maps a still bigger role for rail

By Marybeth Luczak, Associate Editor

	Light rail stretching toward the Manhattan skyline is just one of several rail expansion projects now under way. Photo by Parsons Brinckerhoff

Threading a seamless rail network through every community has been the State of New Jersey's goal since the early 19th Century when it issued the nation's first charter for the construction and operation of a steam railroad. While that line never materialized, New Jersey was on its way to becoming home to many North American railroading firsts. In 1825, inventor and rail promoter Col. John Stevens of Hoboken built America's first steam locomotive. New Jersey's Camden and Amboy ran one of the earliest locomotives equipped with a bell and cowcatcher, installed the world's first T-rails, pioneered the hook-headed spike and the predecessor to the modern rail joint, and was the site of North America's first head-on collision in 1836.

Today, New Jersey Transit is continuing the state's game-plan to connect the dots between central business districts and suburban downtowns by rail. Ridership on the agency's lines is expected to swell from the present 94,000 daily passengers to 128,500 by 2005. This anticipated growth has driven recent recommendations for $1 billion-plus in rolling stock orders and $266 million in new yards and maintenance shops, says Chief Operating Officer Stanley Rosenblum (details, p. 8). More important, it is accelerating expansion projects throughout NJ Transit's 5,325-square-mile service area.

Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Transit
In March 2000, NJ Transit will unveil the first leg of its planned 20.5-mile, 36-station Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Transit System (pictured at right). NJ Transit awarded the $1.1 billion DBOM (design, build, operate, maintain) "super turnkey" contract to 21st Century Rail Corp. in 1996. Phase I, a 6.5-mile segment, will run from a southern terminal in Bayonne, N.J., and extend north through Jersey City. Construction and installation of track, catenary, and signal systems will be complete by November, says Dan Censullo, senior director-new rail construction. All 29 Kinki Sharyo USA articulated, 70% low-floor vehicles will be ready in March.

Phase II of the project will run from Hoboken to North Bergen. It will include a stop at a ferry terminal under construction in Weehawken and serve a major development complex there. NJ Transit recently amended its DBOM contract for this phase, providing $7 million for final design and engineering, and authorizing $1.2 million for professional work by Parsons Brinckerhoff, Quade & Douglas. It also allocated $3.1 million for property acquisition and easements. Work will begin later this fall, with an expected completion date of year-end 2004.

Newark City Subway
Another part of the Hudson-Bergen DBOM contract is a separately-funded modernization of NJ Transit's existing 4.2-mile Newark City Subway. Among the project's components: a one mile extension to a new vehicle maintenance facility in Bloomfield, N.J., installation of fiber-optic communications, and track improvements. Sixteen light rail vehicles identical to the Hudson-Bergen cars will replace the original, 45-year-old PCC car fleet.

Recently, a two-week shutdown allowed NJ Transit to convert existing trolley wire to a catenary system. Already, four new electrical substations have been erected, and 130 catenary poles and foundations to support the new catenary system have been installed. Harmon Industries is replacing the existing wayside signal system with an audio-frequency-based cab signal system. SYSTRA Consulting is providing engineering services. Completion is estimated for mid-year 2000.

Southern New Jersey Light Rail Transit
NJ Transit expects to have a notice to proceed by year-end for the initial segment of the 53-mile, 30-station Southern New Jersey Light Rail Transit System. Under a $604.5 million DBOM contract, Southern New Jersey Rail Group-a consortium of Bechtel Infrastructure Corp., Adtranz, Parsons Brinckerhoff, and Conti Enterprises-will begin the project in a 34-mile corridor between Trenton at the Amtrak/NJ Transit Northeast Corridor (NEC) station, and Camden. Trenton and Camden will be connected via right-of-way shared with Conrail (Shared Assets) LLC, which NJ Transit purchased on June 1 for $67.5 million. A letter of intent with Conrail calls for time-separated operation. Passenger trains will run from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week, and freight will operate during the remaining eight hours, six days a week. Because they will operate on a mixed-traffic line, the 20 Adtranz-supplied, multiple-unit, diesel-electric LRVs are designed with crash energy management features (RA, Feb., p. G1).

The system will be signaled with Automatic Train Stop (ATS) for light rail vehicles at every signal. While freight locomotives will not be equipped with ATS, positive separation will be assured with interlocked derails at every point where trains can move from freight-only to shared track. Similarly, NJ Transit expects to cover its entire rail network with Positive Train Stop and Automatic Train Control by 2002 (RA, May, p. 29).

According to Censullo, the Southern New Jersey LRT line may include an extension to Glassboro, N.J., and/or a one-mile extension from the planned Trenton station to the Trenton State House. "We view this [Trenton proposal] as significant because it would dramatically improve the ridership profile by 15-20%," he says. At start-up, it is estimated that the entire system will carry 9,500 passengers per day, rising to 16,000 per day after 10 years.

An airport link
NJ Transit and the Port Authority are extending the 4.5-mile automated monorail line serving Newark International Airport by 1.1 miles to an intermodal station on the NEC at Elizabeth, N.J. To accommodate the intermodal station, two tracks are being added to the corridor's four-track main line. Corridor modifications are 75% complete and the station is 50% complete. The $415 million project is slated to open January 2001. The present system operates on four-minute headways, while new station service will offer six-minute headways. NJ Transit will serve the station every 15 minutes. Amtrak service levels are not yet determined.

