...Steady Progress in Jersey
The NJ Transit board of directors agreed last month to spend $4.2 million to study restoration of passenger service on the West Shore rail line. Abandoned since 1959, the passenger line once carried 12,500 people daily along the Hudson from Weehawken, NJ to Haverstraw, NY. Funding, from a $4 million Federal Transit Administration appropriation last year, will pay for an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and preliminary engineering work. The study will identify station candidates and forecast ridership. One proposed alignment would run from West Nyack, NY, to the Meadowlands; another would extend to Hoboken. The passenger railroad would connect with the Hudson light-rail trolley, and NJ Transit will coordinate the line's restoration with plans for a rail spur from the Secaucus Transfer to the Meadowlands. Support for the service has been building for several years in Bergen County and in Rockland County, NY. Rockland County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef applauded NJ Transit's efforts to re-establish the line and said he would like to see it extended to Haverstraw. The original West Shore tracks are currently used for freight. To accommodate passenger service, new tracks must be laid in the right-of-way. Bergen Record, Rockland Review
