Getting New Jersey Off Highway Widening and Back on the Right Track

Newark Bay Widening Alternatives

Newark Bay Turnpike Widening — $10,700 million

The $10,700 million Newark Bay Turnpike widening would demolish large portions of Jersey City and induce more driving while failing to relieve the main bottleneck in the highway system.Alternative Hudson County projects

Newark Bay Turnpike replacement in-kind — $1,000 million

As the Newark Bay Extension is legitimately approaching the end of its design life, we propose to dedicate some of the $10.6 billion widening cost to its replacement. An old cost estimate for the entire Turnpike Extension of $4 billion included $270 million for replacement of the existing Newark Bay bridge in kind. This document multiplies this by a factor of around 2.5–the cost increase since that estimate–and a further factor of around 1.5 to account for other components needing replacement to arrive at an estimate of $1,000 million.

Light Rail

Hudson-Bergen light rail to Newark Penn — $2,000 million

This extension would connect the Newark and Hudson–Bergen light rail into a single network linking Jersey City’s West Side, Kearny, and the Newark Ironbound. These areas, some of the densest in the state, have poor rail access. This project would relieve Routes 440, 139, and 1/9 and provide transit access to jobs that currently require a car to reach. The combined system would become the nation’s fifth longest light rail system and third most ridden. To arrive at a rough estimate, we multiply the Interborough Express cost estimate of $392 million/mile by the route length of 4.27 miles, yielding $1,673 million. We set aside $2,000 million to account for two river crossings and a tunnel to link to the Newark Light Rail system.

Northern Branch — $1,180 million

This project would extend the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail (HBLR) network to Englewood Hospital, finally connecting eastern Bergen County–one of the state’s most densely populated regions and yet underserved by transit – to Hoboken and Jersey City. This line would speed up north-south trips along the Hudson River and facilitate onward connections to New York City. The NJ Transit capital plan estimates this project’s cost at $1,180 million.

Light Rail Capacity Enhancement and Station Accessibility — $252 million

This slate of projects would cut boarding times and enable more service on the Newark and Hudson-Bergen light rail systems. This group includes three major components:

• expanding Newark Light Rail trains from 3-section to 5-section ($33 million)

• completing system ADA compliance ($130 million)

• adding a third track to the Hoboken Wye ($89 million)

Total is $252 million.

Regional Rail

Extend NJ Transit Overhead Wire — $700 million

We propose an initial investment into NJ Transit overhead wire electrification for replacement of diesel trains. Electrification decreases travel times and reduces greenhouse gas emissions, synergizing with ongoing grid decarbonization work. Increased electrification would reduce transfers not only for suburban residents traveling to North Jersey and New York jobs and entertainment but also for riders looking to reach destinations such as the Jersey Shore and Lake Hopatcong from North Jersey. 

We estimate electrification to save at least 3 minutes of travel time on the 15-mile trip from Long Branch to Bay Head, for example, and more from the transfer elimination for onward travel to northern New Jersey and New York. A sum of around $700 million would pay for around 100 double track route-miles judging from the Amtrak New Haven-Boston project. This much money should suffice to wire the North Jersey Coast Line to Bay Head (14 route miles, 2 tracks), the Main and Bergen County Lines to Suffern (44 miles, mostly double track), and the Raritan Valley Line from Newark to High Bridge (44 route miles, mixed single and double track).

Additional NJ Transit High-Level Platforms — $2,000 million

High platforms allow for faster boarding speeds and better ADA compliance. High platforms would deliver level boarding, where all the train floors and platforms are at the same level–as is the case on the entire NYC Subway and PATH systems and almost all the Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road networks. The recent Chelsea station modernization project undertaken by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s (MBTA) rolling station overall rolling program cost around $25,000 per linear foot of single-track side platform. We set aside $2,000 million; at the Chelsea project cost, this sum should pay for about 50 eight-car (750-foot) stations.

Raritan Valley Line Core Capacity — $1,134 million

The Raritan Valley Line has two critical bottlenecks that prevent any service increases:

At Hunter Interlocking, inbound Raritan Valley Line trains have to cross four NEC tracks at grade, which causes conflicts with outbound trains that impose delays and reduce capacity. A flyover would massively reduce conflicts–leaving only mergers between same-direction traffic, increasing capacity. This project is a prerequisite for peak hour Raritan Valley Line service to Manhattan. A recent official project inventory has a cost estimate of $384 million.

Passenger trains share a double-track line with heavy, slow freight trains on one of the primary freight routes into North Jersey. The track sharing severely reduces capacity for NJT and freight (CSX/NS/CSAO) railroads, both because of the sheer number of trains and the difficulty in scheduling trains of such different nature. The NJ Transit capital plan proposes $750 million for widening the line to four tracks, solving this scheduling problem completely.

