Back on Track ; Light Rail, DMUs Given Equal Consideration

NJ TRANSIT’S decision to reconsider light rail for eastern Bergen County is a welcome announcement.

It should never have been taken off the transportation agency’s table in the first place.

Light rail on the Jersey side of the Hudson River from Bayonne to the New York border had been a large part of NJ Transit’s regional plan for more than a decade. In 2000, it was only a question of where it would end Norwood or Northvale and which track it would follow the Northern Branch or the West Shore Line a little farther west. Early that year, the first part of an electrified light rail started operations. It connected Bayonne and Hoboken. Today the line extends to North Bergen.

Three years ago, NJ Transit jettisoned the plan to go beyond North Bergen in favor of a less ambitious and easier-to-build system of diesel-powered trains. The so-called diesel multiple units or DMUs would link Tenafly and North Bergen in less time and for half the cost of an electrified system. It also meshed with a proposed Passaic-Bergen Line connecting Hackensack to Hawthorne in Passaic County.

But critics noted that southbound DMU riders in East Bergen would have to transfer to light rail at North Bergen if they wanted to make connections farther down the line. The transfer would have defeated one of the prime purposes of light rail: a one-seat ride anywhere along the west side of the Hudson.

There is still a lot to recommend DMUs. They’re still anticipated for the Passaic-Bergen Line. Light rail also has much in its favor. It fits into a broader regional plan that could eventually connect Bergen with Rockland and Westchester counties in New York. Thanks to members of the Bergen County legislative delegation, both present and former, it’s back before NJ Transit and the public can consider both sides of the debate.

Whatever the outcome, the agency should settle the question quickly. If there’s one thing Bergen County needs, it’s much more public mass transit.

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