Hudson-Bergen Light Rail in New Jersey

It's a transit system I've wanted to ride for a while: the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail. Located in Hudson County, NJ, right across the river from Manhattan, this light rail system has been moving people between Bayonne, Jersey City, Hoboken, Weehawken, Union City, and North Bergen since 2000.

Trains Are Awesome!

[Ballknower.]

I’d argue the HBLR invigorated the Jersey City boom of the 2000s. The whole waterfront is unrecognizable now. Impressive skyline and community when compared to majority of American cities, it just looks dwarfed because it’s against Manhattan. This was a successful light rail implementation that doesn’t feel half-assed like most light rails nowadays.

[alk]

Now that would be an idea expanding the Light Rail to Staten Island. Also as a sports fan who attends a lot of games at MetLife Stadium, expanding the light rail to the Meadowlands would be a great idea. Another option to head to and from the stadium. And it would service the American Dream Mall next door. As of now it isn't the easiest to reach on public transportation.

[AverytheCubanAmerican]

Yup, as you mentioned, the HBLR goes where people wanna go, whether it's Hoboken Terminal, a state park, JC Medical Center, the mall, university, etc! The HBLR's most popular stop is Newport for the Newport Centre shopping mall. Newport participates in a NJ government Urban Enterprise Zone program with reduced sales tax, encouraging New Yorkers to do their shopping in NJ! The West Side Ave station is walking distance to the New Jersey City University campus and are right by the Jersey City Board of Education and Social Security offices as well. The walk to the Communipaw Terminal from the LSP station is scenic! I remember doing the walk during the Red Bull Air Race in 2010 and a lot of spectators took the HBLR! The station is also right next door to the Liberty Science Center as well, home to the largest planetarium in the Western Hemisphere! My family is emotionally attached to LSP, as my uncle was a boy scout who participated in its opening on July 4th, 1976. They had the scouts of the city to raise 50 US flags, and my uncle raised the one in front of the park's Nature Interpretive Center and the flagpole is still there today!

Both the HBLR and the PATH have led to lots of TOD and pedestrianization in downtown JC. Hoboken and JC has Citi Bike infrastructure by HBLR stations too! Outside downtown, new developments are going up by Liberty State Park station. And the West Side Ave portion being extended to the new Bayfront development complex revives the ROW further, with new TOD, with much of it affordable housing! Port Imperial in Weehawken was designed as a big TOD with its ferry operations upgraded to a terminal when the HBLR station opened. Many luxury apartments with a supermarket have been built by the station. For connections, besides Hoboken Terminal and Exchange Place you got off at (not Newport), Bergenline Avenue is a busy shopping corridor and not only a bus hub for seven routes but is also the only underground station on the HBLR, and Bergenline Ave is a jitney corridor as well. Besides Newport PATH, the other side of Newport mall is a terminus for the NJ jitneys. Port Imperial and Lincoln Harbor both have ferry connections, with Port Imperial having different bus routes as well. In Bayonne, there's the MTA S89 bus which goes between Bayonne and Eltingville and allows Staten Islanders access to the HBLR. 34th Street station is also close to the Cape Liberty cruise port. The MTA plan to improve Staten Island bus service to NJ is with BRT to 8th St! A gondola (yes, GONDOLA) to 8th Street from SI has been proposed in the past as well.

[Maunico]

Ayyy my local system! Glad you enjoyed Thom. However, the reason the light rail in its 30 years of planning still hasn’t gotten to Bergen County is because of some NIMBYs in Tenafly who keep complaining. At first, they were complaining because the terminus was there and thus more traffic would come from up north. Secondly, after NJT cut the project just south of the Tenafly/Englewood Border, they still complained because more traffic would come from up north heading for the HBLR, and to this day they still complain delaying the process of actually getting this extension done.

[AverytheCubanAmerican]

HBLR, LET'S GOOOO! Used to live in JC and my local station was 9th/Congress St! Loved taking the elevator off the side of the Palisades to get down to the station in Hoboken, which was a really cool feature that I'm glad they did so people in the Jersey City Heights can access the system! Yeah as you mentioned, the system uses a mix of old right-of-way and right-of-way built brand new for the system downtown. Besides the CNJ main line (which also partly sits on former Morris Canal bed) and the CNJ's Newark and New York Railroad, the section of the HBLR between western Hoboken and Port Imperial was once the NY Central's New Jersey Junction Railroad, while the Weehawken Tunnel between Port Imperial and Tonnelle Ave that Bergenline Ave station is in, was used by the West Shore Railroad (for trains between the former Weehawken Terminal and Buffalo. The NJ Junction Railroad and Weehawken Tunnel eventually became Conrail's River Line, which NJT bought the tracks from, and paid to upgrade the Northern Running Track as part of the deal so Conrail could shift its operations (now used by CSX).

