This week, NJ Transit officials began addressing traffic concerns surrounding the 206-acre Meadowlands "Xanadu" business/entertainment development plan by outlining a rail link to the site.

The preliminary plan looks to connect the Pascack Valley and Bergen County lines with the Meadowlands. With completion of the Secaucus Transfer Station (which is roughly five miles south of Xanadu), passengers from other rail lines will be able to transfer to trains to get to the Meadowlands site. According to the Star-Ledger, there is also talk about linking the Secaucus transfer station, the sports complex and Hoboken with shuttle trains.

Preliminary cost estimates for a rail link are $100-200 million. The private Mills Corp-Mack Cali Realty Corp, Xanadu’s developers, have promised to contribute $65 million to transportation at the site. But most of this will go towards road widening and extension, not rail. The total cost of the Xanadu development will be $1.2 billion. Transit advocates say the state should require the developers to pay for the rail link as well.

If the state is left holding the transit bag in the Meadowlands, the project will be added to a long list of New Jersey Transit system expansion projects it cannot now afford. Transit has been taking from its capital budget to pay for day-to-day operations for several years, and the McGreevey administration recently allocated other Transportation Trust Fund resources to routine maintenance budgets and the state’s general fund.

A Star-Ledger editorial supported a Meadowlands rail link, but appropriately raised NJ’s now-chronic transit funding problems: "The (Blue Ribbon Transportation) commission has a challenging task. Our transportation needs far outstrip our budget. The state’s transportation trust fund regularly runs out of money and is scheduled to go dry again next year. The solution until now has been either to add a few pennies to the gas tax or dig up just enough sales or other tax revenue to tide us over for a few more years. The commission has to find a more permanent solution. It should include money to get to the Meadowlands by rail. "

Along with contributing to the transit link, the Mills Corp. could include other strategies in its plan to reduce parking demand at the site, like charging for patron parking and "cashing out" free parking for employees. NJ Transit plans to have a more detailed Meadowlands rail link plan finished in 4-6 months.

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