Both the Hunter Flyover and quadruple track on the Lehigh Line are prerequisites for Raritan Valley Line service increases even once a new Hudson tunnel opens. This capacity will allow for potential future expansions to West Trenton and the Lehigh Valley cities of Allentown and Bethlehem.

Waldwick yard fixes and Pascack Valley sidings — $100 million

Currently, infrastructure limits the amount of service the Main, Bergen and Pascack Valley Lines can run. Since the Pascack Valley Line lacks sufficient double track, stacking consecutive trains in one direction to satiate peak-direction demand prevents any reverse-peak service.

By rebuilding Waldwick yard and adding double track to the Pascack Valley Line, these projects would improve service linking one of New Jersey’s most densely populated areas to Hoboken and New York.The NJ Transit capital plan contains a $13 million estimate for the Waldwick yard project. We set aside $100 million for that undertaking plus Pascack Valley sidings. The Lackawanna Cutoff restoration to Andover is projected at $10 million per mile, which includes work on the infrastructure around the track and a new signal system. Thus, this sum should build several miles of double track, even accounting for the Pascack Valley Line’s relatively constrained context.

Lackawanna Cutoff to the Delaware River — $500 million

This line item would continue the restoration of the Lackawanna Cutoff beyond Andover to the Delaware River. This project would restore infrastructure, track, and signals to support electric service to the state line in preparation for Amtrak and Pennsylvania restoring the Delaware River Viaduct to open up service to Scranton and beyond. We anticipate the subgrade, track and signals cost from the Delaware River to Scranton at around $300 million and $300 million to electrify from the Delaware River all the way to Scranton. This additional funding should mostly come from Amtrak and Pennsylvania stakeholders.

Expand rail rolling stock — $500 million

We recommend purchasing additional electric regional rail and light rail train sets and retrofit the existing River line stock to electric power. Everything we propose, in this plan and the follow-up plan on operations, aims to create a better transit system that attracts more riders. Meeting that increased demand will require more trains. To speed trips compared to schedules that use relatively heavy existing trains, these new trains should follow off-the-shelf European designs as closely as possible now that the Federal Railroad Administration has modernized crashworthiness rules.

Planning updates for shelved and out-of-scope projects — $40 million

NJ Transit and others have studied many of the projects in the past and lacked the resources to update them as conditions have changed. This funding would update plans for formerly shovel-ready projects that did not move forward due to lack of funding and advance planning for proposals such as the following:

• Delaware River tunnel linking the Atlantic City Line to the Center City tunnel via Camden;

• Regional rail from Lakehurst to Philadelphia via Mount Holly; 

• Additional transit service in Sussex County, northern Passaic County, and South Jersey.

Bus Priority

JFK/Bergen Blvd Bayonne – Fort Lee — $50 million

A gold-standard Bus Rapid Transit line on JFK Boulevard, from Bayonne all the way to Fort Lee, would greatly reduce transit trip times on one of Hudson County’s busiest north-south corridors. Combined with a transfer to an improved Hudson–Bergen light rail network, this project would provide for more transit connections across Hudson County, for example, easy Bayonne-Newark connections. The project would include treatments like the following:

• Center running lanes;

• Platforms for faster boarding and better accessibility;

• Signal priority for faster and more reliable trips.

A sum around $50 million should afford bus lanes, light physical separation, and cameras–similar to New York City Select Bus Service projects–would likely cost much less–around $50 million for the entirety of JFK Boulevard.

Two-way Lincoln Express Bus Lane 24/7 — $100 million

The Lincoln Tunnel handles dozens of bus lines moving more people than most train lines. Yet there is only a morning rush hour bus lane approaching the tunnel. This project would expand the existing lane to two-way 24/7 operation from the Turnpike to the bus terminal. Giving each direction one lane requires a new inbound lane adjacent to the outbound lanes about ¾ mile long so that buses from the northbound Turnpike would not weave into merging traffic from Route 3. Other dedicated ramps could help facilitate bus trips from all directions, therefore we estimate a generous $100 million. The Port Authority Bus Terminal already has the necessary ramps for conflict-free access to and from the center tube.

Green programs & grant money

Essex – Hudson Greenway — $100 million

The Essex-Hudson Greenway would provide a pedestrian and cycling route linking Montclair, Glen Ridge, Bloomfield, Belleville, Newark, Kearny, Secaucus and Jersey City over a disused rail line. The only routes available today nearly entirely lack sidewalks or bicycle lanes. This pathway would eliminate many traffic conflicts, stimulating large growth in active transportation between densely populated communities. When completed, this is expected to be the second most popular park in NJ with over 4 million annual visitors. The proposed budget should be generous, as routes supporting only bicycle traffic do not require as great rehabilitation as lines that trains would use.

