“If Tenafly doesn’t want it, that’s OK. We’ll take it!”
That was New Jersey Assemblyman Gordon Johnson’s reaction when the New Jersey Transit (NJT) Board of Directors voted to approve the study of a modified alternative to the Hudson Bergen Light Rail (HBLR) extension on May 8.
NJT will enter into a $3 million contract with Jacobs Engineering of Morristown to advance a plan to extend the HBLR line to Englewood Hospital instead of extending it to Tenafly. The new proposed route would travel from North Bergen to Ridgefield, Palisades Park, Leonia and then terminate at Englewood Hospital.
Despite its name, the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail line doesn’t actually serve Bergen County, running only between Bayonne and North Bergen (which, despite its name, is in Hudson County). Last January, NJ Transit held a series of public hearings regarding the proposed extension of the HBLR into Tenafly. Residents of Tenafly, however, have been less enthusiastic about having light rail in their community.
The Englewood Hospital stop was originally part of the alternative that had the terminus in Tenafly. TSTC provided testimony at the public hearing session in Englewood in January 2012 urging NJ Transit to consider a terminus at Englewood Hospital if Tenafly’s opposition continued.
Although an alternative has been selected, funding remains an obstacle for this project. Transportation funding in New Jersey is currently on life support, and future financing is uncertain.
It’s good to see the project moving into the next phase, but not at the current snail’s pace. It took nearly 3 years since the inception of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement to get to this point. Now this study which purportedly is to complete the EIS process is projected to take an additional 2 years. It seems simply ridiculous that a transit project using existing rail ROW would require 5 years of Environmental Analysis.
Now that we know the Light rail will not extend beyond Englewood what can be done to turn the remaining track in to a Rails to Trails? This would be a wonderful opportunity to provide safe green space for exercise away from the cars and trunks.
MJ:
Tenafly may not want light rail today but when it’s running to Englewood Hospital, a half-mile short of the Englewood/Tenafy boundary, this view may change. If it does not and Tenafly’s NIMBYs continue to prevail, the next best solution will be to run trains “closed door” through Tenafly in order to bring rail passenger service back to Cresskill, Clouster, Demarest, Northvale and Norwood, communities that do want it. So, thank you but no thank you, the Northern Branch north of Englewood needs to be preserved for future rail use, not converted into a rails-to-trails project.
A proposed “closed door” service through Tenafly brings added unrest to the rail project. There is enough space to do both rail line and a companion trail corridor together. Good design represented with plans and renderings of what the project could look like is what the public needs. Consensus is key and public opinions build better projects.