Housing Developers Among Biggest Backers of Light Rail Expansion

by Joe Hernandez, NJSpotlight.com

When a light rail line is routed through a neglected neighborhood, housing developers see an opportunity waiting to happen.

That has been the case for Hudson County since the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail first opened in northern New Jersey in 2000. Traffic on the line has grown exponentially, along with new housing, as the HBLR has expanded throughout the towns that border the Hudson River.

Indeed, municipal officials say the line has become so important to efforts to revitalize the area that some housing developers are considering investing in the light railway's expansion.

“The Hudson-Bergen Light Rail is an American success story of how transportation innovation can turn abandoned properties into thriving communities,” says Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), a vocal champion of the HBLR.

Today the light rail network shuttles upward of 42,000 riders each day through 24 stations across Bayonne, Jersey City, Hoboken, Weehawken, Union City, and North Bergen.

“But there’s more growth to be had,” says Jay DiDomenico, director of the Hudson Transportation Management Association. “They designed the HBLR well beyond what they thought the capacity would be, and we’ve blown way past that.” The HBLR can no longer accommodate its rapid rate of growth, which has led to passenger overcrowding and train and automobile traffic.

In an effort to increase capacity on the overpopulated light rail line, the Federal Transportation Administration recently gave New Jersey Transit a $400,000 grant to study three possible improvements.

One aspect of the study will be to determine the cost of those improvements. The original HBLR was paid for through a combination of state and federal funding, and the most recent grant came courtesy of the FTA.

To date, the HBLR has cost $2.2 billion. And while NJ Transit hasn’t released any estimates on the potential cost of improvements, building a light rail infrastructure can easily reach well into the tens of millions.

But federal and state budgetary belt-tightening has made the outlook gloomy for costly transit system improvements funded by taxpayer dollars.

Private Contributions

That’s where the housing developers come in. Anticipating that increased capacity on the HBLR will lead to a rush of new residents and consumers, these companies are reportedly considering pumping some of their own money into the project.

“Actually we’re talking to the [housing] developers,” says Rosemary McFadden, chief of staff to Jersey City mayor Jeremiah Healy. Because of the success of other urban development projects near HBLR lines, “some of [the housing developers] are interested in putting in their own money.”

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