of this maintenance work. Motorists should expect minor delays. This project is expected to last one month.

There has been a schedule change for the reconstruction and realignment of County Route 518 between Canal Road and Carroll Place. The road closing from Nov. 10 to Dec. 21 has been delayed. Revised dates will be posted when the new schedule has been set.