NJ Transit Weighing Englewood Light Rail Option

Faced with opposition to both of its original plans to extend its Hudson County-based light rail into Bergen County, New Jersey Transit will investigate a third option proposed last year by Englewood officials, Mayor Frank Huttle said Thursday.

The compromise proposal — supported by the mayors of both Englewood and Tenafly — calls for the light rail to terminate in Englewood, rather than continuing north into Tenafly. Its final three stops — all in Englewood — would be Route 4 (South Englewood), Englewood Town Center and Englewood Hospital, the end of the line. 

The revised plan takes into account Tenafly’s vociferous opposition to the project and Englewood’s support for service to Englewood Hospital.

“We did not have any strong feelings about forcing anything on Tenafly. They have the right to determine their destiny, just like we have the right to determine ours,” said Englewood Economic Development Corporation chairman Adam Brown, who worked closely with city officials to develop the light rail compromise. “We saw there being no reason why we could not satisfy our desire to have it and their desire not to have it.”

NJ Transit’s original two proposals for extending the existing light rail line, which begins in Bayonne and runs north through Hudson County to North Bergen, had service continuing to Bergen County through Ridgefield, Palisades Park, Leonia and terminating in either Englewood at Route 4 or in Tenafly at the Cresskill border.

The third and now preferred plan would include two Englewood stops beyond that of the “Route 4 Option,” — at Englewood Town Center and Englewood Hospital — but eliminate the final two Tenafly stops.

NJ Transit’s board will vote Wednesday at its monthly board meeting to contract a Morristown-based engineering firm to begin work on a final impact statement that reflects the compromise Hudson-Bergen light rail proposal, according to a NorthJersey.com report.