NJ MPO ponders streetcars for state park
Written by William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-ChiefLiberty State Park, Jersey City, N.J., is a popular site to launch Presidential campaigns, as Republican Jon Huntsman demonstrated early this week. But it also is the Garden State’s most heavily visited state park, and the metropolitan planning organization (MPO) overseeing 13 northern New Jersey counties is considering a rail transit option to serve some of those visitors.
The North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority Wednesday three studies, including one considering installation of a heritage streetcar loop within the park, funded through NJTPA’s Fiscal Year 2010-11 work program.
“With this study, we can find approaches to using mass transit to create more effective access to the park and also links to the larger transportation network.,” said Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, who also serves as an NJTPA board member.
The study is expected to cost about $220,000, most of it provided through federal sources.
State rail historical advocacy group Liberty Historic Railway, Inc. already has released its own study showing the feasibility of a streetcar serving the 1,200-acre park, linked to Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Transit (HBLRT) Liberty State Park Station, and also to the station’s large park-and-ride lot. The streetcar would also serve, and perhaps utilize, the ex-Central Railroad of New Jersey rail terminal building within the park, preserved as a historic structure.
