Bergen County, New Jersey's most populous county with nearly a million residents, has waited more than two decades for light rail service. Now NJ Transit is taking a step that suggests the wait may finally be nearing an end.
The agency is hiring a planning firm to develop a transit-oriented development strategy for the Northern Branch Extension of the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail, a line that would run north from existing HBLR stops into Bergen County along a former freight corridor. The proposed route would include stations in Ridgefield, Palisades Park, and Leonia before terminating in Englewood. NJ Transit posted the solicitation on its procurement calendar on Sept. 2, 2026.
The HBLR opened in 2000 and transformed the Hudson County waterfront, spurring billions in residential and commercial development around its stations. The Northern Branch has been on the drawing board since before the original line opened, but the project collapsed in 2011 when Tenafly's borough council rejected the extension over concerns about property values and freight rail conflicts. The planned terminus was subsequently moved south to Englewood. A federal environmental review was completed in 2017, but construction money never materialized.
Source: NationGraph.
The TOD planning study matters beyond urban design. The Federal Transit Administration now essentially requires host communities to demonstrate land-use commitments before it awards Capital Investment Grants, the primary federal funding source for major transit expansion. Without proof that Bergen County towns will actually build around the stations, federal construction dollars are unlikely to flow. This contract is as much a political instrument as a planning one, giving NJ Transit a vehicle to bring municipalities to the table before dollars are committed.
The corridor towns are well-suited for transit-oriented development. Palisades Park, Leonia, Ridgefield, and Englewood are dense, walkable older communities with established downtowns. Palisades Park, home to one of the largest Korean-American populations in the United States, is exactly the kind of place where transit investment can reinforce an existing commercial district rather than create one from scratch. But local politics are uneven: some mayors have embraced the extension while others echo Tenafly's 2011 concerns about gentrification and neighborhood disruption.
The 2026 posting date means the planning work will likely extend well into the next administration, leaving an open question about whether political momentum survives the transition. How quickly the corridor plan comes together, and whether Bergen County towns commit to zoning changes around proposed stations, will determine whether the Northern Branch finally advances past planning into construction. Those developments are among several major initiatives NJ Transit is advancing simultaneously, a pattern noted in recent coverage of NJ Transit's accelerating procurement activity.
