On the Wrong Track? ; Critics Question Demand for Passaic-Bergen Rail Line

By DAVID A. MICHAELS, STAFF WRITER

A $150 million train service planned for North Jersey would carry fewer riders than any railroad in the state, prompting criticism that it is little more than a pet project for the hometown of a local congressman.

Rep. Bill Pascrell, a Paterson Democrat, has already brought home $19 million in federal appropriations for the Passaic-Bergen railroad a necessity because the line would not carry enough passengers to qualify for the Federal Transit Administration’s new- project funds. Pascrell and other members of Congress are trying to earmark funding in federal legislation, and counting on the state to pay the rest.

Pascrell said the Passaic-Bergen line would spur economic development and become a vital connection for people who head east every morning to work in Hackensack. The train would make nine stops along the way, five in Paterson. The two counties deserve mass transit as much as Hudson County, where a federally funded light- rail line helped revitalize Jersey City and Weehawken, Pascrell said.

“The links that we talk about in Hudson County are no more significant than the links we talk about in Passaic and Bergen County,” Pascrell said in a recent interview.

But critics said the 750 to 1,000 daily riders forecast for the Passaic-Bergen line aren’t enough to justify the federal and state investment. The line would carry far fewer people than similar lines in Hudson County, Newark and South Jersey, according to NJ Transit figures.

“If the ridership is low, and I don’t know if the cost is going to be beneficial, what is the purpose here?” said Lou D’Arminio, the mayor of Saddle Brook, one of the towns that the railroad would pass through. “The taxpayers are going to have to foot that bill.”

‘Modest impact’ on roads

NJ Transit officials said the Passaic-Bergen line would promote economic development but would not be a cure-all for congestion on highways such as Routes 80 and 4. The agency approved $25 million for the line in its 2007 capital budget.

“Being a modest project in size, it will have a modest impact on traffic it’s not going to be huge numbers,” said Rich Sarles, NJ Transit’s assistant executive director for capital programming.

Pascrell gently disagreed, saying he thought the Passaic-Bergen line would “take many cars off the road.” Some of the federal funding he has secured reflects that argument. In 2005, $12 million for the service was included in a bill that characterized the funding as being for a “high-priority highway project.”

“These are ways we can help people get out of their cars, because you can talk it to death,” Pascrell said. “You have to do something tangible to encourage these modes of transportation.”

NJ Transit officials said they view the Passaic-Bergen line as a demonstration project. It would provide an opportunity to test new rail vehicles designed to operate on existing freight tracks, which are plentiful in New Jersey. NJ Transit would lease the right-of- way from the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railway, which runs from North Bergen to Syracuse, N.Y.

“It could be a huge success, or something we say doesn’t work here but would someplace else,” said James P. Redeker, NJ Transit’s assistant executive director for policy and technology.

The Federal Railroad Administration awarded NJ Transit $6.9 million to test the cars, known as diesel multiple units. The cars resemble commuter rail cars, but they are powered by small diesel engines and do not require a locomotive or electricity from overhead wires.

Redeker said the Passaic-Bergen line should not be compared to projects such as the Newark Light Rail, which runs a shorter distance but would support nine times as many riders.

“We view this differently,” Redeker said. “Given the ridership … obviously, we are not looking at huge impacts like other projects have had.”

Top Bergen County officials, who have thrown their political weight behind a line known as the Northern Branch, are less enthusiastic about the Passaic-Bergen line, also known as the Cross- County. The Northern Branch service, scheduled to begin in 2010, would run from Tenafly to North Bergen, and eventually might run directly to Manhattan.

“I’m a big supporter of the Northern Branch, as opposed to the Cross-County line, and I even think there is local opposition to that in Saddle Brook,” Bergen County Executive Dennis McNerney said. “The numbers have to really justify the amount of money that is going to be spent on that.”

Pascrell said the Passaic-Bergen line would be cost-efficient, adding that people would use it once they discovered its convenience. Trains would make the trip from Hawthorne to Hackensack in about 25 minutes.

“One of my jobs as a public official is to get people to use mass transportation,” Pascrell said. “We can’t expand the highways anymore.”

Few stops in Bergen

The Passaic-Bergen would not stop in three of the four Bergen County towns it would pass through. In those towns Maywood, Rochelle Park and Saddle Brook few people use mass transit.

“People are more comfortable in their own vehicles and in their own environment, not worrying or being dependent on a schedule,” D’Arminio said.

Only in Hackensack and Paterson does the rate of workers using mass transit eclipse the state average of 10 percent, according to U.S. census figures.

Twenty-five percent of Passaic County residents work in Bergen County, according to census figures; the data do not include commuter figures at the municipal level. NJ Transit officials said their models accounted for those trips and support the project, but they did not provide data to support the argument.

“You are seeing the suburban job become the market for the city worker,” Redeker said.

But several transportation experts pointed to the line’s likely low ridership as they expressed concern that it might not justify the public investment.

“There may be a half-dozen projects, either well-known or not that well-known, and they will add up,” said Martin E. Robins, director of the Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers University. “Can New Jersey Transit really afford it?”

NJ Transit’s board of directors is expected to raise fares this year to close a $60 million deficit. One board member, Kenneth E. Pringle, said the agency’s resources may be spread too thin to support new projects such as the Passaic-Bergen line.

“That is something that as a board we need to start to look at,” Pringle said.

Paterson to gain the most

If any community would benefit from the Passaic-Bergen line, it would seem to be Paterson. The seat of Passaic County government is the largest city in New Jersey that lacks light-rail or subway trains.

It also is the hometown of Pascrell, who grew up in the city when passenger train service was plentiful and residents still referred to neighborhoods by the name of the local Catholic parish.

“He has been working his tail off on this for so many years,” said Jack Hall, an attorney and close friend of Pascrell’s who grew up with him in Paterson. “He’s a one-man show on this, one man pushing the thing.”

The New York, Susquehanna & Western runs diagonally through the city, passing the brick factories and corrugated warehouses that once welcomed freight cars to their doors. Every few blocks, the tracks cross a busy city street, where houses are never far away.

Several Paterson residents said they would use the train to get around the city, even if it doesn’t go into the energetic and historic downtown or stop near St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center, the city’s largest private employer.

Lyndon Crosdale, 42, who lives on the city’s Eastside, said he has to take two NJ Transit buses to reach his factory job on the city’s Northside. The Passaic-Bergen line would be a direct ride, he said.

“You get tired of waiting on the bus,” Crosdale said as he stood at a Fifth Avenue bus stop on a cold, windy afternoon. “Sometimes it comes late. People would take the train.”

Diego Vasquez, the owner of a dry-cleaning business on River Street, said train service would benefit the Hispanic-owned businesses in the neighborhood, known as Riverside.

“You have many people who come from Hackensack to Paterson because things are a little cheaper and we have a lot of Hispanic products,” Vasquez said.

Paterson Mayor Joey Torres said the Passaic-Bergen line would give a lift to neighborhoods ripe for redevelopment. On busy Madison Avenue, an old bus garage a worn-down brick building with some of its windows punched out could be an ideal space for housing or offices next to a train station, Torres said.

“I don’t have any developers,” Pascrell said. “But when people see there is interest in the old freight track, there will be upgrading of property.”

***

E-mail: michaels@northjersey.com

(c) 2007 Record, The; Bergen County, N.J.. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.