Newark-Elizabeth Rail Link
The 8.8-mile, $640 million Newark-Elizabeth Rail Link LRT project may be ready by 2004. The line is proposed to run from downtown Newark to the Elizabeth intermodal station and through mid-town Elizabeth on the NEC. A consortium of BRW Parsons Brinckerhoff was awarded an $8.4 million contract for the first leg of the project-design of a Newark City Subway light rail extension linking the Broad Street and Newark Penn stations. NJ Transit expects 60% of the design to be complete by November, with 90% by early next year, after which the project will go out for bid, says Mort Farrah, project manager. A joint venture of Frederic R. Harris and STV will serve as construction manager. Though work is expected to begin in early 2001, the project is schedule-dependent on the New Jersey Department of Transportation, which must partially relocate a local highway to make room for the rail link. Daily ridership is estimated to be 13,200.

NJ Transit recently amended its contract with BRW, Inc., for $2 million to prepare a Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement and Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Union County segment of the rail link between downtown Elizabeth and Newark Airport. The studies are expected to be completed by fall 2000.

Secaucus Transfer Station
Construction has been under way since 1995 on a $450 million, 300,000 square-foot Secaucus Transfer Station-a hub for 11 of NJ Transit's 12 northern New Jersey rail lines. According to Tom Moore, director-rail system development, 65% of the infrastructure is complete, and the station is on schedule to open for revenue service by June 2002. NJ Transit recently awarded Terminal Construction an $86 million contract to finish building it. To accommodate the station, the NEC will be widened over two miles to four tracks-two outer express tracks and two inner local tracks. While the foundation work is complete, inner track construction will begin this month. Under a $4.7 million contract awarded in 1998, ABC Rail/Cogifer Technologies is manufacturing 19 turnouts, plus switch ties and related components. The team will install six high speed turnouts to increase operational flexibility on the NEC by permitting trains to switch tracks at speeds up to 80 mph, and four turnouts for 45-mph switching.

West Trenton line reopening?
NJ Transit is considering the restoration of passenger rail service on the former 21.6-mile West Trenton line connecting West Trenton and NJ Transit's Raritan Valley Line at Bridgewater, N.J. The trackage, used for passenger service until 1982, is now freight-only. According to Assistant Executive Director-Planning James Redeker, NJ Transit recently launched an environmental impact study (EIS) to be conducted by SYSTRA Consulting and completed by September 2000. CSX Transportation and Conrail, who actively use the West Trenton line, and Norfolk Southern, whose tracks cross the line, must be in agreement for the project to move forward. The main question, Redeker says, is how much double-tracking will be needed. Two passing sidings several miles long may be required.

West Shore line restoration
Service may also be restored over the West Shore Line along the Hudson River. Currently, the project is in the major investment study phase, looking at three separate alignments-two light rail and one commuter. The commuter line would operate over a rehabilitated West Shore line and connect with a new line through the Meadowlands, the Secaucus Transfer, and Hoboken. It could extend as far north as Nyack or West Haverstraw, N.Y. A light rail option would offer a northern terminal on the Hudson-Bergen line with a termination point in the Teaneck area. Another option would connect the Hudson-Bergen line and extend to former New York, Susquehanna & Western (NYS&W) trackage. The projects will next go through the EIS phase.

Future passenger service for NYS&W?
NJ Transit has plans to reinstate commuter service on NYS&W trackage in northern New Jersey. Edwards & Kelcey, Inc., will handle the design and engineering for a right-of-way upgrade, construction of nine passenger stations, and installation of communications and signaling equipment. The line will connect with trains on NJ Transit's main line at Hawthorne, N.J., and operate to Hoboken Terminal through the Secaucus Transfer Station.

New Montclair-Boonton connection
A Montclair Connection project will link NJ Transit's Montclair and Boonton lines into a single, more efficient system by early 2001. Area residents will have direct access to Midtown Manhattan as well as access to Newark via the Broad Street Station and to other New Jersey cities via the Secaucus Transfer. The first contract involves electrification of nearly five miles of Boonton Line, including construction of new catenary poles and overhead wires, and construction of a storage yard. In a second contract, the project will include construction of a two-track electrified rail connection between the Montclair Branch and Boonton lines near the Bay Street Station. Ridership is expected to increase 45% within three years of operation. According to NJ Transit, electric trains are necessary for one-seat-ride service because diesel trains cannot operate in the Hudson River tunnels into Penn Station. Dual-mode locomotive technology is not feasible since the only dual-mode locomotive technology that exists today uses a 600-volt third rail, which is not the type of electrification in use on the NJ Transit system or the NEC.

All of these projects geared to connecting the state by rail fall under New Jersey's rail plan for the new millennium. The plan also includes "transit villages" in which "rail stations return to the place in the community they once occupied" bringing with them commercial centers to "breathe life into the community," says NJ Transit Executive Director Jeffrey A. Warsh. This rail plan for more "livable communities" called FIRST (Future Investments and Reinvestment in State Transportation) was designed to "expand mobility options, strengthen the fabric of [the state's] communities, and make New Jersey a leader in the new century." It lets area residents know NJ Transit truly is "the way to go."