The "Bergen Arches" proposal to add six lanes to the east-west Jersey City roadway feeding the Holland Tunnel continues to draw attention. Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler touted the project as "an expressway to New Jersey's future" in the Star Ledger this week, while DOT Commissioner John Haley stumped for the NJ gas tax hike, cautioning that "only with the renewal of the Transportation Trust Fund could we even consider new projects like this one." The $100 million dollar highway, along with a $200 million extension to a new Turnpike exit proposed in the Meadowlands, is a prime example of why the Tri-State Campaign fears a 4-cent gas tax hike and giving NJ DOT carte blanche to spend it.

Jersey City activists wary of thousands of additional cars cramming onto Hudson waterfront streets where the new Hudson-Bergen light rail line was supposed to promise traffic relief called a preliminary meeting to determine what alternative uses should be considered for the 2½-mile Bergen Arches rail bed. Jersey City officials had no answers on this or other related issues at a special City Council meeting this week.

In fact, it's not clear that proponents of the new highway have done their homework on the Bergen Arches. The property is owned by Conrail. Rail freight volumes in northern NJ are expected to rise substantially after Conrail is acquired by Norfolk Southern and CSX later this year, and increased port activity anticipated shortly in Jersey City and Bayonne will call for more capacity and routes for rail traffic moving north and west out of the peninsula. An active freight rail line already runs under Arches, and the tunnel housing it may be able to accommodate additional trackage. But when questioned this week about the proposal to convert the rail bed to a highway, a Norfolk Southern official replied: "We want to keep our options open."

Should the railroads decide to sell the property, NJ Transit would have "the right of first refusal" to acquire it. Since other passenger rail lines run parallel to this line, NJ Transit might well decline. But as the New Jersey Association of Rail Passengers points out, overcrowding and operational difficulties on existing rail lines could make the line extremely valuable.