The Northern Branch Corridor Project is a proposed extension of the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail (HBLR) from its northern terminus into eastern

Bergen County Bergen County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of New Jersey.New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, initially proposed in 2001. If built, the new service would use the

right-of-way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...

of the Northern Branch on which the Erie Lackawanna Railroad ran passenger service until October 3, 1966, and is currently a lightly used, stub-ended freight rail line owned by

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

. The Northern Branch Corridor is at the foot of the west side of the Hudson Palisades in the

Hackensack River The Hackensack River is a river, approximately 45 miles (72 km) long, in the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, emptying into Newark Bay, a back chamber of New York Harbor. The watershed of the river includes part of the subur ...

valley, running for much of its length parallel to Overpeck Creek. After mixed reactions and extensive community input to a draft environmental impact statement (EIS), it was decided in 2013 to terminate the line at the Englewood Hospital and Medical Center. In March 2017 the Supplementary Draft Environmental Impact Statement was approved by the

Federal Transit Administration The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is an agency within the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) that provides financial and technical assistance to local public transportation systems. The FTA is one of ten modal administration ...

allowing for a period of public reaction. A separately-conceived and funded bridge at 69th St. in North Bergen, necessary for operation of the system, has been completed. In 2017 NJ Transit estimated that the line would open in 2029.

Hudson-Bergen Light Rail

Original proposals for the HBLR called for a terminus at the

New Jersey Turnpike The New Jersey Turnpike (NJTP) is a system of controlled-access highways in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The turnpike is maintained by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA).The Garden State Parkway, although maintained by NJTA, is not consi ...

Vince Lombardi Park-and-Ride in Ridgefield, in Bergen County. Despite its name, it currently operates only in Hudson County. Service began its initial operating segment in April, 2000, expanded in phases during the next decade and was completed with the opening of its southern terminus on January 31, 2011. The line generally runs parallel to the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

and Upper New York Bay, while its western branch and northern end travel through the lower Hudson Palisades. HBLR has twenty-four stations along a total trackage length of just over and serves over 40,000 weekday passengers. From its southern terminus at 8th Street in

Bayonne Bayonne (; eu, Baiona ; oc, label= Gascon, Baiona ; es, Bayona) is a city in Southwestern France near the Spanish border. It is a commune and one of two subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine re ...

the HBLR travels through

Jersey City Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.Hoboken and North Hudson to its current northern terminus at Tonnelle Avenue. The balloon loop allowing for reversal of direction is immediately adjacent to the proposed right-of-way at North Bergen Yard.

Passenger and freight service

The region along the corridor was known as the English Neighborhood during the post-colonial era and was largely developed after the introduction of rail service in the mid-19th century. Until the 1960s, the area and neighboring communities in the valley were served by regular passenger rail service. to intermodal terminals on the

, where passengers were able to transfer to ferries to a variety of slips on the West Side of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. The

West Shore Line The River Line was a Conrail rail line located between Jersey City, New Jersey and Selkirk, New York, running along the west side of the Hudson Palisades and, after passing through a tunnel at Haverstraw, New York, along the west bank of the Hud ...

Weehawken Terminal Weehawken Terminal was the waterfront intermodal terminal on the North River (Hudson River) in Weehawken, New Jersey for the New York Central Railroad's West Shore Railroad division, whose route traveled along the west shore of the Hudson River ...

was discontinued in 1959. Service on the Northern Branch to Pavonia Terminal, and in the 1960s to Hoboken Terminal, ended in 1966. The stub-ended line is still used to serve industrial facilities along the route. Since

Federal Railroad Administration The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is an agency in the United States Department of Transportation (DOT). The agency was created by the Department of Transportation Act of 1966. The purpose of the FRA is to promulgate and enforce rail saf ...

regulations prohibit freight and light rail systems from operating concurrently, the new passenger service would be restricted to running between 5:30 a.m. and 10:30 p.m. A

Major Investment Study Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

and environmental impact statement for the corridor project were first authorized by the

and New Jersey Transit in 2001 to examine the possibility of extending Hudson-Bergen Light Rail along the right of way of the Northern Branch. Transportation advocates supported the idea, since it would provide single-seat access between Bergen and Hudson municipalities along the

. Because light rail cannot operate concurrently with freight service, these plans would have required installation of additional track or scheduling freight traffic late at night or on weekends. Light rail would also require installation of catenary above the tracks and require substations to feed those wires. The construction, operational conflicts and cost considerations led NJT to consider using

FRA A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ol ...