Bus Lanes, Bike Share and Complete Streets — $400 million

Bus and bicycle lanes are generally inexpensive treatments that can have a high impact upon walkability and transit usability. Jersey City has driven down its rate of cyclist and pedestrian injury and death through consistent rollout of street designs that deprioritize fast car travel.  Expanding bike lanes and bike share would be a cost effective way to provide a car-free way to travel across the state’s urban core. We would expect some of this money to add dedicated bike lanes to Hudson-Essex roadways. We also expect additional bike share installations within the bike sheds of all light rail, PATH and PATCO stations. Dedicated bus lanes and signal prioritization can speed up many of the busiest lines in the state. An investment of $400 million should extend these treatments to a critical mass of roadways around New Jersey. A few notable corridors that could benefit from bus lanes:

• Route 42, from Williamstown to Camden

• Route 38, from Mt Holly to Camden

• Route 70, from Sagemore to Camden

• Route 9, from Lakewood to South Amboy

• Route 4, from Paterson to the George Washington Bridge

• Route 17, from Paramus to Teterboro

• Route 3, from Montclair State University to Secaucus

• Route 46, from Montclair State University to the George Washington Bridge

• Springfield Ave, from Vauxhall to Newark

• Morris Ave, from Springfield to Elizabeth

• Central Ave, from Orange to Newark

Alternatives to Widenings from Monmouth to Bergen Counties

Proposed widenings outside Hudson County – $10,450 million

Proposed widenings of the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway outside Hudson County would induce more driving and auto-oriented development. The proposed sums on the following projects would suffice for a large statewide transit upgrade program:

• Meadowlands Turnpike Widening — $5,050 million

• GSP Widening from Monmouth County to Bergen County — $5,400 million

Of note, the cost estimates for these widenings come from a 2020 capital plan that had the Newark Bay Extension widening costing $4.3 billion, not $10.7 billion. We are using the 2020 costs to provide a more restricted envelope for transit expansion. However, if adjusted proportionally to the Newark Bay Extension cost increase, the amounts likely to be spent on all the widenings in this document total as much per-capita highway spending for New Jersey as the Texas Department of Transportation is proposing.

Alternative Projects

Rehabilitation of existing highways — $1,000 million

A 2019 study placed the cost of roadway construction and maintenance in North Jersey at $240,000/lane mile in 2022 dollars. At this cost, $1 billion would suffice to rehabilitate thousands of highway lane miles across the state.

Regional Rail

Monmouth Junction-Lakehurst — $2,000 million 

The roughly 40-mile project would close the most glaring gap in the NJ Transit regional rail network and serve a region that has mushroomed in population. Studies around the 2000s projected daily ridership around 40,000. The line requires a flyover to the Northeast Corridor; for this component, we use the Hunter Flyover cost of $400 million. Difficult stations on the NJ Transit are on pace to cost $100 million each; we budget $900 million for the nine proposed stations. The Lackawanna Cutoff restoration to Andover is projected at $10 million per mile for subgrade and track work plus a signal system. We budget $7 million/mile for overhead wire (see above). This method yields an estimate of $2,000 million.

North Jersey Coast Line bridges — $1,000 million

The North Jersey Coast Line (NJCL) has several outdated drawbridges that restrict train speeds:

• Brielle Draw: 20 mi/h

• Shark Draw: 45 mi/h

• Morgan Draw: 30 mi/h

Modern drawbridges support much higher speeds; for example, the Susquehanna River bridge on the Northeast Corridor in Maryland currently allows 90 mi/h. Replacements for Brielle, Shark, Morgan total $610 million in the NJ Transit capital plan. We are reasonably confident $1,000 million would pay for the above bridge replacements and the following projects which do not have official cost estimates:

• Oceanport Draw (current speed limit 35 mi/h)

• the Navesink River bridge (current speed limit 50 mi/h)

• overpasses at West Front Street and Laurel Avenue 

These speedups would increase the competitiveness of the NJCL, facilitating economic development for shore towns. Unlike a Garden State Parkway expansion, NJCL upgrades would not add to heavy summer-time traffic or overloading scarce parking.

Westbound Waterfront Connection — $474 million

The Waterfront Connection connecting the Northeast Corridor to Hoboken Terminal is currently single track, which means that trains can only run in one direction at a time and that westbound trains conflict with New York bound trains. Adding a dedicated westbound connecting track would permit trains from Hoboken Terminal to merge onto the Northeast Corridor without blocking eastbound traffic to New York.

