Northern Branch
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The Northern Branch is a proposed 11-mile long light rail line that would offer a mass transit rail option to residents of central Bergen County, New Jersey, that has been unavailable for decades since passenger rail service ended on the Northern Branch and the West Shore Line in the 1950's. Currently, the track is part of a lightly-used freight rail line owned by CSX Transportation.
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[edit] Initial light rail proposal
Originally, New Jersey Transit and transportation advocates had been proposing that the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail be extended onto the tracks of the Northern Branch, which could provide single seat access between Bergen County and Hudson County municipalities along the Hudson River. However, cost considerations have led NJTransit to consider alternative methods to provide the rail access. Because light rail cannot operate concurrently with freight service, the early plans would have required installation of additional track or scheduling freight traffic late at night or on weekends. Light rail would also have required installation of feeder cables above the tracks and the required substations to feed these wires.
[edit] Current DMU alternative
NJ Transit is studying proposals for rail service, provided using diesel multiple unit (DMU) vehicles similar to those currently in use on the River Line. DMUs would use the existing trackage and would minimize interference with freight service on the line. The DMUs would operate along the old Northern Railroad line and terminate in Tenafly in central Bergen County.
If built, this would essentially be a separate service, with stations on the reborn Northern Branch heading south from Tenafly located in Englewood, Leonia, Palisades Park, Ridgefield and Fairview before ending in North Bergen, with a station transfer at Tonnelle Avenue required to access the HBLR.
As of February 13, 2006, NJ Transit has received $3.6 million in federal funding to conduct engineering and environmental studies, some of the final preparatory steps, which could result in a schedule starting construction by 2008, with completion by 2011.
A second phase of the proposal would connect the Northern Branch to the Trans-Hudson Express Tunnel deep inside the New Jersey Palisades, which could provide single-seat direct commuter rail service between Tenafly and Midtown Manhattan.
The alternative has come under criticism from rail transit advocates, who argue that the current plans to use DMUs would force a transfer for Bergen County commuters, and would not be efficient. They have argued that the original plans be implemented instead[1].
[edit] References
- ^ Northern Branch HBLR (PowerPoint presentation), New Jersey Association of Railroad Passengers, accessed July 7, 2006