-compliant

diesel multiple unit A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple-unit train powered by on-board diesel engines. A DMU requires no separate locomotive, as the engines are incorporated into one or more of the carriages. Diesel-powered single-unit railcars are also ...

(DMU) vehicles, which would have used the existing trackage and minimized interference with freight service on the line. On February 13, 2006, the agency received $3.6 million in federal funding to conduct engineering and environmental studies. Had it been built, it would have essentially been a separate service, with trains traveling south from Tenafly terminating in

North Bergen North Bergen is a township in the northern part of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the township had a total population of 63,361. The township was founded in 1843. It was much diminished in territory by a ...

, at a station providing connecting service to the separate electric-powered HBLR. The DMU alternative was criticized by rail transit advocates, who argued that a system which required an additional transfer for Bergen commuters would be inefficient and that the original light-rail plan be implemented instead. The proposal was dropped when the manufacturer of DMUs, Colorado Railcar, went bankrupt.

Terminal station

The proposal included two possible options for the northern end of the line. One build option would include stations in

at the county line near Fairview, Ridgefield, Palisades Park, Leonia and Englewood, where a terminal would be built at a park and ride adjacent to

New Jersey Route 4 Route 4 is a state highway in Bergen County and Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. The highway stretches from Route 20 (McLean Boulevard) in Paterson east to an interchange with Interstate 95 (I-95), U.S. Route ...

. A second build option and the "preferred alternative" put forth by NJT was for an extension through Englewood, with additional stations, and

Tenafly Tenafly () is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census the borough had a population of 15,409,Cresskill Cresskill is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the borough's population was 8,573, Response to the proposal was met with mixed reactions, with those communities at its southern end generally favorable and those at its northern end much less so. In Englewood, Fairview and Ridgefield, officials see the new stations as a positive addition to their public transportation system. In an extensive survey conducted in 2009, Leonia residents questioned the benefit for the borough and expressed concerns about traffic and the location of the station at Fort Lee Road, believing it could be better-situated to avoid the congestion it might cause. In Tenafly, residents and officials believe that quality of life in the towns will be negatively affected without much additional benefit. While lending support for the new system in their written responses to the DEIS, the governments of Ridgefield, Leonia and Englewood all expressed the concerns about station locations and their parking facilities, suggesting that they would cause congestion. Opposition had been most vehement in Tenafly, where voters had already rejected the plan to re-establish rail service to the town in a non-binding referendum in November, 2010. Residents and officials rejected plan as described in the DEIS at public hearings in January 2012. Despite local opposition, officials in Bergen County asked the

North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority The North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (NJTPA) is the federally authorized metropolitan planning organization (MPO) for the 13-county northern New Jersey region, one of three MPOs in the state. NJTPA's annual budget is more than $2&nb ...

to support the proposal to extend light rail service as NJT's "preferred alternative". The New Jersey Association of Railroad Passengers also endorsed the longer route. ''

The Record The Record may refer to: Music * ''The Record'' (album), a 1982 studio album by the hardcore-punk band Fear * The Records, an English power pop band * '' Their Greatest Hits: The Record'', a 2001 greatest-hits album by the pop-music group Bee Ge ...

'' regional newspaper, in an editorial, stated that a terminus in the commercial center of Englewood would be sufficient, since the need to begin building the new line is of utmost importance. According to the town's historic preservation commission, the DEIS does not sufficiently address impact to historic structures along the route. It was decided in 2013 to terminate the line at the Englewood Hospital and Medical Center after another DEIS was performed. A Supplemental DEIS was released in March 2017, with a public hearing scheduled for April 24 in Englewood.

