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

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 The Northern Branch is a railroad line that runs from Jersey City to Northvale in northeastern New Jersey. The line was constructed in 1859 by the Northern Railroad of New Jersey to connect the New York and Erie Railroad's Piermont Branch te ...

on which the

Erie Lackawanna Railroad The Erie Lackawanna Railway , known as the Erie Lackawanna Railroad until 1968, was formed from the 1960 merger of the Erie Railroad and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad. The official motto of the line was "The Friendly Service Route" ...

ran passenger service until October 3, 1966, and is currently a lightly used, stub-ended freight rail line owned by CSX Transportation. The Northern Branch Corridor is at the foot of the west side of the

Hudson Palisades The Palisades, also called the New Jersey Palisades or the Hudson River Palisades, are a line of steep cliffs along the west side of the lower Hudson River in Northeastern New Jersey and Southeastern New York in the United States. The cliffs s ...

in the

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

valley, running for much of its length parallel to

Overpeck Creek Overpeck Creek is a tributary of the Hackensack River, approximately long, in Bergen County in northeastern New Jersey in the United States. The lower broad mouth of the creek is part of the extended tidal estuary of the lower Hackensack and of t ...

. 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 Englewood Health is an acute care 289-bed teaching hospital in Englewood, New Jersey. In 2021 it was given a grade A by the Leapfrog patient safety organization. History It was incorporated in 1888 as a "non-profit, non-sectarian voluntary healt ...

. 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 Vince Lombardi Park-and-Ride in Ridgefield, in Bergen County. Despite its name, it currently operates only in

Hudson County Hudson County is the most densely populated county in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It lies west of the lower Hudson River, which was named for Henry Hudson, the sea captain who explored the area in 1609. Part of New Jersey's Gateway Region in ...

. 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 New York Harbor is at the mouth of the Hudson River where it empties into New York Bay near the East River tidal estuary, and then into the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of the United States. It is one of the largest natural harbors in t ...

, 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 the HBLR travels through Jersey City,

Hoboken Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58,69 ...

and North Hudson to its current northern terminus at

Tonnelle Avenue U.S. Route 1/9 (US 1/9) is the long concurrency of US 1 and US 9 from their junction in Woodbridge Township in Middlesex County, New Jersey, north to New York City. The route is a multilane road with some freeway portions that runs through ...

. The

balloon loop A balloon loop, turning loop, or reversing loop ( North American Terminology) allows a rail vehicle or train to reverse direction without having to shunt or stop. Balloon loops can be useful for passenger trains and unit freight trains. Bal ...

allowing for reversal of direction is immediately adjacent to the proposed right-of-way at

North Bergen Yard The North Bergen Yard is freight rail yard and intermodal terminal in North Bergen, New Jersey parallel to Tonnelle Avenue between 49th and 69th Streets. Located within the North Jersey Shared Assets Area, the facility is part of CSX Transportatio ...

Passenger and freight service

The region along the corridor was known as the

English Neighborhood The English Neighborhood was the colonial-era name for the towns in eastern Bergen County, New Jersey, along the Hudson Palisades between the Hudson River and the Hackensack River, particularly around its main tributary, Overpeck Creek. The region ...

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 A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water tax ...

to a variety of

slips Slips (or SLIPS) may refer to: *Slips (oil drilling) *SLIPS (Slippery Liquid Infused Porous Surfaces) *SLIPS (company) *SLIPS (Sri Lanka Interbank Payment System) *Slip (cricket), often used in the plural form *The Slips, a UK electronic music duo ...

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 ...

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

Pavonia Terminal Pavonia Terminal was the Erie Railroad terminal on the Hudson River situated on the landfilled Harsimus Cove in Jersey City, New Jersey. The station opened in 1861 and closed in 1958 when the Erie Railroad moved its passenger services to nearby ...

, and in the 1960s to

Hoboken Terminal Hoboken Terminal is a commuter-oriented intermodal passenger station in Hoboken, Hudson County, New Jersey. One of the New York metropolitan area's major transportation hubs, it is served by nine NJ Transit (NJT) commuter rail lines, one Metr ...

, 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 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 In physics and geometry, a catenary (, ) is the curve that an idealized hanging chain or cable assumes under its own weight when supported only at its ends in a uniform gravitational field. The catenary curve has a U-like shape, superfici ...

above the tracks and require substations to feed those wires. The construction, operational conflicts and cost considerations led NJT to consider using FRA-compliant diesel multiple unit (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 ...

, 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 Colorado Railcar was a manufacturer of railroad rolling stock—railcars and diesel multiple unit commuter vehicles. Both products came in single- and double-level versions. It shut down in 2008, with its assets being purchased by US Railcar. His ...

, 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 Leonia is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the borough's population was 8,937,Englewood, where a terminal would be built at a

park and ride A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, rail system ( ...

adjacent to New Jersey Route 4. A second build option and the "preferred alternative" put forth by NJT was for an extension through Englewood, with additional stations, and Tenafly to two stations, the last of which would be a terminus at the

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 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'' 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

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

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 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'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 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 New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit, and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey, along with portions of New York State and Pennsylvania. It operates bu ...

. The bridge replaced the earlier grade crossing 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. ...

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

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 (NYSW) right-of-way in Passaic, Bergen and Hudson counties, using newly-built FRA-compliant diesel multiple unit rail cars. Plans call for a potential station at 69th Street.

Project status

In March 2014, the mayors of Jersey City, 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 New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit, and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey, along with portions of New York State and Pennsylvania. It operates bu ...

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