(The following article by Joe Malinconico was posted on the Newark Star-Ledger website on May 12.)
NEWARK, N.J. — Ever since it opened five years ago, NJ Transit’s $2 billion light-rail system went by a name that was somewhat misleading.
You didn’t have to be a cartographer to know the modern day trolleys on the so-called Hudson-Bergen Light Rail line never went into Bergen County. That was NJ Transit’s long-range goal, a $1 billion extension of the line into the state’s most populous county.
But now, the agency has changed its mind and the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail may never make its way very far into Bergen County.
Instead, the light-rail system’s next step would be a $750 million link that would end at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, according to a proposal outlined yesterday.
Meanwhile, Bergen County commuters would get a $500 million rail project that would send diesel trains up from North Bergen through Englewood to Tenafly, basically the same route that had been considered for the light rail system it is replacing.
“I’ve got a responsibility to not cling to out-of-date concepts,” said George Warrington, NJ Transit’s executive director, explaining the sweeping changes in the plans for Bergen County rail service.
The light rail link from Hudson County to the Meadowlands would augment a $150 million plan to provide a regular passenger rail connection to the sports complex and the proposed Xanadu retail and entertainment development that would be accessible from every rail line in the state.
The proposed changes in Bergen County commuter service are drawing fire from a rail watchdog group and some residents who say the diesel trains will cause pollution and noise.
The critics also point out that NJ Transit’s own studies show the light-rail system would attract far more riders, at least during its first few years of operation. That’s largely because the diesel operation, known as the Northern Branch, would require New York-bound commuters to go through the added inconvenience of switching trains in North Bergen.
“Were I still a commuter, I would avoid it like the plague,” said Byron “Gus” Allen, a resident of Tenafly, who attended yesterday’s monthly NJ Transit board meeting in Newark. “I think it’s a rather large mistake.”
But transit officials insist that building the line for diesel trains would cost half as much as the light rail extension, mainly because it would not require erecting overhead power wires. They also say the diesel project could be done two or three years quicker than the light rail, which would take as long as seven years.
More important, they say, the diesel project would be easier to connect to the proposed rail tunnel to Midtown Manhattan, providing commuters with a one-seat ride into New York on trains that would use both diesel and electric power. The $5 billion tunnel, which may open as early as 2013, would boost ridership on the Northern Branch well beyond the numbers forecast for the light rail option, transit officials said.
“We are doing the work with an eye toward the real future,” Warrington said. “This is about the highest and best use of different technologies.”
NJ Transit’s Board of Directors had been scheduled to approve a $6.6 million engineering study on the diesel multiple-unit trains yesterday. But after hearing opposition from the public, the panel decided to get more information on the options and postponed the vote until next month.
Bergen County Executive Dennis McNerney, who supports the plan for diesel trains, said he was disappointed by the delay.
“The residents of eastern Bergen County need a viable mass-transit system, not further impediments,” McNerney said in a statement. “If residents wanted more delays, all they would have to do is sit in traffic at the George Washington Bridge or Lincoln Tunnel during rush hour.”
NJ Transit officials are trying to tap into Bergen County, where many Manhattan-bound workers use buses or cars. Just 17 percent of the county’s commuters to New York take trains, compared with 60 percent of Union County commuters and 50 percent for Middlesex, Morris and Essex counties, according to NJ Transit.
“We believe the light rail is the right way to go,” said Rose Heck, a former assemblywoman from Bergen County who is now the legislative liaison for the New Jersey Association of Railroad Passengers.