EIS, estimated costs, and funding

The estimated cost of the project is approaching $1 billion. Approximately $40 million has been allocated to the project, which was expected to begin in 2012 and be completed in 2015 and projected to have an estimated 24,000 passengers daily. Nearly three years after its submission, the

authorized the release of a draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) in December 2011. A February 2012 review of the DEIS by the

Environmental Protection Agency A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...

found a "lack of objections" but questioned the implementation of

wetlands A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

mitigation banking Mitigation banking is the preservation, enhancement, restoration or creation (PERC) of a wetland, stream, or habitat conservation area which offsets, or compensates for, expected adverse impacts to similar nearby ecosystems. The goal is to repla ...

proposal and the

grade separation In civil engineering (more specifically highway engineering), grade separation is a method of aligning a junction of two or more surface transport axes at different heights (grades) so that they will not disrupt the traffic flow on other tran ...

outline within the document. In a meeting held in September, 2012 with NJT and 13 mayors from the region, NJT said that it had yet to complete review of responses to the DEIS and that no funding for the project had been identified. With the compromise to build the northern terminus between those originally proposed, the project can be advanced with the completion of a final environmental impact statement. Initially, it was undecided whether or not a supplemental draft environmental impact statement (SDEIS) would be required for the Englewood Hospital terminus. State legislators petitioned the Federal Transit Administration to proceed with the existing impact statement to avoid additional delays to the project. In February 2014, NJ Transit was directed by the

(FTA) to prepare a SDEIS Supplementary Draft Environmental Impact Statement, to be complete in the fall. The FTA approved the SDEIS in March 2017 and it was released on March 17, 2017. The state can apply for federal funding but would have to provide matching state funds, according to Rep.

Bill Pascrell William James Pascrell Jr. (born January 25, 1937) is an American politician who is the U.S. representative for , having served in this position since January 2013. A member of the Democratic Party and a native of Paterson, New Jersey, Pascrel ...

's office. It was expected that, with a new gasoline tax passed in 2016, the state's Transportation Trust Fund would provide funding for the line. New Jersey Transit capital improvements budgets included $95 million in funding for

environmental remediation Environmental remediation deals with the removal of pollution or contaminants from environmental media such as soil, groundwater, sediment, or surface water. Remedial action is generally subject to an array of regulatory requirements, and may al ...

for the project during 2018 through 2020.

69th Street

While not officially part of the HBLR Northern Branch extension project, the 69th Street Bridge in

was seen as a significant component in success of its operations. It was funded by NJ Transit. The bridge replaced the earlier

grade crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an overpass or tunnel. The term also ...

near the

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

North Bergen Yard and

NYSW The New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway (or New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad and also known as the Susie-Q or the Susquehanna) is a Class II American freight railway operating over 400 miles (645 km) of track in th ...

siding between Tonnelle Avenue and West Side Avenue. Significant delays were caused by long trains-created traffic congestion for those working and shopping in the area. Estimated to cost $67 million in 2005, ground was broken in October, 2008, but construction was delayed for years due to the first construction company's inadequacies and the subsequent cancellation of its contract. It finally opened in February, 2019. Located midway between the current terminus near 49th Street and the first proposed station at 91st Street, the site was at one time planned to be a stop along the route, though current Northern Branch plans do not include one. The Passaic–Bergen–Hudson Transit Project is a project by NJ Transit to reintroduce passenger service on a portion of the

New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway The New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway (or New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad and also known as the Susie-Q or the Susquehanna) is a Class II American freight railway operating over 400 miles (645 km) of track in th ...

(NYSW) right-of-way in Passaic, Bergen and Hudson counties, using newly-built

-compliant

rail cars. Plans call for a potential station at 69th Street.

Project status

In March 2014, the mayors of

Jersey City Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.North Hudson and the towns of Bergen County along the route created a commission to promote the construction of the line. In July, 2014, Englewood hired an engineering consulting firm to review environmental impact statements and exchanges between the municipality and NJT. In October, 2016, state legislators passed a resolution to make the project a top transportation project for the state. In 2020 NJ Transit projected the extension to cost $1.18B USD

References

External links

Northern Branch Corridor Project
New Jersey Transit
Final Scoping Document Northern Branch Corridor Project by USDOT, FTA, NJT in 2008Northern Branch & Proposals on Google MapsAssociation of Rail Passengers history of Northern Branch Corridor Project
{{New Jersey Transit Light Rail Transportation in Bergen County, New Jersey Transportation in Hudson County, New Jersey NJ Transit Rail Operations New Jersey streetcar lines Proposed railway lines in New Jersey Ridgefield, New Jersey Palisades Park, New Jersey Leonia, New Jersey Englewood, New Jersey North Bergen, New Jersey Fairview, Bergen County, New Jersey 2029 in rail transport