(The following article by Larry Higgs was posted on the Asbury Park Press website on March 11.)
NEWARK, N.J. — Public hearings about NJ Transit’s massive project to build a second rail tunnel under the Hudson River will start next week, but they will be held in North Jersey and New York.
However, NJ Transit officials said residents interested in commenting on The Trans-Hudson Express Tunnel have 60 days to e-mail or send a letter by April 10, which is longer than the typical 45-day comment period, said Dan Stessel, spokesman.
“Most NJ Transit commuters travel through Newark and/or New York, making the public hearing locations convenient to the vast majority of folks who might want to participate in person,” he said.
The Newark hearing is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority offices, 17th floor, One Newark Center, Raymond Boulevard, which is one block away from Penn Station.
A second hearing is scheduled for the same times on Wednesday at Schuetzen Park, main ballroom, 3167 Kennedy Blvd., North Bergen.
A hearing in New York City is scheduled for the same times March 27 at the Fashion Institute of Technology great hall, 27th Street between 7th and 8th avenues. Two other informational hearings are scheduled in Rockland and Orange counties in New York.
Copies of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement also can be reviewed at 40 locations, including the Monmouth County Hall of Records in Free-hold, Stessel said. The report also is online on the project’s Web site, he said.
“NJ Transit is intent on getting a “one-seat ride to Manhattan’ for Bergen County and points north, to the point where no hearings, or informational sessions, are scheduled for Central Jersey residents, who are both current and potential NJ Transit customers (and) who are New Jersey taxpayers,” said Douglas Bowen, New Jersey Association of Railroad Passengers president. “Why is that?”
Bowen pointed out that while the Main and Bergen lines are running now, the prospect of a one-seat ride through a second Hudson River tunnel is one of the factors being used to determine ridership and a route for the proposed Monmouth-Ocean-Middlesex rail line.
“Why not let Central Jersey residents weigh in through local hearings to bolster access?” Bowen said.
The massive $7.3 billion project would build a second two-track tunnel under the Hudson River and allied improvements to augment the existing tunnels, which were built by the Pennsylvania Railroad almost a century ago. It also would build a new station under 34th street in New York, because track and station slots at the existing Penn Station are all utilized.
The project also would build needed signal and track improvements for the new tunnel on the Northeast Corridor line, a rail yard and a loop to connect the Main and Bergen lines to the corridor.
The tunnel is proposed as a way to meet demands for cross-Hudson rail service, which is projected to double by 2025, according to the study. It also could provide capacity to allow passengers on existing diesel-powered rail lines such as the Raritan Valley and the Bergen lines to have a one seat ride to New York.
It also would have capacity to serve new lines such as MOM, which would extend rail service to Ocean County and depending on which route is selected, to western Monmouth and Middlesex County. Running those lines to New York would depend on the use of a “dual-mode” locomotive, which would be powered by a diesel engine or electricity from overhead wires.
Once public comments are taken, NJ Transit officials will move toward completion of the Final Environmental Impact Statement, which is expected later this year, Stessel said. Preliminary engineering already is under way, and the final design phase will begin in 2008. Construction is expected to begin in 2009, with revenue service starting in 2016, he said.
Advocates such as NJ-ARP agree with NJ Transit officials on the need for a second tunnel. Bowen said NJ-ARP was the first citizens’ group to back the concept more than 10 years ago. The group and NJ Transit officials have disagreed about some details, such as not having commuter trains go to Grand Central Station.