If completed, this project would simplify diversions of North Jersey Coast, Northeast Corridor, and Raritan Valley trains to Hoboken during maintenance or emergency shutdowns of Penn Station or the Hudson tunnels. Moreover, this connection would unlock additional service possibilities, namely enabling through-running of Hoboken-bound trains via a new tunnel to Manhattan and then Brooklyn or Queens. The NJ Transit capital plan estimates the cost at $474 million.

Remaining Overhead Wire excluding Atlantic City Line and Platforms – $1,820 million

The wire and platform program we propose out of the Newark Bay widening budget would leave some 120 miles of route without overhead wire and around 40 stations unfinished. As above, we assume $25,000 per linear single-track side platform. Of note, much of the remaining lines without wire are single track in outlying areas, so they should cost less than $7 million per mile to wire. A budget around $1.8 billion should suffice for building the remaining platforms to 750 feet (eight cars) long, extending remaining ones that are shorter than that, and completing elevators and pedestrian overpasses at stations that require them.

Light Rail and PATH

PATH to Newark Airport — $1,700 million 

We strongly recommend extension of the PATH system directly to the Newark Airport terminals with an infill station in South Newark. Today, only a small percentage of trips to and from Newark Airport use mass transit, as reaching the terminals currently requires a ride on the Newark Airport Airtrain from the Newark Airport interchange station. Extension of PATH to the Newark Airport terminals would greatly improve airport transit access. The project would eliminate two transfers for Hudson County and Manhattan passengers–one at Newark Penn Station and the other at the airport interchange. Passengers arriving Newark Penn bound for the airport on express Northeast Corridor, North Jersey Coast, or Raritan Valley trains would have to make one less transfer and have much higher frequency than today. In March 2023, the Star-Ledger quoted a prior version of the project that would have ended at the interchange station at $1,700 million. Moderate cost reforms–see below–should enable this sum to fund a line all the way to the recently completed New Terminal A including a new station for the South Ironbound neighborhood and provisions for a future extension to Elizabeth.

Newark - Paterson Light Rail — $1,320 million

This project would extend Newark Light Rail from Broad Street Station to Paterson via the Newark Industrial Track. The extension would create a direct ride between the largest and third largest cities in the state and better facilitate transit trips within the state and not just into Manhattan. The last study for this alignment in 2020  estimated a cost of $1.32 billion and  over 37,000 daily riders.

Passaic-Bergen-Hudson Light Rail — $1,100 million

This project would provide a link across North Jersey from Hawthorne to Paterson, Hackensack and North Bergen. Today, using rail to reach the Hudson River from Paterson requires travel via Newark, Jersey City or Hoboken, encouraging use of highways in lieu of transit. This line would relieve Route 4, I-80, and other roads that feed the George Washington Bridge. It would connect the Hackensack and Paterson bus terminals by rail. This would mainly use the New York Susquehanna and Western railway, and would require several hours overnight without passenger service for the freight railroad to service their customers.

South Jersey

Proposed widenings in South Jersey — $4,480 million

Proposed highway widening projects in South Jersey are due to have the same negative effects as in North and Central Jersey. NJTA proposes to widen the Turnpike from the Delaware River to Mount Laurel for $3,600 million and to expand the Delaware Turnpike Bridge near Burlington for another $880 million. Assuming costs in line with recent comparable projects, the budgets for these two widenings should pay for both complete rehabilitation or in-kind replacement of the aforementioned highways and large transit expansions in the area.

Alternative Projects

Rehabilitate the Delaware River Turnpike Bridge — $100 million

The bridge was recently repaired in 2019 and original plans for the highway expansion did not call for replacing the bridge, but instead adding a parallel span. We think an additional $100 million should be sufficient to cover New Jersey’s portion for further rehabilitation to extend the life of the bridge.

Glassboro PATCO branch – $2,500 million

Cost estimates for Camden - Glassboro Light Rail land around $1,800 million.  We propose spending an additional $700 million to make this line compatible for through-running with PATCO, providing a direct connection to Center City Philadelphia. The rolling stock would need to use both third rail and overhead electrification, as several models elsewhere already do. Glassboro to Philadelphia trips could be done as quickly as 36 minutes vs 53 minutes by bus today. Daily ridership was estimated to be 17,600 - 26,600, doubling train trips across the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.

Upgrade River and Atlantic City Lines — $1,000 million

Electrifying the River Line and Atlantic City Lines–totaling around 95 route miles, can reasonably be expected to cost around $550 million. We set aside an additional $450 million for sidings and platforms.  The River Line would require high-voltage AC electrification for compatibility with freight.

