NYC ponders subway line into New Jersey
Written by William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-ChiefA $250,000 study by Parsons Brinckerhoff, due to be publicly released soon, is expected to endorse a proposal to extend New York City Transit’s No. 7 subway line under the Hudson River to Secaucus, N.J.
The proposal, strongly backed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is becoming a rising priority for the mayor, who already has committed city funding to extending the No. 7 from Times Square to Manhattan’s West Side. The mayor reportedly wants to get the project under way before leaving office at the end of 2013.
A No. 7 extension to Secaucus would expand the city’s subway system outside the boroughs—let alone across the state line—for the first time ever. Though the New Jersey terminus would be at New Jersey Transit’s Secaucus Junction Station on the Northeast Corridor, other stops might also occur in Hoboken or Weehawken, N.J.
Officials in Hudson County, N.J., and the New Jersey Governor’s office also have expressed interest in the idea. Christie last year terminated an $8.7 billion tunnel project to expand NJ Transit rail capacity under the Hudson River, labeled Access to the Region’s Core (ARC). Early cost estimates for a No. 7 tunnel are in a similar cost range.
A spokesman for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Tuesday, “We have been intrigued all along by this as a potential alternative” though New Jersey rail advocates point out the ridership market of the No. 7 subway extension would be more local and urban, and therefore different, from the now-dead ARC project.
