(The following story by Khurram Saeed appeared on The Journal News website on January 4.)
Metro-North Railroad and New Jersey Transit are planning to jointly study what improvements might be needed to the Pascack Valley Line over the next 20 years.
The two agencies, which have had a working relationship for 25 years, will hold discussions and planning exercises over the coming months to study creating additional parallel and passing tracks, evaluating the signal system, looking at the current train storage capacity and upgrading platforms.
“This is a very exciting initiative and there’s great potential for Rocklanders,” said Rockland County Legislative Chairwoman Harriet Cornell, who helped organize yesterday’s dialogue. “I think we’re going to see marvelous initiatives come out of the collaboration between the two agencies.”
The Pascack Valley Line runs from Spring Valley to Hoboken, N.J., and includes stops in Nanuet and Pearl River. NJ Transit operates the commuter train service in New York state under a special agreement with Metro-North.
Over the next six months, staff from the two agencies will conduct a technical analysis and identify potential improvements.
Cornell said the line needed to be enhanced to take full advantage of the proposed Access to the Region’s Core (ARC) rail tunnel project, which would provide thousands of commuters, including those on the Pascack Valley Line, with a one-seat ride to Manhattan and shave time off of their journey.
ARC, a collaboration of NJ Transit and the Port Authority, is undergoing an environmental review and is years from opening.
At the same time, the state is studying adding mass transit, either trains or a dedicated bus system, to a bridge that would replace the Tappan Zee Bridge to provide east-west service. It could be constructed and open in a decade.
“The people of Rockland need a network of options,” Cornell said.
Orrin Getz, Rockland’s liaison for the New Jersey Association for Railroad Passengers, noted that the Pascack Valley Line did not have adequate facilities in place for ARC. For example, nine New Jersey communities along the line have opposed building additional passing tracks, making it nearly impossible to run trains in both directions during peak travel times.
“This is a regional system and we should think of it from a regional standpoint,” Getz said.
When the analysis is complete, Cornell said, it will be brought before the public for discussion.
“We want it to be a public process because it will involve communities. It will involve riders,” she said.
Metro-North spokeswoman Marjorie Anders said planning allowed the public and government officials to prioritize which services were important to them and find out whether taxpayers would be willing to pay for them.
“Let’s discuss them. Let’s identify them. Let’s get them out to the public. Then let’s talk about the money because it’s all about the money,” Anders said yesterday.
County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef pointed to “significant improvements” on the Pascack Valley Line that were made when Metro-North and NJ Transit worked together, such as adding express train service.
In late October, Metro-North and NJ Transit doubled service on the Pascack Valley Line, adding weekend and off-peak hour trains.
“This is just another step in trying to figure out what the best approach will be,” Vanderhoef said.
Still, there will be challenges.
“What’s good for Rockland,” Vanderhoef said, “is not necessarily good for some of the New Jersey communities.”