Cape May seasonal service– $150 million

This project would improve the quality of tracks from the Atlantic City line to Cape May bringing service from an interchange with the Atlantic City Line or 30th Street Station to Cape May in cooperation with the South Seashore Railroad. This would use existing NJ Transit and/or South Seashore rolling stock. This is phase one of a project to restore regional rail service linking Cape May to Philadelphia and Camden. In the long term, the route could extend from Glassboro via Vineland by restoring the abandoned railway section between Millville and Woodbine.

Further rail extensions – $400 million

There are a number of different projects that would facilitate better transit connections to the Philadelphia region. This includes a shuttle service from Woodbury on the Glassboro PATCO line to Salem to provide a direct alternative to 295 and the southern section of the Turnpike. Or a shuttle service from Glassboro to Vineland to prepare for an eventual fully-fledged line to Cape May. Or a restoration of rail service from the Raritan Valley line from Bound Brook to West Trenton, providing an additional connection between NYC and Philly and mitigating traffic on the Delaware Turnpike Bridge, and relieving other bridges to the Philadelphia metro area in Pennsylvania. We recommend using this money to advance studies on two of these projects, and build out one of them.

Construction Costs

For safety, we base our cost estimates on official capital plan documents; where that is not possible, we use recent, nearby projects. To be clear, the proposed Turnpike widening can pay for a major expansion of the regional transit system. However, travelers would also benefit from construction cost reform unlocking further projects. The Transit Costs Project has identified factors that drive up costs in greater New York from normal first world levels by around tenfold. Many regions around the world get much more out of their construction and maintenance dollars while dealing with a wide spectrum of cultural and political challenges, suggesting greater New York can make progress if it prioritizes it. 

Construction cost reform would enable only the planned Turnpike Extension widening budget to complete most of the projects this document outlines. Even with average first-world construction productivity, the nearly $11 billion Newark Bay widening budget would unlock many projects besides the program we propose, such as a subway under several miles of JFK Boulevard, an extension of PATH to the Newark Airport terminal area and then to Elizabeth, full electrification and high level platforms for the whole NJ Transit regional rail network, and the Monmouth-Ocean-Middlesex line to Lakehurst.

It is important to note that the region’s construction efficiency woes are not limited to transit projects, but also apply to road projects — including the widenings we are arguing against. This is not a reason to widen or not widen the NJ Turnpike; factors that influence infrastructure construction costs affect road and rail similarly. However, reducing highway construction costs does unlock other improvements to the road network that don’t have these deleterious effects. The pavement standards of Europe and East Asia are much higher, for example, and an upgrade of the entire Turnpike network to those standards would become affordable. Furthermore, even assuming no cost reforms, the less we overbuild the road network, the higher the standard of quality to which we can maintain it.

Outer State Connections

While the bulk of our proposal focuses on intrastate projects, New Jersey straddles two interstate metropolitan areas, and projects that cross state lines are crucial. We recommend New Jersey work with New York, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut on interstate projects such as the following:

• Extension of the HBLR system or a JFK Boulevard subway to Staten Island; 

• Extension of the Raritan Valley line to Allentown and Bethlehem; 

• Lackawanna Cutoff restoration to Scranton and Binghamton;

• Pascack Valley and Port Jervis lines; 

• Additional Bergen-Rockland north-south rail service;

• Tappan Zee Bridge rail;

• Extension of PATCO from 15th Street to University City;

• Extension of the Gateway Program corridor to Metro-North at Grand Central;

• Double track connection of the Empire Line to the LIRR via the northern portion of Penn Station;

• Erie Lines (Hoboken Division)-Financial District-Atlantic Terminal connection; 

• Extensions of the 7/L/Q/(T)/C subways across the George Washington Bridge, 125th St in Manhattan, or 14th Street. 

Operations

While this document focuses on capital improvements, frequent, well thought out service is crucial for attracting a diverse base of riders at all times of day. We will follow up with a discussion of the underlying issues in Part II of this report.

Conclusion

Rather than needlessly expanding the Turnpike and Parkway, New Jersey can invest in projects that could transform how New Jerseyans get around their state. This level of capital investment could set up New Jersey to have the best non-subway transit system in the entire Western Hemisphere, not just a service for 9-to-5 commuters to New York and Philadelphia. It would merge Hudson–Bergen Light Rail and Newark Light Rail into a true network for the urban core of North Jersey. Instead of digging itself into a bigger climate hole by encouraging driving, New Jersey could become the greenest state in the nation, an honor worthy of our nickname, the Garden State.