Phases

The HBLR was to be constructed in three distinct phases: The First Minimum Operable Segment (MOS1) from 34th Street, Bayonne to Hoboken, and the West Side extension in Jersey City; the Second Minimum Operable Segment (MOS2), from Hoboken to the Tonnelle Avenue Park-Ride, North Bergen, and the extension to 21st Street in Bayonne; and the Third Minimum Operable Segment (MOS3), the extension from 21st Street to 8th Street in Bayonne. Additional efforts to expand into Bergen County are part of the Northern Branch Corridor expansion project (http://www.northernbranchcorridor.com/).

MOS1 is a 9.3 mile section that includes 16 stations, three major intermodal transfer sites and four regional park-rides, which allow for more than 2,500 parking spaces. The first 7.5 miles of track opened to customers in April 2000, reaching Hoboken in 2002.

MOS2 completed a 5.1 mile extension of the system around Hoboken and through the Weehawken Tunnel to an 825-space park-ride at Tonnelle Avenue, making it accessible to an expanding market of auto commuters and extending the southern terminus approximately one mile to 21st Street in Bayonne. This portion of track serves some of the nation’s most densely-populated counties and operates in communities whose residents have a much higher level of dependency on public transit than the average American citizen does. MOS3 consisted of the design and construction of a 4,500- foot long, single track expansion of the line from 22nd Street to 8th Street in Bayonne, NJ.

Early construction work at the West Side Avenue Station.