A New 8th Street Station on HBLR

According to the great and powerful OZ, otherwise known as Joe Doria, NJT is going extend HBLR south to 8th Street. Removal of CNJ bridge over Newark Bay looks more and more like the blunder of the century.

http://www.nj.com/news/jjournal/index.s ... 195310.xml

That's always been the plan, plus a 5th Street
Park and Ride station just off the Bayonne Bridge.
Potential extention over the Bayonne Bridge
using the original design for trolleys over it.
Shame that West 8th was set on fire by vandals
and severely damaged leading to demolition.
Looked like this in its heyday:

As to the demolition of Bay Draw, I recall seeing in the Bayonne newspaper, the "evidence" produced by the Coast Guard that the bridge was "falling" apart and the remainder needed to be demolished. (at that point the draw had been removed to widen the channel, but the approaches were retained for potential future use.)

The photo showed railroad spikes, track bolts and fish plates on a table at the hearing. Left over from when the rails were pulled, no doubt, and occasionally might fall down between the ties.

Coast Guard testified that the items demonstrated the condition of the bridge. But in truth the bridge itself was very sound and the approaches would have facilitated the replacement of the draw to accomdate a light rail extension to Cranford were they intact.

Here's a doctored PA press photo which tried to show the "hazard to navigation" that the drawbridge was supposed to be:



You'll note that the size of the ship has been blown up to at least four times the normal size of container ships. The bridge in the background had four-track capacity, but the containers as depicted would cover all four tracks and then some. Also, the bridge of the ship would scrape the bottom of the Bayonne Bridge...but in reality, you could probably fly four Boeing 747s, one under the other in formation, over a container ship traveling under the Bayonne Bridge.

Jeffrey Warsh, before he departed NJT, was talking about the possibility of building a tunnel under Newark Bay to connect the HBLRT with the then Newark-Elizabeth Rail Link. IMHO, such a tunnel ought to be built by the PANYNJ anyway, even a multiple tunnel for freight and for LRT separately, for the sake of mobility...

Today's container ships are much larger and wider than the 1977 versions. That's become an issue in the channel blasting proposal along the Kill Van Kull and Arthur Kill.

I'd suspect a Bayonne to Elizabethport rail tunnel would be the only new construction alternative acceptable to the Coast Guard. But, they could take over a track of the Greenville rail bridge for dedicated light rail use. That brings them over to Oak Island and near newark airport / Newark Elizabeth proposed LRT line.

I wonder if they could run light rail over the Newark Bay extension of the Turnpike?

Actually, there is a better chance that the new Goethals bridge will carry light rail than a new tunnel or use of the NJTPKE extension. The Bayonne Bridge is designed for light rail use and the PA is ostensibly including a light rail/transit component in its DEIS for the Goethals replacement.

http://www.goethalseis.com/overview/