The lesson is we need stable funding, so we won't have a crisis every five years.

We still have a great deal to do. That's why New Jersey is so restless. We're only in the middle of a 40- to 50-year plan to connect and expand our commuter rail system.

I now believe it will be built.

It's not perfect and should be closer to $2 billion, but the five-year program satisfies the federal government, which won't threaten to withhold $1.4 billion of federal transportation funding. Projects held up for years without funding will get done.

It's going to be hard to figure out what to do.