(erielack) NYTimes: Bergen Officials Call for Ambitious Rail Service Expansion

["Gary R. Kazin" <gkazin_@_yahoo.com>]

Bergen Officials Call for Ambitious Rail Service Expansion
By ROBERT HANLEY

HACKENSACK, N.J., July 9 — Bergen County officials called today for
creation of an expanded multibillion-dollar rail system that would
include three new train lines in the county and links between them
and three existing commuter lines.

 The county executive, William Schuber, said the broader,
integrated network would include construction of the first new
train stations in Bergen in 50 years. He said it would ease highway
congestion, spur economic growth and provide the first rail links
between communities in the western and eastern halves of the county
and the Meadowlands sports complex in East Rutherford.

 In a news conference here with the county's director of planning
and economic development, Chester P. Mattson, and Assemblywoman
Rose M. Heck, Republican of Lodi, Mr. Schuber called on state
legislators and mayors in Bergen, New Jersey's most populous
county, to join them in seeking approval of the plan.

 The system they outlined was basically identical to an expanded
rail plan proposed for Bergen that New Jersey Transit, the state's
mass transit agency, will hold public hearings on this week and
next.

 The main difference is the timetable. Mr. Schuber called for
simultaneous creation of the three new lines and five transfer
stations connecting them and existing lines. New Jersey Transit has
not committed itself to anything so ambitious.

 "The key to the economic future of both the Meadowlands and the
county," Mr. Schuber said, "is the immediate and guaranteed
investment in a comprehensive rail network plan — not a piecemeal
plan, not a single line today and hopes of something bigger
tomorrow."

 In an apparent effort to persuade local officials to prod New
Jersey Transit, Mr. Schuber said the future of the county's economy
could not be left "in the hands of others."

 "We must take an active part in creating our own destiny," he
said.

 New Jersey Transit would not comment on the proposal. For now, the
agency has not backed the construction of any of the three proposed
new rail lines or any transfer stations linking them and existing
lines.

 The public hearings that are to begin Tuesday are the first phase
of a study of the costs and the environmental impact of a broader
system, and New Jersey Transit said it did not plan to endorse any
segment of it until the study was done.

 "Each line will be studied on its own, but in conjunction with the
others," said an agency spokesman, Michael Klufas. He said the
studies would include possible interconnections between new and old
lines.

 Mr. Schuber said his proposed system would cost several billion
dollars and take at least 10 years to build. Mr. Klufas said
projected costs would not be known until the studies were finished.
The federal government would provide the bulk of the money for any
expanded system, New Jersey Transit officials said.

 The three proposed new lines once carried commuter trains but are
used now only to haul freight.

 One, the Northern Branch, would link the Englewood-Teaneck area
with New Jersey Transit's main train terminal in Hoboken. Another,
the New York, Susquehanna and Western, would run from Hawthorne in
Passaic County through Bergen to Hoboken. Commuter service on both
ended in 1966. Light rail lines similar to the new, trolley-like
Hudson-Bergen line between Bayonne and Jersey City are proposed for
both routes.

 The third proposed line, the West Shore, would run from West
Nyack, N.Y., in Rockland County, through eastern Bergen to Hoboken.
Commuter trains last ran on it in 1959. 

 Under Mr. Schuber's plan, the three lines would be linked to the
county's three existing lines — the Valley Line, the Bergen Line
and the Main Line — by new transfer stations built near track
intersections in Hawthorne; East Rutherford, where the sports
complex is situated; Hackensack, Ridgefield Park; and Fairview in
the county's southeastern corner. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/10/nyregion/10BERG.html?ex=995776949&ei=1&en=f106f01246fb0ac5



=====
Gary R. Kazin
DL&W Milepost R35.7
Rockaway, New Jersey

New Jersey Transit - THE WAY TO GO!!!

(I have no affiliation with New Jersey Transit.)

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