(The following article by Joe Malinconico was posted on the Newark Star-Ledger website on June 9.)
NEWARK, N.J. — NJ Transit yesterday scrapped its decade-old plan to extend the Hudson County light rail line deep into Bergen County and instead intends to run diesel trains from Tenafly as part of a project that would cost $500 million.
The decision caused a sharp split among elected officials and rail advocates in Bergen County, who disagreed over which alternative was better.
Basically, either option would run commuter trains along the same route, the Northern Branch, a little-used freight line that goes through Tenafly, Englewood, Leonia, Palisades Park, Ridgefield, Fairview and North Bergen.
NJ Transit administrators said they decided to move ahead with the alternative using the diesel multiple-unit rail cars, known as DMUs, because the job would cost half as much and could be done more quickly.
The light rail extension would have cost about $1 billion, including installation of overhead electrical wires and new tracks, officials said. They also said the light rail would take as long as seven years to complete. Transit officials have not put a time frame on the diesel project, but say it would take less than seven years.
“Right now, the DMU is the most affordable opportunity we have,” NJ Transit board member Ken Pringle said.
But critics insisted NJ Transit was being short-sighted by focusing on the price of the two options. Even though the diesel project would be cheaper, it would not be as cost-effective because far fewer people would use it, they said.
“We’re not obstructionists,” said former Assemblywoman Rose Heck, now a member of the New Jersey Association of Railroad Passengers. “We are supporters of NJ Transit.”
Heck said the light rail alternative would attract more commuters because the trains would run at three-minute intervals, compared with 15-minute frequencies for the diesel system.
Also, the light rail would provide a one-seat ride to ferries, PATH trains or office buildings along the Hudson River, while the diesel option will require passengers to switch trains in North Bergen to get to the thriving Hudson County waterfront.
In fact, NJ Transit’s own study last fall found the light rail system would handle more than twice as many riders during its initial years of operation than the diesel trains would.
But transit officials said the diesel option eventually would make it easier to connect the Northern Branch line to the proposed new rail tunnel to Midtown Manhattan, giving commuters from Bergen County a one-seat ride into New York City on trains that would use both diesel and electric power. The $5 billion tunnel likely would not open for another decade, even if everything fell into place.
In yesterday’s vote, NJ Transit decided to spend an extra $1.62 million on its engineering study of the Northern Branch rail proposal, raising the cost of the study to $6.3 million. Earlier stages of the study focused on using the light rail equipment and raised concerns about the cost and coordinating rail service on the Northern Branch with the line’s owner, CSX Transportation, a freight railroad.
Under the revised contract, the engineers will focus on the diesel rail car option.
In theory, transit officials still may change their minds again and decide to go back to the light rail alternative when the study is completed next April.
Among the supporters of the diesel project are Rep. Steven Rothman (D-9th Dist.), Bergen County Executive Dennis McNerney and several state legislators from Bergen County. Transportation officials have not yet determined where they would get the money for the new rail line; the state trust fund that pays for big projects runs out of money next year.
Former Assemblyman Frank Herbert, who authorized the law creating NJ Transit, chided the legislators who spoke out yesterday in support of the new rail project in Bergen County without suggesting a way to solve the funding crisis.
Herbert said state elected officials recently have been showing “lots of profile and no courage.”