Heavy push for money to extend light rail into Bergen County

As deadlines loom to fix transportation budgets at the federal and state levels, a big group of elected Democrats from across North Jersey gathered in downtown Englewood on Friday to demand that any funding fix include money to extend light rail into Bergen County.

The train line currently cuts across most of Hudson County. The northernmost station, at Tonnelle Avenue in North Bergen, was completed in 2006, according to NJ Transit, which operates the line. Since then, construction has been stalled, first by residents in Tenafly who opposed building a station there, and now by a lack of funding from the state and federal governments.

Extending the line 12 miles north to Englewood Hospital would cost $1 billion, said NJ Transit Spokesman Bill Smith.

"Let's get real. The name says Hudson-Bergen Light Rail. It's not," Bergen County Executive James Tedesco said at the afternoon news conference. "It's the Hudson light rail. We need to make the name a reality."

Speakers at Friday's event included U.S. Sens. Bob Menendez and Cory Booker. They lauded the project's potential benefits for economic development, citing a Federal Highway Administration estimate that every $1 billion in spending on infrastructure creates 35,000 jobs.

"We inherited the best infrastructure in the world from our grandparents, and now it is crumbling," Booker said. "Investing in that infrastructure now is the right thing to do."

Most federal support for mass transit construction projects comes from the Federal Transit Administration's New Starts program, Menendez said, which doles out $2 billion a year. Menendez said he met earlier this week with Ronnie Hakim, NJ Transit's executive director, and urged her to apply for money to jump-start the light rail project.

"New Jersey has no projects in the New Starts program," Menendez said. "It's time for us to stop talking about these projects and start building them."

Federal funding for mass transit and highway projects runs out May 31. New Jersey's transportation fund will start to run dry on July 1 unless new revenue is found, state Transportation Commissioner Jamie Fox has said. Both deadlines come at the end of short-term patches to transportation budgets that make it difficult to finish big, multiyear construction projects, Menendez said.

State and federal legislators from both parties have spoken of the need to find a long-term funding fix, possibly including new revenues such as an increased gas tax.

"We cannot have another patch," Menendez said. "We need a robust, five-year program."

Source: NJ.com