N.J. mayors push for Bergen County LRT

A coalition of mayors, including mayors from Hudson County communities already served by light rail transit, are publicly urging New Jersey officials to extend Hudson-Bergen Light Rail (HBLR) into neighboring Bergen County, the most populous county in the Garden State.

The mayors, identified as the Hudson/Bergen Light Rail Commission, held a press conference at HBLR’s Exchange Place Station (also a PATH station location) Monday, Oct. 20, 2014, to urge action on the proposal, first advanced with HBLR’s development during the 1990s.

HBLRs initial section, serving Bayonne and Jersey City, N.J., opened in April 2000. A subsequent extension north added Hoboken, Weehawken, and Union City to the system, serving New Jersey’s most densely populated county more evenly but falling short of crossing the border into neighboring Bergen County, where political support for HBLR at the time was notably weak.

The extension, also continually urged by rail advocates led by the New Jersey Association of Railroad Passengers (NJ-ARP), would extend HBLR from its northern terminus in North Bergen (Hudson County) through several Bergen County communities, with the new terminus located at Englewood Hospital, a major employment center located in its namesake municipality.

The extension is “fundamental to how we live, how we work, and how we create jobs is transportation,” said Englewood Mayor Frank Huttle III, addressing local media. Huttle co-chairs the commission along with Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop. “Just look at what the light rail has done for Jersey City and Hoboken,” Huttle added.

Rail expansion of HBLR, indeed of numerous New Jersey passenger rail projects, has ground to a virtual halt in recent years due in part to the state’s inability to renew its Transportation Trust Fund. The commission nonetheless hopes to secure at least $1 billion for the LRT extension, roughly 10 miles in length.

State Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto, attending the press conference Monday, suggested supporters should insist that the state commit to the project. “We need to create a revenue source for our transportation trust fund that will accommodate the light rail,” said Prieto. “We have been relying on federal funding to get this accomplished and it has not worked.”