When the Bergen County extension to Englewood is built, it will use the Northern Running Track/Northern Branch, originally constructed in 1859 by the Northern Railroad of New Jersey to connect the New York and Erie Railroad's Piermont Branch terminus in Piermont, NY directly to Erie's primary terminal in Jersey City, initially Exchange Place, and later Pavonia Terminal. NJT originally wanted the Northern Branch extension to go to Tenafly, but people in Tenafly opposed it, so it'll terminate at Englewood Hospital. As part of the deal to upgrade, it included double-tracking the line, changing Marion Junction and Bergen Junction, and building overpasses, thus the HBLR will have smooth operations! When plans for the HBLR were originally being drawn out, it was proposed for it to go to the Vince Lombardi Park & Ride in Ridgefield as its northern terminus! And before selecting the River Line ROW, its Hoboken section was supposed to be through-running and go along the waterfront serving Stevens Institute and give closer access to the PATH and bus terminal, but then opted to choose a stub-end terminus for Hoboken Terminal instead.

[RADZADproductions]

There are current plans to expand this into Bergen County. NJT built this route with extension in mind and it’s very smart. Same thing with the riverline. Theoretically the newark light rail could also be extended further to the Montclair Boonton line.

[KenanTurkiye]

That's interesting.
I ❤ trains, trams, take a ride, I have a folder on ''transportation''
(folder 2, in playlists) you will love them too :)

[georgeuribe]

I would like to truly thank you for learning how to pronounce correctly the names of the places you visit. I love your work and your honest enthusiasm about both trains and bus networks.

[mr.conductorfromsts]

I used to ride the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail from Bergenline Avenue to Jersey Avenue since I was young. The Horn was LOUD until the end of 2014, especially for Weehawken Tunnel. It was Nathan P12L and it also used to have the gong bells. But now since 2013. All HBLR’s were using the both Electric Bell and Electric Bell.

Sometimes I went to Newport for Sarku Japan and Hoboken Terminal for Railfanning

[rynovoski]

The Newark City Subway is a neat system. Lots of history. Back in the day, there used to be so many different places that cars would exit the subway and become street cars, like the Philadelphia subway-surface routes. Sadly, none are left today.

The main branch of the city subway runs through the basement of my apartment building.

[anthonywarrener]

Thank you for this excellent video ! I have briefly used this system, joining it at Hoboken Terminal. I thought it gave wonderful views of the trains of New Jersey Transit, and also enjoyed the run through Weehawken and through the tunnel to Bergen. I have seen many videos of the Weehawken Terminal when the New York Central ran its west side lines from there. Wonderful memories ! Also the view from Weehawken across the Hudson to NYC is fabulous, especially if there are some cruise liners about ! You can tell I am a simple tourist and railfan !

[BDavinci]

It's good that you rode the HBLR Thom. I've been riding it since it opened back in 2000. It was my first experience with trolleys and light rail close to home. Since it's opening, NJT has been putting out plans to extend the HBLR to Bergen County connect with another light rail running through Bergen and Passaic Counties. I've also heard extentions to the Meadowlands and into Staten Island which all fell through. (Although the rush hour S89 bus does connect to it) It's still a great light rail systems that NJT has operating in New Jersey. Though NJT one of these days gotta work getting the HBLR into Bergen County to really live up to its name!!

[Trainsaregreat]

I like the fact that you finally got to ride the Hudson Bergen lite rail

[TrainsFerriesFeet]

I've ridden HBLR a number of times and it's quite serviceable. IMO, it needs a line running up the west side of the peninsula through Journal Square and connect through the Tonnelle Ave Station up into Guttenburg and Fort Lee. There also needs to be a station between the Congress/9th Station and Lincoln Harbor to make the north end of Hoboken, Union City and Weehawken (above the Palisades) more accessible.

[JosephHayden-zk]

Tomorrow is my first time ever riding this train I’m very excited

[henrylubinski]

What is needed since the ROW already is in place is a branch to journal square so that terminal can be reached with a one seat ride. The freight line there is no longer used. Pie in the sky would be an extension to met life stadium.

[peterfrey]

one of the best LR lines of my acquaintance. Good job, and nice photos.

[yitzchakfriedman]

One of these almost ran me over. I'm from Brooklyn and have never seen trains ride on the streets 😂😂 but it's a great system, only flaw is no space for bikes

[pascackvalleylinerailfan]

Awesome stuff! I'm not sure if you saw it anywhere when you were riding, but the HBLR also has an "express" service called the Bayonne Flyer. Makes select stops between HOB-8th street during weekday rush. The light rail was the main reason for revitalizing JC and has great connections to PATH, NJT, and the Ferry but frequency and safety have been an issue for a while. As for extensions many people did already mention it. The light rail was supposed to go north on the CSX Northern Branch to Tenafly and further to Northvale if successful. NIBYS shot the extension to Tenafly and has been pushed back to Englewood. Everything's ready, just needs 2 billion dollars. There is also talks of a Secaucus/American Dream extension as the route 3 bridge over the Hackensack River has to be replaced and its replacements will have room for light rail tracks in the plans. Lastly another extension was proposed to extend the light rail or create a commuter rail service on the NS&W railway to Paterson/Hawthorne. The light rail will be extended one stop west to route 440 on the west side av branch to serve a massive TOD in the future and NJT has hinted a further extension west over the Hackensack into Kearny! Glad you got to ride one of my favorite systems!

[nelsn]

NJTransit needs to connect the spur that goes to West End Avenue to the Newark Light Rail and offer some additional stops In the Ironbound section of Newark as well as to Kearny Point which is a major office complex and home to MKBHD. Essentially merge the HBLR with the Newark Light Rail.