Lanky_Act6769 t1_iwme0hf wrote on November 16, 2022 at 6:41 PM

I mean, don’t forget that the Essex-Hudson Greenway is still on the table. That project is suppose to include biking lanes, which will connect major cities/towns. And while we’re at it, the Newark Light Rail needed to be connected to the Hudson Bergen Light rail long ago 🤧

TrafficSNAFU t1_iwmqjo4 wrote on November 16, 2022 at 8:03 PM

That is going to be an extremely difficult sell. Duplicates existing PATH and #1 bus service, plus there are two condemned moveable bridges that will have to be rebuilt along the way. I also suspect you'd have build an underground portion as the line enters the more built up portion of the Ironbound. Infamously the ex-CNJ Row between Newark and Jersey City was dubbed the most expensive rail line.

Lanky_Act6769 t1_iwor0eg wrote on November 17, 2022 at 5:18 AM

I understand your perspective, and any big infrastructure project like this would be a tough idea to sell. But it wouldn’t be due to existing services, like PATH and NJT bus services already being in place. It would be simply: cost. Such a project would be a billion or two, maybe more? But. In my very humble opinion, the cost would be very much worth that multi billion dollar investment price tag, because the growth that Newark, Hoboken, and Jersey City has experienced over the past five years is crazy. Interconnecting Northern NJ’s biggest growing cities will not only strengthen and further solidifies the NJ economy, but offer new opportunity for economic development and investment.

The HBLR is very expansive, and is way more intimate with the Jersey City and Hoboken streetscape than the PATH. Yes there’s bus service, but solidifying successful and over capacitated bus lines with a light rail line is very different, and offers new transit and economic opportunities that the bus can’t bring to the table. It’s the “next logical step” if you will, for the economy and regions maturity. I believe the NLR being connected to the HBLR system would be beneficial in many ways. I believe it can awaken a lot of new economic opportunities for economic investment and job growth, offer much needed investment opportunities for real estate investment and development, and the two systems being interconnected is another option for people to move around Northern NJ. Remember, the more mobility options an individual has at their disposal in their city, the better.

I also believe this interconnected system should finally pressure NJT to wake up, and to add more much needed light rail stops for Newark and for the HBLR to be further expanded well into Fort Lee. Such a system I know for a fact would be much welcomed and appreciated between Hoboken and Fort Lee, as it is very car dependent and congested. This won’t be cheap of course. There will be long environmental and community reviews/studies, infrastructure hurdles to jump, cost overruns, inevitable deadline delays, and lots of property to be attained for construction that I’m sure will be a headache. But the economic implications in my opinion are just too good to ignore, and simply justify the cost and its construction given the regions growth. It’s way too good of an opportunity.

Side note: I would love as much of this idea to be separated from traffic, or buried underground to maximize transit performance to maintain this being a viable transit option over the car, as possible lol.

TrafficSNAFU t1_iwr3oaw wrote on November 17, 2022 at 6:46 PM

While connecting the two makes sense in general terms and in an ideal world we would. In world where they are funding priorities and there are many places with inadequate transit, it makes very little sense. To a state legislator or administrator overseeing grant money at the Federal Transit Administration it wouldn't make any sense. I think they would wisely argue, why not, for less money fund improvements to PATH service or improved bus service between the two cities and focus on transit expansion to the areas that are currently lacking? HBLR Northern Branch extension, NLR to Paterson, Hawthorne/Paterson to Hackensack rail, Union County BRT, Bergen County BRT? At the end of the day, there is a glut of need and not a lot of money, why duplicate existing service with something that costs a ton of money, when you can just improve the existing services, and use the money you save to improve transit to areas that are not well served?