(The Associated Press circulated the following story on March 10.)
NEWARK, N.J. — NJ Transit wants riders to take the train to the game or to the ferry.
In Newark on Wednesday, the agency’s board approved separate contracts involving rail links from the Pascack Valley Line and the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, and from the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail line to a new ferry terminal in Weehawken.
The two rail links are separate but related steps in a broader effort to integrate the state’s mass transit network in northern New Jersey. That effort was exemplified by last fall’s opening of the Secaucus Transfer Station, a hub for 10 of the state’s 11 rail lines.
The sports complex has never been accessible by rail, and state officials have touted the proposed link to the Pascack Valley Line as one reason the Continental Airlines Arena should remain viable as a concert and family entertainment venue even if New Jersey’s pro hockey team, the Devils, relocate to an arena in Newark.
The arena’s other principal tenant, basketball’s New Jersey Nets, were sold and may move to Brooklyn.
The rail link, estimated to cost $150 million, should be completed in 2007, said George Warrington, NJ Transit’s executive director. Construction is expected to begin in the summer of 2005.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey voted to pay for the rail link in December.
Wednesday’s vote by the transit board was to award $520,000 for design changes to Parsons Brinkerhoff Quade & Douglas Inc. of Newark, which has a $5 million contract to design the link, said Ken Hitchner, a transit spokesman.
The 1.9-mile rail line would be a loop off the Pascack line with a station west of Route 120, between Giants Stadium and the arena site.
The light rail/ferry link approved Wednesday involves a $43.5 million contract awarded to Conti Enterprises of South Plainfield to build a new ferry terminal to be used by New York Waterway’s Hudson River crossing in Weehawken. Construction is to begin later this year, with completion targeted for sometime in 2006.
The light rail line now runs from Bayonne to Hoboken, with the next phase to continue north to North Bergen, through Weehawken. The light rail already passes close by ferry terminals in Jersey City and Hoboken.
Warrington called the ferry/light rail link “a terrific example of private and public sector partnership that benefits customers and communities we serve.”