Atlantic City
A light rail plan is being studied which would link Atlantic City with the South Jersey LRT now under construction. The plan includes a spur to the airport.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Bayonne-Jersey City

The first phase will operate from Bayonne to Exchange Place, Jersey City with immediate future service operating to Hoboken. Eventually, in a second phase program the system will operate to the neighboring communities of Wehawken,Union City, North Bergen, and Ridgefield.

Phase one will startup on March 1, 2000 and the system will eventually be in  full operation by 2004.  14 of the LRT's will be used by the existing Newark Subway System.

Home Page for the Hudson-Bergen MTA
STV Engineers Hudson-Bergen page
A Scanned map
Hudson Bergen LRT map and Jersey City HBLRT page
nycsubway.org pictorial of the HBLRT
Newjersey.com article about the HBLRT

Copy of an article from the 2/9/1999 Newark Star:

Tuesday, February 9, 1999

By DOUG MOST
Staff Writer

 -- HARRISON
Sleek, roomy, and shiny, and, at least for now, graffiti-free, the first light rail vehicle that will carry passengers through Hudson County -- and if all stays on track, into Bergen -- was unveiled Monday.

"It's one more step toward a reality we could only dream about," said Douglas Bowen, president of the New Jersey Rail Passengers Association. "Every little step like this helps."

The Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Transit System is not scheduled to begin operating until March 2000. But as the tracks are being built, the vehicles that will run on them are starting to arrive. In a cold and drafty warehouse just outside Newark, as NJ Transit trains passed a few hundred yards away, lawmakers, transportation officials, and rail advocates watched as the system's first trolley-like car rolled in.

Ultimately, the 20 1/2-mile system will cost more than $1 billion and carry a projected 100,000 passengers a day, which would make it the second-busiest light rail line in the country, behind Boston's. The goal is to encourage people traveling short distances between Bergen and Hudson counties to leave behind their cars. The hope is that will reduce road congestion and lead to cleaner air.

"It's a terrific, impressive car," state Transportation Commissioner James Weinstein said with the light rail vehicle behind him and about 50 officials in front of him. "It will make the Hudson waterfront even more economically desirable for businesses."

The line's first phase will include 16 stops between 34th Street in Bayonne and Hoboken, where passengers can connect to Manhattan-bound PATH trains, said Dan Censullos, director of new rail construction for NJ Transit.

The second phase, if funding can be obtained in time, could begin this summer and be ready by the summer of 2001, he said. It would extend the line north to Tonnelle Avenue in North Bergen.

The third phase, targeted to open by the end of 2003, would continue farther north and end at the New Jersey Turnpike's Vince Lombardi Park/Ride in Ridgefield Park.

Chet Mattson, director of planning and economic development for Bergen County, called the unveiling of the light rail car "a defining moment in our region's history."

Praising the technology, he said the trains will go 55 mph, "stop on a dime" without clogging intersections, and run with great frequency. "It's our one cure for congestion," Mattson said. "It's built for the world that we now live in."

But it hasn't been built without snags; the system has taken nearly a decade to reach this point. Assemblywoman Rose Marie Heck, R-Hasbrouck Heights, who has been instrumental in moving the project forward, beamed as she spoke about "another part of the dream coming true."

"They told us it couldn't be done. We said, 'Watch us,' " she said.

Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J., who helped secure much of the federal money for the project, including $99 million in President Clinton's proposed 1999-2000 budget, said in a prepared statement: "I'm looking forward to catching a ride on the upcoming test run where one of these new cars runs on a section of track. I've heard the ride is very smooth."

NJ Transit and 21st Century, a consortium hired to design, build, operate, and maintain the system, have ordered 45 cars from Kinki Sharyo Co. LTD of Japan at a cost of $93 million, with the money coming from the Federal Transit Administration. The vehicles are being shipped to the Harrison Assembly Warehouse, the site of Monday's unveiling, for assembly and testing.

Each car will be white with a blue interior and have low floors to ease boarding for disabled riders. Each will have 68 cloth-covered seats, two wheelchair positions, and standing room for 122 people.

Of the 45 cars ordered, 29 are slated for the Hudson-Bergen line. The rest will replace outdated cars on the Newark City Subway.

Copyright © 1999 Bergen Record Corp.

Here's an interesting post from the transit newsgroup:
 
After a continual pounding from the gentrified neighborhood of Essex Street in Jersey City, NJ, NJTransit has apparently surrendered. The neighbors complained of squealing wheels, loud whistles, and "dangerous speeding" in the 25 mph zone.

Press reports interviewed mothers of children who couldn't sleep, yuppies who complained about the loss of  values in their homes, people whose lifetime treasures were rattled off the walls by the constant vibration, and other "tragic" situations. One local NY TV station led off with a "Terror in the streets" teaser. (This from a TV station which downplayed the drunken mobs assaulting and stripping women after the Puerto Rico Day parades, no less.)

The Star Ledger of Newark reports NJT has directed the LRVs to reduce speed to 15 mph in the two block stretch and not to sound their whistle in the area unless required. They will monitor the situation and evaluate the changes as
required.
 

Hoboken-Jersey City
LRT in planning
NJ Transit's Hudson River LRT project is in its prelim-construction phase.  It will stretch from the Jersey City/Hoboken "Waterfront" district (eventually) towards the GW Bridge along the riverfront. There is also talk, according to a July 26, 2001 article in the local Hoboken paper, of buying the Newark PCC cars that are being discarded, for use on an above ground Washington Street trolley.

Newark
LRT subway
The Newark subway is to begin using the Hudson Bergen LRT cars as of August 27, 2001. The PCCs will, sadly, be retired. For the first time in many years, however, the subway is being extended - from Penn Station to Union Station, where the system will "link up" with a new Hoboken LRT subway.

Trenton-Camden
LRT under construction

 
New Jersey Trolleys
A couple of greatpages from days gone by: great though defunct transit systems of New Jersey from Al Mankoff