Activity Report
September 2002

HMSG continues to play a leading role in substituting light rail for a highway in the future of the Bergen Arches rail corridor in Jersey City. NJDEP has just released the Bergen Arches Study Final Report. One of the 3 "best uses" cited by the report would be a light rail line from Secaucus Transfer to the Jersey City waterfront, a cause for some optimism. Now we need to draft a response to the report and hammer the light rail option in politically. See memos below.

• Thanks to Steve, you can download/ view the final draft report on the Best Uses of the Bergen Arches which cost the taxpayers $1.1 million. As expected, they recommend a highway... The project was controlled by NJDOT... the people who build highways.. Please take a look and attend the public meeting on the 23rd. We need to get the troops out & impress the powers that be that we won't support a highway that'll dump more cars onto Washington Blvd.

  Hart will prepare a commentary and post it on our website & I'll email it out prior to the deadline for public comments to the NJTPA... We hope all of you will mail in your 2 cents, like we all did the last time... The project eventually needs to be funded, which requires a consensus by the pols and voters....

  --Mia

• From: Steve Lanset, Chairman, Hudson-Meadowlands Group of NJ Sierra Club

  The Bergen Arches Study Final Report was released by NJDOT (NJ Department of Transportation) and the NJTPA (North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority) on September 18th. The Report concerned the best uses for the abandoned rail right of way thru the Palisades in Jersey City known as the Bergen Arches. The east-west Bergen Arches cut extends from Tonnele Avenue to Palisade Avenue in Jersey City Heights. It was formerly built and used by the Erie Railroad to deliver passengers to a now-gone rail terminal at Newport-Pavonia on the waterfront. Some powerful people want this transportation corridor to be used as part of a highway from a NJ Turnpike interchange in Secaucus to the waterfront. Most community groups and public transit advocates want the corridor to be used, instead, as part of a light rail link between the Secaucus Transfer rail station and Newport-Pavonia.

  The Report is currently downloadable from the front page of www.hartwheels.org. It essentially presents three "best uses" out of 12 alternative options: M2 - Bus/HOV+Roadway ( HOV is 2 people in a car ...MIA ), T2 - LRT to Meadowlands, and R1 - Roadway 11th/18th Sts in JC. The Hudson-Meadowlands Group of the NJ Sierra Club (a member of HART) strongly recommends option T2, the LRT. It is the most environmentally sensitive transportation solution.

  NJDOT and NJTPA will hold a public informational meeting on the best uses study on October 23, 2002, 7:00 pm, at Dickinson High School (Palisade and Newark Aves) in Jersey City. You may ask questions or make comments concerning the Bergen Arches at the meeting.

  What now?

  I hope that you will support the light rail option and express your preference to the NJTPA. Deadline for public comments: November 7, 2002. Your comments on the best uses study and expressions of your preference should be addressed to:

  Mr. David Behrend
  Manager of Public Affairs
  NJTPA
  One Newark Center, 17th Floor
  Newark, NJ 07102
  Email: dbehrend@njtpa.org.

  Also, please write to your elected officials, especially Congressman Robert Menendez and Governor James McGreevey.

  Congressman Robert Menendez
  911 Bergen Ave., Jersey City 07306
  201-222-2828, Fax 201-222-0188

  Governor James E. McGreevey
  P.O. Box 001
  State House, Trenton 08625-0001
  609-292-6000 Fax 609-292-3454

  Finally, help us keep tabs on our elected officials. Nail them down. Where do they stand on the Bergen Arches? What commitements will they make? Let us know what they tell you. The disposition of the Bergen Arches will be one of the most important environmental/financial decisions made in Jersey City/Hudson County in this decade.