Regarding those Kearny bus lines: community politics often supports the status quo. If the buses have been there for decades, no one notices who gets on or off. But suggest a new mode of transport, and people sometimes imagine the worst. Actually, it's often a relatively small number who think that way, but they often make the most noise.
Right, but my wife's family lives in the area. That particular stretch of Kearny is marked with the sort of people who would welcome any kind of extra transit solutions to Newark (and I cannot help but laugh about how we're all tap-dancing around saying what we're all thinking). They might not worry so much if it was proposed as the Light Rail to Secaucus Junction or an express line to Secaucus.
To that end, it's NJ-ARP's preference to grow LRT from existing cores, and going west to Montclair and east/north to Clifton remains a long-range interest of ours. Getting to Kearny has been less of a priority, but perhaps we, too, should revisit this, and if diesel shuttle or some other rail option is a better way, well, perhaps ...
Well, Kearny would be but one stop on the line - my ultimate goal is Secaucus Junction (or Transfer, or whatever people want to call it). The rail line to Clifton is definitely an important matter, and one which I wholeheartedly support but this would be in addition to, not instead of, the Clifton/Montclair projects.
In the meantime, a shorter extension of Newark light rail could be built to Mount Pleasant Avenue and Broadway as he suggests. (The latter location was the site of the Boonton Line's North Newark station.) Possibly this could continue to Arlington if the community supports it.
Agreed. One step at a time. Even getting down to Broadway or 21 would be great - this area lends itself very easily to a park-and-ride situation and would definitely reduce congestion along the area roads.
One way or another WR Draw would have to be rehabbed or replaced for any kind of service to take place. While I'd love to see it happen (and I'd also love to see LR on the old Erie Newark Branch too)...I think financially the hurdles might be too much to overcome.
As I indicated before, I don't believe it would need to be replaced completley - rehabilitated, absolutely, but replaced? I don't think so. It supported trains up to about ten years ago (please correct me if I'm wrong on this one) that were a good deal larger and heavier than the LRT cars on any line, and while it may need some parts replaced due to rust damage, I don't think a full replacement would be necessary.
I'm going to wait until the New Year to speak with any Kearny officials. In the meantime, would anyone know who I could contact regarding this at NJ Transit? I'll definitely wait until after speaking with the Kearny-folk to speak with NJT (thanks Doug!); I'm just trying to plan out what to say and who I'd be directing my discussion towards.